Plans are now well under way to hold the Australian Outback Open Darts Championships at Lightning Ridge next year. This will include the singles and the doubles titles.

Organisers are planning to hold the inaugural singles titles during the weekend before Easter, with the doubles titles to be held about six months later.

This year's successful Rotary District Conference proved that the weekend before Easter is a good time for a large event to be held at Lightning Ridge, in regards to accommodation availability and weather.

Therefore the planned darts competition should prove to also be of great benefit to the community and business houses, with a number of competitors and families expected to be staying for the Easter festivities.

There are more than 250 000 registered darts players in NSW alone, but only about 442 players will be able to attend the Lightning Ridge competition.

Conversely, whereas generally the players are able to participate in only a hand-full of games in any competition, local darts whiz "Freddy" has a system, which allows each one of the 442 competitors a minimum of 20 games, with 30 games possible for every player.

Total prize money will be between $15 ,00 to $20,000 for title.

Fred and his duo of co-workers will be responsible for the scheduling and running the actual matches during the three-day event, while the co-ordinators of the Rotary community self-help project will be responsible for the promotion and all other associated paperwork.

This is the first time such a match system has been implemented anywhere, which allows each and every player a number of games during the three days.

Fred said, "We anticipate that Lightning Ridge will be for darts what Tamworth is for country music."

H Kreller