Sutton Coldfield Superleague Darts

Mark Wild flew the flag for Sutton Coldfield at the finals of the English National Singles 2008, having won the Birmingham area qualifiers at the Red Lion Erdington.

Wildy beat Sutton Coldfield team-mate John Kavanagh as well as Erdington trio Stan Andrews, Trevor Frost, and Ian McFarlane to qualify.

However, he almost never made the finals!

A 10.00 am start in Worthing, Sussex, on a Sunday morning meant an early start and Wildy, accompanied by Darren 'Brackets' Fletcher (nominated driver for the day) got there with seconds to spare.

Worse still Wildy was drawn out first and went down narrowly 3-2 to a Bedfordshire opponent at the first hurdle.

It clearly didn't end there though. Our old mate Kev Smith qualified from Somerset, and Warwickshire's Colin Laffer made it all the way to the final, where he unfortunately lost out to Cheshire's Dave Chisnall. It proved to be a long day on the beer.

I THINK THE PICTURES SAY IT ALL.

WILDY CLEARLY WORSE FOR WEAR (ABOVE), BUT GET A LOAD OF BRACKETS BELOW (AND HE'S THE DRIVER!)

From left Darren 'Brackets' Fletcher, Mark Wild, Kev Smith, Colin Laffer (English National Singles Runner Up), and Warwickshire County player Nigel 'Tombstone' Heydon.  Below: Colin Laffer receives his runners up cheque.