Christmas is approaching...
Not only during the Grand Slam it was often adverted that Christmas is just around the corner (and of
course the PDC World Championship).
When I travelled to Birmingham before the tournament on my last day in England one couldn't overlook it either. Everywhere the Christmas decoration was up and most of the Birmingham Christmas market was already built up. As most of the feeders are from the German speaking area I really can say I never heard as much German there before.
Some of the booths had even opened and sold Glühwein and roasted almonds - a familiar smell. One of
the helpers was occupied piling up "Mohrenköpfe" and what was broken ended in his stomach. In a
corner in a showcase crib figurines where stuffed in including some sheep.
Why I mentioned the sheep? Well the reason is quite a nice story or better a real incident an elderly lady told a young Spanish couple and I while wondering about Birmingham cathedral. Birmingham really has a cathedral which was built in the Baroque period which is quite rare. The interior is not spectacular but on can find an old and good organ and four famous stained glass windows by Edward Burne-Jones who was born in Birmingham 1833 and later lived in London.
Burne-Jones was a pre-Raphaelite. That was a group of artists who produced some kind of "modern" Italian art of the 13. - and 14. Century. Most of them were from England and Burne-Jones is one of the most well-known and considered the best English painter of the 19. Century.
At this time Birmingham was due to its industry a very rich city but -as the lady regretted - not much interested in the arts. So these glass-windows are the most remarkable works of art from this period.
All four windows show scenes from Christ's live and one of them is a "Christmas" window. As the lady told in this window Burne-Jones first didn't include sheep and the people from Birmingham reacted as outraged that Burne-Jones had to remove the window and to disassemble it to be able to include some sheep. Only then the parish accepted the window.
My last Grand Slam evening began with a not really surprising win of Scott Waites against Mark Webster. A little bit more surprising was Andy Hamilton's defeat by Tony O'Shea. The third match was a really thrilling duel between Robert Thornton and Mervyn King and it was a strong performance of both players as well.
But really thrilling became the evening when Simon Whitlock and Ted Hankey walked on stage. Hankey was greeted by the usual Boos but I think he's used to it. From the beginning one could see Whitlock didn't feel comfortable playing against Hankey.
But it had no effect first because Hankey really scored weak and either had no dart at the doubles or with one exception couldn't hit it. When it was 6:1 Whitlock it looked like the match was over.
In the eight leg everything changed. The Australian missed and Hankey started a run with a 64 finish. In no time it was 6:6 and the crowd cheered Hankey. Whitlock tried to save the match and it developed in a clash in which the lead changed several times. In the last leg Hankey was the one who kept his nerve or might be just had more confidence and hit the winning double.
What a conclusion of my Grand Slam visit!