Singlets, thongs and Tom Jones sing-alongs. Cheers, jeers, and beers. Sausage rolls, bullseyes, and party pies. These are regular features of a darts night in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda.
The Port Phillip Darts League has grown into a “monster”. Operating out of the St Kilda Sports Club, on Fitzroy Street, eight dart boards are set up every Thursday for a night of action-packed, light-hearted darts.
In addition to the regular Thursday night competition, the league also hosts international exhibitions, which pit local players against professionals. To compete against the professionals, players must qualify through a separate tournament, known as the ‘Darts Mafia’. Qualifying events are typically held on Sundays. The exhibitions themselves have attracted international names such as Terry Jenkins, who was once ranked fourth in the world, and Brendan Dolan, currently ranked 34th in the world.
Creator of the Darts Mafia tournament, Robert Ollocks, is exclusively known around the club as ‘Bollocks’. A jovial northern Englishman, Ollocks arrived in Australia from Leeds in 1991, and after finding “sex, drugs and rock and roll”, he gave up darts for 25 years. He found his passion for it again in 2007, watching Australian Simon Whitlock play Phil Taylor in the World Darts Championship final.
The Port Phillip Darts League has a summer and winter competition, with a handful of Ollocks’ Sunday tournaments scattered throughout the year. All comps have cash prizes, another draw card for the club. Due to the increase in players, the summer league had three finals which Ollocks says were “amazing” because people were “playing for money who would never get a chance”.
Ollocks says everyone is welcome at the club and being in St Kilda it has allowed people “from all walks of life” to come and enjoy a game.
“We attract everybody, and I think that’s the beauty of darts, anybody can play,” he says.
Most of the players upstart spoke to come from local areas, but a couple travel over 30km to take part in league events. No players are excluded, which Ollocks suggests contributes to a range of colourful characters who regularly attend the club.
“We’ve had Purev, who’s from Mongolia, Ebony, who’s from the moon, and ‘Matrix’, who eats four babies a day!”
A feature of the club is the large number of English, Scottish and Irish players.
“The lads who turn up on Thursdays, the majority of them are Irish,” Ollocks says. “They’re good lads as well, good players, good lads. You have a fun, bit of a laugh and all that carry on.”
2021 Australian Census data says that nearly 60 percent of St Kilda residents have English, Irish or Scottish heritage. Eight percent were born in England or Ireland.
“I think with the influx of the Irish, there is no Irish left in Ireland, they’re all in St Kilda,” Ollocks jokes.
Stewart ‘Stewie’ Hanna, president of the darts section, also hails from Leeds. He arrived the year after Ollocks in 1992 and became involved with the club over a decade ago. Like Ollocks, Hanna pins much of the success of the club on the location and the English/Irish aspect.
Hanna says Melbournians all know Fitzroy Street, and due to the “transient backpacker and temporary worker population”, participation at the club has increased. He estimates the league is “probably about 30 per cent Irish”. The influx of the Irish has also helped increase overall participation.
“We had about 150 enter the summer comp [this year]. Last year, I think it was about 120, so an extra 30 players came along for that,” he says.
“[The Irish] love the darts, same as the UK, obviously. It’s a big, rich history of darts there in both countries, so they’ve jumped at the chance.”
Outside of the UK and Ireland effect, why has the club been successful in St Kilda?
“I think it’s the position of it, the people in it, the bar staff and the prices,” Ollocks says.
“I’m managing to pull in some top players, as you know, like Mal Cuming is playing in our league, which is a massive coup for us.”
Mal Cuming is an Australian professional darts player who has played at two separate World Championships. He found the club through Ollocks’ Sunday tournaments on Facebook. Cuming says he plays at St Kilda to “give back to grassroot darts”.
“[I enjoy] the camaraderie amongst all players,” he says.
“It doesn’t matter what level you’re at, everyone just enjoys the game for what it is. A lot of the guys, win, lose or draw. It’s not that big a deal.”
Hanna says that darts are here to stay at the St Kilda Sports Club.
“They’re not about to throw us out because they can see we’re growing.” Hanna also notes that the St Kilda Sports Club have been a great supporter of the darts section.
“They’ve supported us hugely over the years with the various add-ons and expansions that we’ve done.”
Another factor is the rise in the growing popularity of darts worldwide, largely aided by the arrival of 18-year-old Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler on the international competitive scene. Littler debuted at the World Darts Championships in London at the age of 16. Darts viewership in the UK has increased by almost 1740 percent since 1999, and global eyes are now on the sport.
Ollocks says the English teenager has “revitalised” the sport.
“Littler turned up at the right time in the world for darts because it was getting a little bit boring, a little bit repetitive,” he says.
“I mean, it’s just crazy what’s happened to darts.”
Hanna also believes the ‘Littler effect’ has helped increase the number of younger players in the Port Phillip Darts League.
“When I first went down [to the club] in 2013, I was probably one of the younger guys and I would have been in my 40s,” he says.
“It’s only been the last 18 months that a lot of these real younger guys have started coming, sort of early 20s and whatnot.”
For Ollocks, it’s the inclusive nature of darts that has made it so popular and so important in his own life.
“You meet some really good people from all walks of life,” he says.
“I think it makes everybody realise that darts is not only the fastest growing sport in the world, it’s the greatest sport in the world because anybody can play it.”
Article: Harvey Constable is a third-year Media and Communications (Journalism/Sport Media) student at La Trobe University. You can follow him on X @bangersays.
Photo: By author
