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Who is refereeing at the World Darts Championship 2024 with no Russ Bray at Ally Pally?
DARTS fans were left shocked when legendary referee Russ Bray announced his retirement – but the mic will be going into several capable hands.
Former player Bray has been involved in the darts industry for nearly 30 years.
And his unique referee artistry has earned him the title ‘The Voice’ of darts.
But Luke Littler‘s thrilling Premier League final win over Luke Humphries at the top of 2024 was Bray’s last time in charge.
Bray does not referee in the UK anymore as he only does refereeing abroad for the World Series.
However, no need to panic darts lovers as PDC have confirmed who the men to fill Bray’s big boots will be.
Who is refereeing at the World Darts Championship 2024?
Kirk Bervins
Kirk Bervins’ career started in 2010 but in 2009, he was most famously known for becoming the British ‘Countdown’ champion on Channel 4.
He can also rapidly count having previously been a maths teacher but picking up the microphone to be a darts caller was always his calling.
Before Kirk was at university, he had never watched a top darts player up close until his first refereeing audition at The Assassin Martin Atkins exhibition.
Bervins then became a volunteer marked on the pro tour for two years before being offered the job when Bruce Spendley retired in 2013.
But his first major tournament was at the 2014 World Championship.
Charlie Corstorphine
Charlie Corstorphine will be refereeing at the World Darts Championship 2024.
The Southend-based 29-year-old started his career in the Essex Youth Super League before making his TV debut at the World Masters in 2016.
After leaving a good impression, Charlie was asked at the 2016 Winmau World Masters if he’d like to referee at the 2017 Lakeside World Championships.
Corstorphine then became part of Team Ref. where he regularly called matches for England during the British Internationals and Six Nations Cup events.
It was only in 2017 when Corstorphine reffed his first and only nine-darter courtesy of Paul Hogan.
And he has now already achieved his dream by working his way through the ranks to appear at the Ally Pally tournament.
George Noble
George Noble is another great example of how the best referees get there chance to call the shots by accident.
Noble made his first steps on stage after the regular country caller called in sick in 1992 and it would only take two years before George made it to darts’ biggest stage.
The English star has been in every BDO World Championship final at Lakeside between 1995 and 2007.
However, Noble switched to the PDC in 2007 and got his first televised nine-dart appearance at Ally Pally when Raymond van Barneveld hit it against Jelle Klassen in 2009.
Since then, Noble has worked with all of the greatest stars in the past and present and became the first referee to do two nine-dart legs in one match courtesy of Phil Taylor.
Huw Ware
Huw Ware’s career started in 2010 and by 2012, he had quickly risen to the top of the calling charts.
The Welshman starred at the Lakeside Country Club at the BDO World Championship before going onto the ref at the PDC UK Open.
Since 2018, Huw has also been the ambassador for the LGBTI community within the darts industry.
In February 2014, Ware himself opened up about his sexual orientation and the difficult road he had to take with his homosexuality.
What has been said?
Charlie in particular has not been able to contain his excitement to ref at the iconic 2024 World Darts Championship.
The talented referee said: “I’m really excited to be making my debut at the big one at Ally Pally.
“I was at Alexandra Palace last year working in the fan village with Paddy Power the sponsors but to make it onto the main stage and tick it off my list is going to be incredible.
“This will be by far the biggest event I’ve done and I can’t wait to get started.”
Will Russ Bray come out of retirement?
Legendary darts referee Russ Bray hinted that he’d come out of retirement for a dream World Championship final that involves teen sensation Luke Littler.
Talking exclusively to SunSport in November 2024, Bray said: “Luke has the attributes to become like Phil Taylor and dominate darts for the next 20 years.
“Will he want to? Only he can answer that. But even in the first few months of his career, the effect he’s had on the sport is unbelievable.
“In fact, here’s a thought. In the not-too-distant future, I can easily imagine a World Championship final between Luke Littler and Beau Greaves.
“And how good would that be? I might even come out of retirement to call that one…”
Grim plans to open Jonestown massacre site to TOURISTS to gawp at abandoned commune where 900 drank poison – kids first
TOURISTS could be getting a look at the site of the infamous Jonestown massacre – nearly 50 years after a mass poisoning at the cult which killed over 900 people.
The settlement which was in Guyana in South America saw the largest suicide-murder in history led by the cult leader Jim Jones.
