Sponne School Darts Club – Tungsten on the Timetable!

Posted on August 28th, 2012

During February 2012, Sponne School in Northamptonshire converted a classroom into a dartsroom under the instruction of keen darter Scott Cornelius, an ICT teacher at the school. Having rekindled an interest in darts following a visit to the Lakeside during January 2012, Cornelius sought to introduce darts into the school, as a way to develop student’s arithmetic skills through a challenging sport, aiding hand-eye coordination.

The launch could not have happened without the backing of the schools leadership team and the subsequent donations received from darting community including Target, A180darts, Winmau, Unicorn, Red Dragon, Northants County Darts and most recently dartsmad.com!

Since that time the students have been busy, competing in darts tournaments across Northamptonshire (and even further afield in Coventry and Rugby) to gain experience and ultimately to improve their game.  These have ranged from small pub competitions to the UK Open Qualifiers hosted by Rileys.

Darts now has a firm place on the after school enhancement timetable, and it is anticipated that more students will get involved when the school term resumes in September.  Over 60 students across ages 11 to 18 played last year; including weekly practises after school, weekend practise sessions at Rileys and the running of in-house tournaments during the school holidays.The club has also enjoyed a visit from rising darts-star Matthew Edgar, who gave up his time to play and talk darts with students.

Students have also been given the opportunity to watch pro players in action, visiting the Reebok in Bolton, for the UK Open.  They’ve even had opportunities to meet players at exhibitions, so far meeting; Wayne Mardle, Jamie Caven, Kevin Painter, John Lowe and Eric Bristow (whom one student was even lucky enough to play a leg of darts against on stage).

Looking to the year ahead, plans are in place to visit to the Ally Pally for the forthcoming 2013 World Championships.

For further information about Sponne School Darts Club, contact Scott Cornelius (picture with Matt Edgar) on 01327 350284.

The finished darts room at Sponne School – just needs some surrounds on those boards……….

 Classroom W9 before its tungsten transformation:

Tags: Darts in schools, Sponne School Darts Club, Youth Darts
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