With the new UDUK season beginning, there is no better time to check in on the state of uni darts. After a fast-paced and busy opening season in charge, President Kyle Mandell was kind enough to take some time to reflect on his time at the helm so far and ambitions for next year.

Overall, how pleased were you with your first year in charge and how it went?

I was really pleased with how this year went. I felt we achieved our initial goal of stabilising UDUK, financially and in administrative matters, very early on in the year, which allowed us to focus on delivering more value to students. On a personal note, I thoroughly enjoyed attending events around the country, seeing the impact that UDUK had on student darters.

How big an impact has having a fuller range of events had this year?

We felt it was massively important to ensure everybody had events on their doorstep. Whilst there’s still work to be done in the North East region, we managed to deliver at least one UDUK event in each of the other regions. The feedback from these events was always very positive, so we plan to build on this further to offer an even better calendar in 2023/24. The National Finals felt like a great celebration of the year’s progress and was a sign of just how strong some of the leagues have been.

Did you enjoy the day and what have you made of the UDUK talent and leagues this year?

Finals day was a brilliant celebration. There were teams there who, despite being league champions and runners-up in their own right, knew they were outsiders, because of the strength of the field. I could not have asked for a better ending to what proved to be a fantastic league season. Calling the singles in the final, with the outpouring of emotions from the finalists, and classy support from Bangor, was a darting day I won’t forget.

The Summer Showdown was also a big moment in returning UDUK to larger events. Was this a good platform to build from for future events and what was the feedback like?

It was something that we were massively grateful to host, thanks to UKDA. It was our most attended event of the season, partly due to Alumni entrants, and a welcome return to larger events. Our primary focus is on smaller, regional events, to reduce travel costs and put events on peoples doorsteps. Nevertheless, we still plan to run a couple of large-scale events each season, and so this was an important trial run, to understand where we are at in that regard.

(Image: The Summer Showdown was the UDUK’s biggest event since the Covid pandemic began)

What has UDUK been working on over the last few months and over the summer?

We’ve been working on recruiting new teams and universities to join our leagues. Growing membership levels is always important, and teams find it particularly exciting when embarking on new away days for the first time. We’ve also welcomed a host of new committee members, with our team of co- ordinators joining the main committee. We have a few other exciting plans in the works, that will be announced shortly. Finally, we’ve been developing a full calendar for Term 1, with 4 varied events already announced.

What are your main targets for the forthcoming year?

The main aim is to continue sustainable growth. Of course, the return of Big Weekender is the final puzzle piece in returning to a pre-pandemic UDUK offering, but in many ways we would like to go even beyond that this year. We already feel that we have a better event line-up than any previous season, so we can only hope to build from there. We have other aims around promoting further involvement of women in university darts, and ensuring existing clubs and societies have the support needed to host their own varsity events.

And finally, what would you say to any students who may be looking to join their uni darts teams this year or indeed who may be wanting to start one of their own?

Give it a go! Not joining university darts because you’ve never played before or you don’t think you’re good enough is not an excuse; we have players averaging 25 and players averaging 90. Whoever you are, and however long you’ve been playing darts for, there will be games that you will win and the overall atmosphere of university darts is such a buzz! For anyone looking to start a team at their university, please get in touch at committee@uduk.co.uk. Even if it is just you at the moment, we know how to grow darts teams from scratch.

Kyle Mandell - 07/10/2023

Interview: UDUK President Kyle Mandell reflects on season and looks ahead to 2023/24