The idea, to bring darts to the fore and make it acompetitive game in Goa, came about when Prashant Shah, head of the All IndiaDarts Association, was down on holiday and happened to strike up a conversationwith John Fernandes, Senior Manager at Sun Village in Arpora. John, who spent alarge part of his life working on cruise liners, jumped at the chance.
“I remember spending my leisure time on the ship at the crewbar, where we had a dart board. It started off as a fun way to spend time withmy colleagues, but I gradually started to take an interest in it and learnedthe rules,” explains John, who worked at Cunard, the line that owned the QueenElizabeth, the Queen Victoria and the Queen Mary 2, some of the biggest luxurycruise ships in the world.
John received a lot of support from the De Souza Groupmanagement and he worked at starting up a dart competition in Goa. The firsttournament, held on September 21 and 22, was quite successful. Teams from 16Indian states took part, with Goa also putting a team forward. The winners weremainly from Maharashtra, but the tournament’s success gave John a boost.
Today, the Goa Dart Association has been formed, registeredand has already received inquiries from people across Goa. The association has38 members and counting, ranging from the ages of 18 to past 30 years, most ofthem former sailors, who are rekindling their love for this simple game. Theassociation aims to start workshops to create awareness, as well as hold an allGoa dart tournament, which will be the launch-pad for aspirants to compete innational and international championships.
“We will be setting up a few dart boards here at SunVillage. People can come, play and practice here. There are quite a few Goansinterested in this sport, so I’m sure we will have a Goan representative in theIndian dart team very soon,” concludes John.