It was officially called the Peoples Temple Commune but became known as Jonestown following the horrific tragedy which saw 918 people die in total.
On November 18 1978, Jones ordered hundreds of his followers to drink a poisoned grape-flavored drink that was given to children first.
The event was called a “revolutionary suicide”, but it is believed that many took the drink against their will.
Now, Guyana is considering a tourism bid for the area in spite of its dark history.
The tour would ferry visitors to the village of Port Kaituma.
It’s a trip available only by boat, helicopter or plane, and once there it’s another 6miles via a rough and overgrown dirt trail to the abandoned commune and former agricultural settlement.
What was the Jonestown massacre?
The Jonestown massacre saw 909 people from Jones’ church simultaneously commit suicide on November 18, 1978.
The followers carried out the “revolutionary suicide” by mixing a fruit-flavoured drink, often referred to as Kool Aid, with deadly cyanide, tranquillisers, and sedatives.
Babies and children were the first to be given the poison with around 300 of the victims being under 17.
The chilling pact came about as a paranoid Jones managed to brainwash his followers into believing they needed to die to stay safe from cops.
Hours earlier, US Congressman Leo Ryan and a delegation visited Jonestown after the US Embassy in Guyana made concerns over alleged physical and psychological abuse within the group.
When the group arrived in Jonestown on November 17 some church members reportedly told the authorities that they wanted to leave.
Some even passed around a note saying: “Please get us out of Jonestown.”
The delegation then tried to save a few of the members by getting a plane off the island before they were ruthlessly shot at by the loyal cult members.
Five people including Congressman Ryan and three members of the press were gunned down with eleven others being injured.
Temple member Larry Layton was given a life term for being involved in the airstrip shooting. He was released in 2002.
Jones and one of the his disciples also died from gunshot wounds.
Critics have strongly blasted the decision, saying it would be disrespectful and it would open up old wounds.
Former congresswoman Jackie Speier was five times prior to the Jonestown deaths at a separate incident in Port Kaituma, which Jones also ordered.
Jackie has condemned the move, saying: “I think it’s a bad idea. I don’t think it’s appropriate to aggrandize that kind of cult activity.
“The experience certainly had a powerful impact on my life in terms of never, you know, expecting a tomorrow and living every day fully.
And being very vigilant about identifying cults, and looking at what happens to people when they got get engaged in that kind of an organization or involvement.
And I think that it it’s another example of how our government really failed us.
“These people were taken against their will and were murdered and it’s an important life lesson for all of us….It’s such a bad story, such a horrible story.
“I don’t think you learn lessons by creating a an adventure activity, wanderlust adventure?!”
The event at Port Kaituma notably saw the death of US Congressman Leo Ryan.
Jordan Vilchez was moved to Jonestown at 14, and said she had mixed feelings about it.
She said: “Then on the other hand, I just feel like any situation where people were manipulated into their deaths should be treated with respect.”
Jordan was in Guyana’s capital the day Jones ordered hundreds of his followers to drink the poison drink.
Her two sisters and two nephews were among the victims.
Neville Bissember, a law professor at the University of Guyana, questioned the proposed tour, arguing: “What part of Guyana’s nature and culture is represented in a place where death by mass suicide and other atrocities and human rights violations were perpetuated [sic] against a submissive group of American citizens, which had nothing to do with Guyana nor Guyanese?”
SUPPORT FOR THE DECISION
The decision has otherwise received positive reactions from the country’s tourism board.
Oneidge Walrond, Guayana’s tourism minister, said that the government was backing the effort at Jonestown but was aware “of some level of push back” from certain sectors of society.
She said the government already had helped clear the area “to ensure a better product can be marketed”, adding that the tour might need cabinet approval.
“It certainly has my support,” she said. “It is possible. After all, we have seen what Rwanda has done with that awful tragedy as an example.”
Rose Sewcharran, director of Wonderlust Adventures, the private tour operator who plans to take visitors to Jonestown, said she was buoyed by the support.
“We think it is about time,” she said. “This happens all over the world. We have multiple examples of dark, morbid tourism around the world, including Auschwitz and the Holocaust museum.”
It has been stressed that the idea to open the site tom tourists is still “very rough” said Fielding McGehee, co-director of The Jonestown Institute, a non-profit group.
He pointed to the amount of money it would cost to turn the location into a viable tourist attraction.
