World Matchplay Review

Taylor’s Blackpool Love Affair Continues

After another tantalising tournament, Taylor has done it again. 19 years after his first World Matchplay title, Phil Taylor has extended his unbeaten Blackpool run to 7 years and an incredible 35 matches. How does he do it? 

In my World Matchplay Preview, I did what no darts fan should do and doubted Taylor’s chances of winning it again. I stated that Taylor was in ‘arguably in the worst form of his life’ and announced there was a new favourite heading to Blackpool. However, I will not take sole responsibility as I doubt the great man has ever even come across my work! The whole darting world was doubting Taylor before the tournament including the best pundits in the business. Therefore, we should all take responsibility as we should have remembered that Taylor thrives off proving people wrong. 

So again lets rewind to my preview of the tournament when I was so excited for the tournament that I said it promised to be one of the best World Matchplay’s ever and from the very first round, the tournament lived up to expectations. In the first round, Taylor easily overcame Darren Webster 10:4 with a confident display which showed that he really felt at home back at Blackpool. Also in the first round, my prediction curse struck again as all 3 of my predictions for this year’s tournament went crashing out. Firstly, Vincent Van Der Voort set the tone with a nightmare performance against fellow Dutchman Raymond Van Barneveld. This was then followed up on the Monday night with Peter Wright’s underwhelming performance against an inform Steven Bunting who showed he is going to be a handful following his move from the BDO. My final prediction was Jamie Caven who did provide me with a bit of hope when he led Gary Anderson but the Flying Scotsman showed he had just enough steam to force his way past Caven and win 10:8. So after those disastrous predictions I decided to keep my expectations to myself but after Adrian Lewis’ stunning 10-0 whitewash of Andrew Gilding, I did think there could be a different ‘Stokee’ lifting the trophy. 

I think however that bizarrely my failed predictions actually show darts in a very good light. I am not trying to divert the blame here but all of my 3 predictions had won on the European Tour this year and this shows how competitive all the darts players are today and this is what makes our sport so unpredictable and entertaining. This may seem ridiculous as the same man has now won the tournament 15 times but Taylor is a force of nature and his records will never be repeated.

Moving onto the Second Round, I was disappointed that my favourite player, Andy Hamilton was narrowly beaten by Dave Chisnall. In all honestly, I never had much faith he could win his first major as despite his 10:3 first round win, his opponent Wayne Jones only averaged 82! Meanwhile the other major headlines from the Second Round were Raymond Van Barneveld losing out to Simon Whitlock, Gary Anderson knocking out Stephen Bunting and Wes Newton edging out Paul Nicholson 15:13 after a titanic tussle. However, there was 1 headline bigger than all of these as Taylor hit his 10th televised 9 darter in his 13:6 win over Michael Smith who had ironically knocked Taylor out of the World Championship 7 months earlier. 

Onto the Quarter Finals which actually produced 4 clear winners in Van Gerwen, Whitlock Taylor and Anderson, with Anderson’s 16:8 victory over last year’s finalist Adrian Lewis arguably being the best performance. This meant that 3 of the top 4 seeds had made it to the Semi-Finals which again shows why the World Matchplay is such a great tournament as the long format really gives the chance for the quality to shine through. However, it was the semi finals which probably provided the best entertainment of the tournament as both matches were fantastic contests. After 26 legs between Whitlock and Van Gerwen, it was 13:13 before Van Gerwen showed why he was World Champion by winning the last 4 legs. In the other semi final, Anderson again put on a fantastic performance against The Power but despite winning 15 legs, it wasn’t enough as Taylor eventually pulled through to win 17:15 and secure his place against World Number 1 Michael Van Gerwen in the final. 

This meant it was the final that all darts fans dreamed of but disappointingly it was a very 1 sided contest. After winning the 2nd leg, Van Gerwen was only able to win 1 more leg out of the next 11 as Taylor stormed into an 11:2 lead. Van Gerwen wasn’t playing particularly badly but he wasn’t up to Taylor’s incredible standard of averaging over 110 for the majority of the match. From 11:2 down, it was almost impossible for Van Gerwen to mount any sort of challenge and despite a small comeback at one point, he went on to lose the match 18:9 as Taylor controlled the match fantastically to win his 7th World Matchplay in a row. As Taylor was given the trophy, it was lovely to see the delight on his face as he was able to share the moment with his grandchildren but it was equally as upsetting to see Van Gerwen’s tears on stage which showed how much passion he really has for the game. 

So what can we take from the 2014 World Matchplay? Personally, I have learnt that I need to work even harder on my predictions and I think that the whole darting world have learnt again that Phil Taylor is definitely not finished. Many other sportsmen can’t see what keeps up Taylor’s motivation as he has won everything there is to win including 16 World Championships and 15 World Matchplay's! But the reason he keeps going is because he is a winner, a champion and a special darts player who just can’t bare to see anyone else winning ‘his’ trophies. I honestly don’t understand some of the criticism of Taylor I see on social networking sites and forums as every darts fan surely must have the upmost respect for what he has achieved and how he has benefitted our sport. I understand everyone has their favourite players but Taylor’s career is extraordinary and whatever anyone says, he is one of the greatest sportsmen ever and undoubtedly the greatest player to ever play darts.

World Matchplay Preview

It’s that time of year again for all darts fans to turn their attentions to the seaside town of Blackpool for the World Matchplay. Every proper darts fan will know that the World Matchplay is not just any normal darts tournament but it is in my opinion the second biggest tournament of the year, narrowly behind the World Championship. So what is it about the World Matchplay that makes it such a special tournament? 

