Ollie Whitfield chatting about his Yorkshire Darts Clubs around Bradford after a surge of interest in youngsters following Luke Littler's incredible run to the PDC World Championship Final earlier this month.
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00:00 I'm Oliver Whitfield, I run Yorkshire Darts Clubs, we have many leagues, we host many
00:07 events in Yorkshire, Bingley, Bradford and Wilsdon, we do a lot for charity as well.
00:15 I started getting into darts and I wanted to have a bit of competition with my friends
00:22 and family so there were just 12 of us and we set up a darts league in Bingley, that's
00:29 all it was and now a year on from here we've got many events.
00:34 We're looking at a second division for this Bingley one and many other venues want us
00:42 to host them.
00:43 We've had to put a lot more effort in, especially with Luke Littler and what he's done, a lot
00:50 of people have got into darts a bit more, started watching it on telly and we've had
00:59 a lot more interest so we've looked at new events, new venues for these next couple of
01:05 months.
01:06 Obviously with Luke Littler, the younger generation are getting involved, we're looking at a youth
01:14 darts turn up and play session every Sunday we're looking at in Bradford City Centre.
01:23 So we've had so much interest for that.
01:27 So at the venue in Bradford, Rewired Bar, we did a darts charity event for Andy's Man
01:36 Club, we raised £1,700 which was way above what we thought we would have raised, many
01:46 turned up for it and we're looking to do many more, we're looking to do one in summer as
01:52 well.
01:56 We encourage everyone to turn up and try it out, it's mixed ability, we don't really
02:05 prioritise above 50 plus averages, it's turn up and play, it's more about social life as
02:11 well, it's all about coming out and having a drink and people enjoy it.
02:19 It's every Wednesday, 12 people turn up and friends and family turn up as well and tonight
02:24 we've got one on and it's going to be good.
02:27 For a 16 year old it's amazing what he's done and we'll see how far he can go but yeah he's
02:33 set the sport alight again because a lot of people who I've been speaking to didn't used
02:39 to, well they weren't into darts before and now look everyone's talking about it.