When someone shouted ‘does anyone want a game of darts’ at a pub, Frank Parker was the first to put his hand up. 

“I thought oh yeah I will have a go,” he said. 

“I think I played pretty well and I couldn’t believe how easy it was. So I just started playing from then and practiced. 

“I then joined up with Bryan Richards who played state, we then formed a dart team and that is how it happened. From a pool meeting I started playing darts.” 

His new passion stuck.

Parker bought a dart board and practiced non-stop. 

For Doug Goulter, playing darts was just something to do to pass the time at hotels or similar establishments. 

“I got involved just through the hotels and stuff like that. It was just something to do,” he said.

“You pick it up and you start to get better at it and you just keep going and move on to competitions.”

Goulter developed a love for the sport but also a love for the competitive side of it. 

The pair entered into competitions around Victoria to see what could happen, and more importantly to improve their skills for the future. 

“I got into the competitions just for the pleasure of playing,” Goulter said. 

“You join clubs and you play once or twice or even three times a week depending on how keen you are. 

“I suppose we do it for recreational then it leads into competitions.” 

For Parker, it was his friend Bryan Richards, who dragged him into playing competitions. 

“Bryan used to do a lot of tournaments and he said to me ‘come on let’s do some tournaments’ as they used to have a lot of darts tournaments in every town,” Parker said. 

“They would have them in Ararat and Warrnambool.” 

It turns out, Goulter and Parker were pretty good and earned themselves a qualifying spot for the state team. 

“Once you qualify to a certain level you have go to different venues and play every player,” Goulter said.

“Depends on where you finish and how many wins and losses you have you make state or not.” 

The way it goes is if you finish in the top eight of qualification, you play for the state and if you finish in the other eight you play for the state reserve side. 

When they called Goulter’s name out he didn’t think much of it. 

“I just felt like I have to keep playing I don’t think there was much of a feeling, it’s just representing your state and play the best you can,” he said.

Meanwhile, Parker had a different view as all he wanted was the shirt they presented. 

“I was pretty excited,” he said. 

“I went down with Bryan and we traveled to Dandenong which was a long day. 

“They read out the state reps and Bryan got in, so I was just sitting there and then they read my name out and I was absolutely rapt, thinking oh this great. All I wanted was to get one of those shirts.”

“I was thinking I would get a dart shirt with my name on it and it was a great feeling, I reckon I was the only country person who was in the state reserves and most of them were people from the city, but I held my own.”

After they got selected to represent Victoria reserves, they would then play the best dart team from the country leagues for the State Reserve Challenges. 

“If there was a league in Warrnambool, Ararat or Bendigo they would pick the best six players and those six players would play against the state reserves,” Parker said. 

“So the competition was the best players in the state playing against everyone.”

However, playing for the state reserves did eventually take it’s toll due to the amount of travelling.

“In the end it was just too time consuming and it was too hard from Ararat to go out and play. It would be okay if you were around Geelong, Melton and Melbourne where darts is really big but it was too much time,” Parker said. 

After Parker left the state reserves he then formed along with some help the Grampians Super League Darts, in 1997 and Parker said it was just because they wanted to play a different way compared to most other leagues around the area. 

“There were two dart associations, but we just wanted to play a different format on a different night,” Parker said. 

They are currently trying to get darts back on the radar as the sport has faced a deep decline over the years. 

“There used to be 100 players in Ararat and now there is 15,” Goulter said. 

Parker believes that one reason why the darts side and the pool sides are struggling is because of the lack of venues.

“There are only really the two hotels at the moment,” he said. 

Parker said he would love to have more people playing darts in the Grampians Super League, but it is a shame they have to limit the numbers.

“Because of the size of the venue we are a bit restricted and at this point we have to limit it,” he said. 

“We can only probably take16 players on board, because we don’t play teams event. 

However, Parker remains hopeful that they can get more members to play. 

“All problems can be fixed.”