Russians concocted plot to smuggle Assad out of Syria using ‘ghost jet’ after Putin told Assad ‘you’re going to LOSE’
PUTIN told tyrant Assad that he was going to lose before a plot was devised to smuggle him out of Syria, Kremlin insiders revealed.
The Russian dictator personally granted political asylum to Bashar al-Assad on Sunday after he was overthrown by rebels and forced to flee.
One of mad Vlad’s allies have confirmed for the first time that Russia did help the shamed tyrant flee to Moscow.
The country’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Assad had been transferred in the “most secured way” to his pal Putin’s Russia.
He told NBC News: “He [Assad] is secured, and it shows that Russia acts as required in such an extraordinary situation.”
When asked whether Moscow would hand Assad over to the International Criminal Court, the Putin puppet implied they wouldn’t, defending that Russia “is not the party to the convention” that established it.
Russian government agents are said to have persuaded Assad to flee immediately as rebels continued to gain key cities across Syria as they believed he was set to lose the fight.
Russian intelligence agents organised the dramatic escape as they flew tyrant Assad out to Moscow via its air base on the Syrian coast, key sources told Bloomberg News.
The overthrown dictator was ordered to tell no-one, with the aircraft’s transport switched off to avoid any kind of tracking.
There’s even a chance that a military plane was used to transport the tyrant to safety.
It’s understood that Putin personally approved Assad’s rescue – much like he personally granted him political asylum.
But the Russian dictator apparently has no intention of meeting him now he is in exile – despite the pair being in the same country.
Putin has yet to speak publicly about the collapse of the Assad regime.
The Russian dictator was Assad’s key ally during Syria’s bloody civil war with the Kremlin aiding him in maintaining his family’s horrific dynasty that had exercised control for over half a century.
Putin had gained a huge military presence in Syria with an air base in Latakia and a naval facility in Tartus.
Ryabkob added that he had “no idea” what was happening with Assad “right now”, explaining that it would be “very wrong” to “elaborate on what happened and how it was resolved”.
The flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed a plane believed to be carrying Assad as he fled the Syrian capital Damascus in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The plane was spotted heading to the Mediterranean Sea, before it made a bizarre U-turn and vanished off the map.
Rumours into Assad’s whereabouts and life swirled when it disappeared – with some believing that it had been shot down.
The Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security claimed on X that Russia “hid their trail” in assisting al-Assad’s escape by circulating fake claims that he died in a crash.
Reuters could not immediately ascertain who was on board the Ilyushin Il-76T – a type of plane used by the Russian military.
The flight dropped off radar at 5.29am – 40 minutes after takeoff – with altitude data showing it made a descent.
Two Syrian sources had suggested Assad could have been killed in a crash after the surprise U-turn and plunging altitude.
In a statement, Flightradar24 said the plane’s signal was lost near Homs – but that could be because of an older transponder.
They said: “The aircraft was flying in an area of GPS jamming, so some data might be bad.”
It was eventually confirmed that the Syrian dictator had made it safely to Russia.
Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said this morning that Russia was in contact with the Syrian rebels over its military bases.
He said: “We, of course, maintain contacts with those who are currently controlling the situation in Syria.
“This is necessary because our bases are located there, our diplomatic mission is located there and, of course, the issue related to ensuring the security of these facilities is extremely important and of primary significance.”
Looking to maintain their luxurious lifestyle despite being in exile, the Syrian dictator and his family may be living in one of the 20 Moscow apartments his extended family own.
Purchased in the prestigious Moscow City district, the apartments are said to be worth more than £30 million in recent years, showing just how safe the Assad’s are in their pal Putin’s country.
The majority of the apartments are in the City of Capitals complex – a twin-towered skyscraper that sat once as the tallest in Europe.
It remains unclear whether the family will live in one of their luxurious, skyscraper apartments or whether they will be forced to stay in a government safehouse.
There is also speculation that Assad may have bought a mansion in or near St Petersburg ahead of his escape into exile.
Footage allegedly shows the inside of the Assad family’s secret underground tunnel network.
Video apparently captured inside Major General Maher al-Assad’s mansion reveals a white staircase leading down to a vast network of passages.
It was reportedly filmed by one of the rebels responsible for storming capital Damascus and looting the Assad homes this weekend.
Astonishing footage shows the tunnel complex with high arched ceilings, fluorescent lighting, electronic doors and huge rooms.
