“There's going to be World Champions coming through these doors" - Wayne Mardle in awe of new elite darts venue in Bristol

As darts popularity continues to rise, more facilities are cropping up for passionate darters to play at while fine-tuning their skills for a prosperous future in the sport. One of these location has recently been opened in Bristol, getting lavishing praise off Wayne Mardle.

Created by the Junior Darts Corporation, the huge new elite-level darts venue is called Hangar 61. They have transformed old Patchway Sports and Social Club into as what they describe as ‘one of the UK’s premier destinations for darts’.

In total, 32 ‘world class match boards’ and fully equipped dart lanes have been put up with a main stage area with broadcasting facilities also set to be used for the first time amid the opening of this venue. All of this has been funded by dart board manufacturer Winmau.

Four-time PDC World Darts Championship semi-finalist Mardle took the time to go and have a look around, and he was not disappointed. “This is groundbreaking “This isn't the norm, by the way,” he told the Bristol Live.

With the sport growing at a rapid, rate, ‘Hawaii 501’ believes that more of these types of venues will start appearing. “It will become the norm, because this is hopefully the blueprint of what's to happen, but this is a facility that is predominantly for the youth players of everywhere.”

He put huge expectations for them to grow the next breed of darting legends from a young age. “This is going to be the hub, so they're going to have the biggest and best, even World Championship qualifiers here. This is going to be the main place for the youth that are just starting out, or the seasoned pros, by the time they get to 17, 18.

Confidently, he made a rather bold prediction. “There's going to be World Champions coming through these doors, of that there's no doubt. And when you look around, it's not hard to realise it's a world-class facility - it really is. Back in the day, this didn't exist.”

The founder and chairman of the Junior Darts Corporation, Steven Brown, could not hide his delight for the completion of Hanger 61. The prior base had been in Congresbury, but the skyrocketing popularity meant they needed to relocate to keep up with the flurry of new talent coming in.

He described it as a ‘dream come true’ after a lot of hard work had been put into it. “Hangar61 gives us a permanent home that matches the ambition of our programme and the talent of the young players coming through,” Brown said. “We’ve created a facility that not only supports elite development but is rooted in the local community and open to the next generation discovering the sport for the first time.”

It is more than just darts. It gives young people a chance to meet like-minded people in a social environment. “I'm an ex-foster carer, I've fostered for 15 years. For me, giving the kids somewhere meaningful to go to and somewhere they can progress and feel confident and social, really. I think society is lacking social skills and darts is the perfect vehicle for that.”

With this new acquisition, he believed that it was a step away from darts roots as a pub game. “It's quite interesting to see a typical pub game brought into a different environment. I think Darts has moved on so much,” he added. “I think the old cliche of it being a pub game is slowly disappearing.”