Slings, arrows and raging misfortune score Primmer points for charity
With one dart too many in his right throwing hand, seriously piercing his flesh but all left to play for in last the 24-hour charity darts marathon held at The Ship, Bishop’s Sutton, mid-Hampshire league darts legend 65-year-old Henry Primmer determined: “Nothing else for it, Nipper, but to play on.”
For them to continue to throw their hundreds more arrows scoring the equivalent of point-006p-for-three to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support as well as nearby Tichborne Cricket Club, and want to ensure their 25% joint contribution towards a total of almost £1,600 remained good to the final dart of the gruelling eight-man sponsored event.
“My son thought I’d taken all three of my darts out of the board at one pull. But I hadn’t. And, unfortunately for his careless father, Nipper launched the first of his next three darts as I went to pull my remaining arrow out of the board.
“Here. Take it back. I angrily offered him the back of my hand.”
Henry’s only son Stuart, aged 35, employed by the town’s watercress alliance, lost the six-hour game against a retired Tichborne stockman for his father, with mitts to match those of any heavyweight boxer.
His arm in a white St John Ambulance sling, the third eldest of late Ma Primmer’s eight Tichborne sons sang out for his winning pint of Wallop.
“Hennery-the-Eighty-Thousand-Six-Hundred-and-Sixty-One, I am … I am.”
Commemorating the anniversary of the death of his brother Roy James Primmer, a 53-year-old welder, cricketer as well as darts player, Henry, family and friends chalked up the end to their 1,440-minute marathon.
And, simultaenously, The Ship’s bell tolled time to end the Primmer family’s 24 hours of continuous high-speed darts with points for decimalised points of pence amortising to 7.2 per second in a grand score of 622,640.