A fully kitted-out kitchen complete with Pepsi cans and Tetley tea, a modern sitting room and bathroom and discarded shopping bags could be seen.
The video was allegedly filmed underneath his mansion in Damascus.
It was captioned: “Massive tunnel complex beneath Maher Assad’s mansion, wide enough for trucks carrying Captagon and gold to drive through.”
The Assad Dynasty
THE Assad dynasty in Syria began with Hafez al-Assad - who seized power in 1971 through a military coup and established an authoritarian regime.
His rule focused on centralised government control, military strength, and the suppression of dissent, aligning Syria closely with the Soviet Union and maintaining an anti-Israel stance.
Upon Hafez’s death in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad succeeded him.
Initially, there were hopes for reform under Bashar, but these hopes faded as he continued his father’s repressive policies.
The situation worsened in 2011 with the Syrian Civil War, part of the Arab Spring, marked by brutal crackdowns on protestors.
Following years of humanitarian crisis and international condemnation, Assad was overthrown – despite having support from Russia and Iran.
After seizing Damascus in a swift and decisive offensive, rebel forces declared victory and announced that the city was “free of Assad.”
The dictator fled the capital on Sunday, reportedly aboard a plane that disappeared from radars.
He has been given refuge in Moscow and is currently under Russian protection.
The collapse of Assad’s regime ignited celebrations across Syria.
In the capital, thousands poured into the streets, waving rebel flags and lighting flares.
Statues of Assad and his late father, Hafez, were toppled in symbolic acts of defiance.
The Assad dynasty has profoundly shaped Syria’s modern history through its authoritarian rule and the ongoing conflict.
I love Indiana Jones and The Great Circle but I’m sick of it acting like I’m stupid
INDIANA Jones is Xbox’s killer app of 2024, and people are rushing to play the part of the adventuring archaeologist.
While it’s only been out a few days, people are already digging in, and a few people have already finished it.
The feedback is promising. People love flicking their whip and punching the bad guys while they explore various historic monuments.
While the overall experience is very fun, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t without its issues.
Allow me to go on a tangent for a minute about how people’s relationships with technology have evolved over the past decade.
Smartphones have changed the way society functions for better and for worse. People are always reachable and they are always entertained.
There are the obvious impacts, like people are often multitasking, scrolling their phones while they watch TV or movies.
But there are smaller changes to our behaviour that phones have caused that people may not have noticed.
Thanks to social media and short videos, people have become used to instant gratification and multiple simultaneous options to keep themselves entertained.
While people used to be happy to think puzzles through on their own, or grind and backtrack, modern gamers won’t put up with this ‘time-wasting’.
We want it all and we want it now, and that means that games have had to change to adjust to these modern tastes.
This is usually a good thing. It’s what has made features like auto-save standard, and added accessibility and quality-of-life options to games.
But some games take pleasing our dopamine-soaked brains too far, and I end up feeling disrespected.
Indiana Jones tips the scale from engaging to pandering, and there are two main things that frustrated me as I played.
The first is that the bad guys are savage, and even when you are trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, they chase you relentlessly.
They are easily dispatched thanks to Indy’s iron fists, and empty bottles left by the Vatican’s obvious drinking problem, but I don’t want to brawl every time I walk outside.
I think these moments are so frequent to make sure that you are never too far from an action sequence, but I’d rather be left in peace.
Personally, the far more damning problem is Gina, the companion you pick up a few hours into the game.
During cutscenes she is a fun and well-written character, but she notices as soon as you invade Indy’s head as she suddenly starts talking to you like you’re an idiot.
“Oh the gate just opened”, Gina cries out after you pull the lever and are already walking through the gate.
“It’s getting really hot in here”, Gina points out as you stand in a room engulfed in flames.
If you look at a puzzle for more than one second before you start working on it, she helpfully shouts out that it’s a puzzle and how to complete it.
The first few examples make her seem stupid but her puzzle-solving prowess shows she’s not.
Instead, she points things out to you like a mother who wants her toddler to think he’s doing things himself.
But I’m not doing things myself. I’m not allowed to. Gina has blurted all the fun out of exploring before I get my chance.
I think the developers did this to cater to a modern gaming audience that can’t concentrate long enough to finish a TikTok.
MachineGames have oversteered directly into the ball pit and it’s a dampener on an otherwise excellent game.
If you want to read more about the game, check out our Indiana Jones and The Great Circle review.
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