Vanbrugh Darts team slams JCRC after event chaos

The Vanbrugh Darts team play their home games in VBar ©Aimee Howarth

The Vanbrugh Darts team has condemned their JCRC after they were moved out of VBar part way through playing a weekly college match.

The team was playing its week four darts fixtures in VBar against James College when they were asked to leave by Vanbrugh JCRC representatives, who had booked the area for Vanbrugh’s Got Talent.

With the darts board in use every Tuesday evening by the Vanbrugh team or another college, the area is a weekly venue for the college sport.

This term matches are played at a weekly venue and therefore teams play fewer games at home, increasing the importance of those fixtures.

Vanbrugh JCRC allowed the leg in progress to be finished but then insisted that the darts team, who are reigning champions, leave the bar.

As all college darts matches take place on the same night and all boards were in use, the Vanbrugh Darts team were forced to move to Derwent College’s DBar and had to wait for the game there to be completed before they could finish theirs.

Expressing his unhappiness over the interuptions, Vanbrugh Darts co-captain Alan Belmore said: "I am thoroughly disappointed that Vanbrugh JCRC didn't feel it could accommodate both the darts match and the event.

"We have a massive advantage playing at home because our players are used to playing with the partition near the board and slightly lower darts board, and we lost that when Matt [Stephenson, college chair] made us move.

“Usually the event is done in another part of the bar - I have no idea why they felt it necessary to move it so it was in our way this year," he added. "The Vanbrugh Darts team won the league last year, and we are top of the league this year. I'd hope Matt will choose to support us in future rather than disrupting our games."

Vanbrugh College chair Matt Stephenson insisted that they did not intend to disrupt the game but felt that it was impossible for both events to take place in VBar.

He said: “Firstly I would like to say that the Vanbrugh JCRC has always been very supportive of the darts team, offering extra finances and helping in whatever ways we can to keep their success growing.

“I am afraid that in this instance there was no chance of accommodating the darts match alongside the Vanbrugh event which took place that night. 'Vanbrugh's got talent' was a charity event for RAG, and the large number of people who came to watch and take part made it impossible to allow the darts to continue when it was blocking the view of the many people who came to watch the performers.

“Also, an EMF (events management form) had been filed with the appropriate staff to book V-bar for the charity event, and as such my allowing of the darts to continue for an extra quarter of an hour, past the start time of the competition stated on the EMF form, was done with the best intentions to the darts team. “I would hope that the darts team realise that there was no desire to affect their match when considering all of this, and I wish them all the best for their league ambitions.”