Events & coaching

*NOW TAKING EVENT BOOKINGS FOR APRIL 2024 ONWARDS AND INDIVIDUAL BOOKINGS FROM MAY 2024*

Want to learn darts? Planning a social event in London? Could do with improving your game? Work Christmas Party becoming a nightmare? Need help on filming? Total beginner dreading the work social event at Flight Club?

I run darts-based events and can provide darts coaching or lessons in central London pubs, ranging from the mildly serious to the entirely ludicrous. Pricing depends on requirements, but as a guide, I typically charge £65 for an hour of coaching in a pub on a weekday evening for one or two people, more for larger groups or events, and at weekends.

If you are interested in finding out more, please email me on bachelorofdarts@gmail.com.

Previous events and clients include:

  • February 2024, Stuart and his 13-year old son I at the Libertine, followed by Peter and family (SO much fun); corporate event for 8 Americans and Germans, none of whom lived in London, at the Cheshire Cheese; Chip & Sarah out West – his birthday present from a group of mates; Luke and his Dad at Nolan’s,straight after Will. Busiest month ever – thanks Lukes
  • January 2024, Adam at the Carpenter’s Arms, Gaby & Dan at the same venue (with Dan transformed into a darts player in one hour), and Gaby & nephew back for more at the Horseshoe
  • November 2023, Ed at Spots & Stripes, Sam, also at S&S, and Gaby at the Grosvenor, two of them in preparation for a work Xmas do, the other looking for something to focus on after having a baby (!)
  • October 2023, Harry and Sandy, at The Libertine (I still do love The Libertine), with Sandy in particular transformed by the end of the session; Val and 10 colleagues, for a work social, at the Cheshire Cheese. “We recently had a 90-minute private dart lesson with Justin, and it was absolutely great fun! Justin’s teaching skills, posture advice, and throw technique tips were spot-on. Our team had a great time, and now we’re ready to enjoy our office dartboard to the fullest. Highly recommend this experience!”
  • May 2023, Shampoo and Astrid, two prize winners from Sky Sports Germany on a trip to watch the Premier League final. Excellent progress for total beginners at the White Horse
  • April 2023, Damon and friends, at The Libertine (I do love The Libertine). An excellent 2-hour session.
  • March 2023, Olivia at the One Tun, with a follow up at The Horseshoe. Stop using your shoulder!
  • February 2023, everyone wants darts coaching!: Liv and her cousin at the Carpenter’s Arms, such a fun evening and huge progress made by both; five poker-playing Swedes on a London weekend break (including seeing Abba of course) – slightly chaotic and tricky to manage at The Sheaf, not least because three of them were called Per; Andrew and colleagues at the Cheshire Cheese; and Simon and Steve out East in the Rookwood Village (outside of my usual area, but probably the best darts room I’ve ever played in).”Hi Justin. I just wanted to say a big thank you for yesterdays session. We all really enjoyed it and we all learnt a lot! I will definitely be in touch to organise amother session asap. Thanks
  • December 2022, a Christmas Party with 8 teams and lots of prizes
  • April 2022, small corporate event for Harry and city colleagues who wanted to improve to beat rivals in the office; it went swimmingly at the Cheshire Cheese EC3, even though I didn’t have the heart to tell the big boss that he was the worst player
  • February 2022, excellent Christmas present for Mat from Saasha, all about the follow through. Great to be coaching in the Carpenter’s Arms near Marble Arch, after a very long hiatus
  • December 2021 [I’m back!], birthday present coaching for Alistair who has a fantastic action but no clue what to do from 100 downwards, at The Sultan in Wimbledon (fantastic back street venue with dedicated darts space)
  • January 2020, repeat corporate event at The Horseshoe with Daryl Gurney, Harry Ward (remember the name), and Jamie Hughes (my tip for big things in 2020)
  • October 2019, lesson for Rosie, Suzanne and Alice at Williams Ale and Cider House; progress made, despite being surrounded by unpleasant idiots. Won’t be coaching there again on weekdays
  • September 2019, coaching for Kristian and his buddy over from Minnesota, in Spots & Stripes. They arrived 2 hours early, drank heavily, chatted to some regulars, enjoyed their darts, and owned more guns than me
  • September 2019, birthday lesson for Anna from Zak, in The Libertine (for a beginner, she was particularly fabulous). Turns out they live next door to my childminder. Norbiton rocks
  • September 2019, birthday party event for 30 people; freeform coaching, followed by a tournament. Cracking evening at The Flying Horse
  • May 2019, birthday present coaching for Dario and his flatmate in The Ship. A present from his work colleagues, clearly fine people
  • April 2019, coaching and mini-tournament in The Libertine for an experience marketing agency (me neither), which was fantastic fun. Coaching 30 people for about 3 minutes each, many of who improved miraculously! “Thank you so much for Wednesday! Everyone had a really great time, and even those who couldn’t take part in the competition as they had to leave early, really enjoyed the training session. It was a great turn out and the flexible approach worked really well. Thank you again. Carina
  • January 2019, a run of bookings – starting with Adam in The Libertine, Tony in The Ship (a Christmas present from his girlfriend who is clearly a genius), and Leo at Spots & Stripes – tweaks for some, starting from scratch for others, but two of them clearly needing a confidence boost in their darts as well as some technical changes
  • December 2018, a repeat booking christmas party, this time in Chiswick, and this time with the offer of my fee being doubled adding an extra dimension to the holiday bull-shot, which I had to do with some random darts and whilst wearing a christmas pudding costume. Oh my. (See December 2017 to start to make sense of this)
  • November 2018, Simon, coaching on a soft tip board (!), to get him ready to take two former world champions on a promo trip to China (seriously). Those doubles are massive
  • October 2018, Craig, Steve and two other lawyers, coaching and a mini-tournament at The Flying Horse
  • September 2018, Pete and Danny, 1-2 coaching in The Libertine. (Danny looks the part, but Pete improved massively in just an hour, and hit his first double 4 to win their end of coaching session leg)
  • July 2018, Lisa, a high school teacher from Michigan USA, getting a lesson whilst on holiday. A really fun 2 hours in The Libertine
  • April 2018, Kat, a total beginner – who improved ridiculously in one hour in the One Tun
  • April 2018, Richard, his partner, and one of their mates. Fun session with three people of different standards
  • January 2018, corporate event for TX Odds at the Horseshoe – with Daryl Gurney and Benito van de Pas. I ran a separate comp for guests at the same time as managing games against the pros, with an exhibition match to finish with. “Justin put on and managed a very enjoyable evening that went down well with all present.” Einar, TX Odds
  • December 2017, bullseye theme christmas party event at a pub in Kew for an events company – which ended with me (sober, no warm-up) being challenged to hit the bullseye with 3 darts to win the whole company an extra day of holiday in 2018….
  • March 2015, with Veronika, a naked yoga teacher, in The Ship, but that’s a long story.

