Family Ties 2
Parents and children
Another family which came over with the Normans to England were the Moyons or Moyuns, which came from Moyon in the Normandy. William de Moyon was one of the Normans who invaded here at the Bristol Channel into England. To thank him William the Conqueror gave him later 68 manors - most of them in Somerset - and some land around Cutcome and Minehead, where de Moyon he breeded horses. His main home was Dunster Castle only a few miles inland from Mineland (and well to be seen). William de Moyon was between 1083 and 1086 the sheriff of Somerset and probably the builder of Dunster monastery. His castle at the mouth on river Avrill on a hill probably helped to protect the region from pirates. And one could control the important coastal roads from Somerset to Gloucestershire from there. Around Dunster at that time fishing and wine growing were vital (today you see most of the time only sheep.) and the river was an important route of transportation.
The Moyons owned Dunster Castle till the 14. century when the last of Moyons who was without children sold it to the Luttrells.
But already the sons of the builder had moved to the nearby town Bath - it looks they didn't enjoy country live and William de Moyon preferred it not to be buried in the priory of Dunster but in Bath Abby.
Fathers and sons you can quite often find in darts - Bobbie and Richie George, Robbie and Jamie Green, Colin and Aaron Monk, Co Stompe senior and junior and Rod and Ryan Harrington for example. Unusual is the mother - son relations ship as in Linda and Rory Duffy. Rory Duffy was one of the Riley UK Open qualifiers.
It's not easy for the children of famous dart players..though one has to say Ryan Harrington played quite good darts during the UK Open. Rory Duffy couldn't keep up but of course it were his first UK Open Finals and he had to play on the big stage. That was difficult! Especially difficult it is to be sure for Richie George when his father accompanies him. Bobbie George is till today one of the most popular dart players and during the Grand Slam he even stole the show of the PDC top players. Everybody knows him in the UK.
Whether the above mentioned children of famous dart players will have an own career is difficult to predict. Some of those playing on the PDC Youth Tour seem to have disappeared. Whether they'll reappear. who can tell?
On the second day of the UK Open the last Riley's amateur qualifier was eliminated despite his crocodile - which was difficult to handle - from the tournament fourth round. The number of boards was reduced first from eight to four and all three venues were rather crowded. Later only two staged were left. At stage two there was no walk-on which didn't harm the atmosphere. Beside one tried with not working microphones, strange noises (some heating pipes) and other minor problems to create some diversion. Some good matches were added and Reds was a viewer magnet the whole day.
An upset to be sure was the elimination of Raymond van Barneveld, who had played great the day before, but nothing worked out on the day. Dave Chisnall lost to Stephen Bunting, Robert Thornton to the surprising Eddie Dootson who himself lost in fifth round to Devon Petersen. Andrew Gilding went on to make his circles and Jelle Klaasen and James Wade were his victims of the day. The match totally passed him. Wes Newton was eliminated as were Andy Hamilton and Kim Huybrechts and Vincent van der Voort and at the end of the day not surprisingly looking at their performances Michael van Gerwen and Phil Taylor were the last of the really to top players, Stephen Bunting, Mervyn King and Peter Wrights were the ones one had thought of capable to survive though King only just made it with three 9:8 wins. Beside those we had crowd favourite Devon Petersen and - as always in the UK Open - the surprises, this time Mensur Suljovic and Andrew Gilding. As the last mentioned were drawn against another one of them even will reach the semi-finals...