Firstly, I think the venue is a key factor for the success of the World Matchplay with many players including Phil Taylor calling it their favourite venue on the darting circuit. The Winter Gardens in Blackpool almost feels perfectly designed for the darts as Phil Taylor says, “It's a special place, it's a venue that everybody wants to play in and it has something magical about it”. Not only is the Winter Gardens a special place, but so is Blackpool and by staging this tournament in the middle of the summer, it gives the tournament a feel good factor as there is actually a chance it might not be raining! In addition to the venue, the format of the event also leads to its success as in my opinion, leg play is much more entertaining than set play as every leg counts. This traditional format means that the games are full of drama and the length of the matches also helps to make sure the best player on the day normally progresses into the next round. 

Next, lets rewind 12 months to July 2013 as we hit the build up to last year’s World Matchplay. Let me set the scene for you, Andy Murray had just won Wimbledon to be the first Brit to win the title in 77 years; Same-Sex marriage was legalised in England and Wales and The Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to Prince George. Meanwhile in the darting world, Michael Van Gerwen had won his first Premier League crown and Phil Taylor had won his 5th UK Open title. Therefore, the anticipation for the World Matchplay was extremely high and it did not disappoint. After a week of high quality darts, all 4 of the top seeds reached the semi finals before Phil Taylor overcame his apprentice Adrian Lewis 18-13 in one of the highest quality darts matches ever! While Lewis averaged an incredibly respectable 105, Taylor averaged over 111 which meant he had achieved an average of over 100 in every match of the tournament. Therefore, the overwhelming feeling coming out of last year’s tournament was that Taylor was still the man to beat as his 14th World Matchplay triumph means he has now won over 70% of all World Matchplay’s. Consequently, this shows how unpredictable darts can be as only 1 year later, Taylor is arguably in the worst form of his life and there is a new favourite heading to Blackpool.

So, back into the present day, what should we expect from the 2014 World Matchplay? Will it be the time for a new champion or will the advantage of experience be crucial? No matter who wins this year’s tournament, it promises to be one of the best World Matchplay’s ever as not only is it a memorable year because of the World Matchplay’s 20th anniversary, but I also think the strength of the whole field this year is stronger than ever. I honestly believe that you can make a strong case for more than 10 different players to lift this year’s trophy. My regular readers will know that after my disastrous attempt to predict some of the Premier League, I should probably veer away from the prediction trade…However, I am going to live in the moment and give it a whirl anyway! The bookies are heavily backing Michael Van Gerwen to be celebrating on the 27th of July which means it is the first time in my life I can recollect Taylor not being favourite for a major tournament. Despite this, I am not going to be cowardly and just predict the favourite for this tournament. My main prediction is Peter Wright who I believe can be a real dark horse for the title and at 22-1, he is a fantastic bet. After he won the biggest title of his career at the European Darts Open last weekend, he believes he is getting “better and better” and I think he can push on and win his first major title. Although, he has been given a incredibly difficult first round match against BDO World Champion Steven Bunting, if he can get through that match, he has a favourable draw through to the semi finals. Other players that I predict could provide a shock are Jamie Caven and Vincent Van Der Voort as even though they have difficult first round ties, they are both in excellent form after wins on the European Tour. My final player to look out for is Andy Hamilton, not so much a prediction, but as my favourite player, I would love to see him break his major hoodoo and become the second ‘Stokey’ to lift the World Matchplay trophy.

What makes a major tournament?

After the World Matchplay draw earlier this week, I started getting excited for one of my favourite tournaments of the year. However, my excitement soon turned into a sense of intrigue as to how many tournaments are now classed as a major.

It seems to me that every televised PDC tournament is now classed as a major by pundits and commentators alike. If this theory is put into place, this means that there are now 10 major darts tournaments yearly and if you also include the Championship League Darts, which is broadcast on Youtube, this brings the grand total to 11! Now I am never going to argue with all these fascinating tournaments being broadcast to millions of viewers but I think that Barry Hearn seriously needs to consider which tournaments are classed as major’s. 

What do you think makes a major? Is it the amount and quality of competitors; the prize money or even the historical value of a tournament? This may seem like a rhetorical question but I honestly want to know your views on what you think makes a major because if i’m 100% honest with you, I don’t know myself!

Many of you may be thinking, why does it matter how many major’s we have, surely the more the better? However, I disagree with this, sometimes less is more. If you look at other sports such as tennis and golf, they have 4 major’s every year and this makes these tournaments special and hugely important. If we carry on increasing the number of darts major’s, we are in danger of losing the prestigious nature of our major’s as well as losing the integrity of our major winners as they will be so many of them, being named a major winner will no longer be such a huge feat. 

So, lets take a step back and look at out yearly darts calendar. In my opinion, the first thing the PDC need to do is come up with a definition for what a darts major actually is. Then they need to carefully choose which current tournaments fit the definition and should therefore be classed as a major. I think they probably need to decide on 4 tournaments that as well as being the 4 best darts tournaments in the world, also have a distinctively different structure to each other to make each major unique. By choosing only 4 tournaments, I don’t think this should affect the other tournaments as they should still be televised and the prize money from them will still play a decisive role in which players qualify for the major tournaments. 

As a result, after careful consideration, I would personally choose the World Championship, UK Open, World Matchplay and World Grand Prix to be the 4 darts major’s. Do you agree?