I can also coach actors for broadcast purposes, and was a coach on BBCs Let’s Play Darts for Sport Relief, and the Darts Consultant for the (world’s worst?) movie London Fields. If you are making a programme about darts, I can probably help.

But don’t just take my word for it.

“I bought a family darts coaching session from.Justin as a Christmas present for my daughter’s boyfriend who is a very enthusiastic amateur. 
Justin took care of booking a board, we just needed to turn up.
Justin’s friendly manner made us all feel at ease straight away. His style of teaching is very positive, focusing on pointing where we were improving. Everybody left the session eager to get back on the oche. Highly recommended, especially for beginners.
Peter K, February 2024.

 

“Justin organised an informal darts competition for a social we were having with an important client. It was a terrific evening and was very well received by everyone. The competition was managed expertly by Justin and included a number of variations to traditional scoring. He also provided helpful tips and anecdotes, which kept the group engaged. We were particularly impressed by how he managed to allow everyone a chance to play, considering that the group numbered more than 20, and there was only one oche!”
HN, Linklaters LLP.

“Justin provided a fantastic evening of darts based fun, interspersed with anecdotes of professional players and darts leagues from up and down the country. His knowledge of the game and his ability to create a relaxed and fun, albeit competitive environment, made for a brilliant evening which will be long remembered.”
Chris D (competition winner!), London.

“I met up with Justin in a pub just near Oxford Street for a darts lesson on one of my trips to London. It was a successful and great coaching session. I particularly liked the way he ran the training and gave me some tips – and I’m looking forward to my next lesson”.
H.A

“Perfect choice of venue, great mix of games – God knows how he kept us all involved. Brilliant. One stag said to me as we stumbled out of a salubrious gentleman’s club in London’s east end… ‘Tell you what mate, that was good, but the darts was much, much better!'”
Matt, London

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