First Round Round Up

I’m going to keep this as short and sweet as possible as I don’t want to interrupt your Christmas preparations too much but I felt I had to write about what has been an incredible first round at the William Hill World Championship. Less than 1 week ago, the tournament kicked off with 72 players battling it out for the title and now only 32 remain. In this time, seeds have been falling like snow should be at this time of year and I’m sure you wouldn’t have predicted this second round line up at the beginning of the action! 

From the opening game of the tournament where 2 time World Champion John Part exited the party with a 3-2 defeat to youngster Keegan Brown, the tone has been set. A total of nine out of the 32 seeds have headed out of the tournament before Christmas including Simon Whitlock, Mervyn King and Wes Newton. The quality has been high but the drama has been even higher with refereeing errors, 170 checkouts and even darts falling out of the board! The best match of the first round is hard to decide on but if you only get the chance to catch up on 3 matches, I would suggest the Max Hopp, Vincent Van Der Voort and Benito van de Pas games will set your Christmas alight! 

Despite the seeds dropping like flies, the main contenders predicted by Sky last Thursday all still remain in the tournament. Last night, Lewis showed he means business as he hit the highest average of the tournament (101.90) but he is only one of many players who have turned up on the big stage looking confident. I still can’t confidently predict who will win this year’s tournament but after the second round we will have a much better idea as big names are guaranteed to drop out. 

When looking at the next round, I was very excited about the matches ahead but also disappointed that such great players are meeting at this early stage. The highlight of the second round looks to be the clash between James Wade and BDO World Champion Stephen Bunting. This draw highlights how the seeding system doesn’t always work, especially when talented players transfer from the BDO. Although at the end of the day, only one player can win this great championships and to be the best, you have to beat the best! 

Looking ahead even further to potential last 16 ties and I think if both players make it through their second round games, Terry Jenkins could provide a huge shock as he takes on Michael Van Gerwen. Another potential last 16 tie is Adrian Lewis against Raymond Van Barneveld and if both players recreate their first round form, it will be the greatest third round game ever seen! 

After that brief round up, I will leave you to go back to stuffing your turkey, making your trifle or buying those last minute presents! I wish you all a very Merry Christmas from myself and everyone at Dartoid’s World and all the best in 2015. Thank you all for your support, views and comments over the last 12 months and I look forward to continuing my writing in the new year. 

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year but most importantly….enjoy the darts!

The William Hill World Championship

Finally, it is nearly upon us. It’s Christmas time again but that is not the highlight of the winter for the thousands of darts fans heading to London in the coming weeks. Instead, it is the period that 50,000 fans have been looking forward to since the tickets were released over six months ago. That’s right, it is the William Hill World Championship. The best and most eagerly anticipated sporting event in the world and it is an absolute dream to announce that I will be there. 

Going into the tournament, Michael Van Gerwen is the reigning champion and world number one but he is not favourite going into the event. This burden instead falls on Phil Taylor again after his World Grand Slam glory but I doubt it will affect him in the slightest! Despite the betting, Sky still chose to focus their pre tournament documentary on ‘Mighty Mike’ and it was excellent viewing for any darts fan. If I needed anything to get me in the mood for the action, then that was it! It was fascinating to see how Van Gerwen has risen to the top but lost his hair in the meantime! This programme showed how Van Gerwen only took up darts as he wasn’t good enough at football but it also highlighted the quality of present day darts with Van Gerwen stating he hit his first nine darter when he was 15 or 16. The fact he couldn’t remember exactly when shows how insignificant it is now as he has gone on to hit four more live on television. Towards the end of the programme, Van Gerwen explained that confidence is the key to his success as he knows that he can beat any other player on the big stage. He said ‘on current form I think I am the best” so will anybody be able to stop him? 

As darts continues to grow, so does the World Championship and again this year’s tournament will be bigger than ever before. This years prize fund has increased to £1,250,000 which is an unbelievable £1,186,000 more than the prize fund of £64,000 at the first ever PDC World Championship in 1994. In addition, with the majority of the 50,000 tickets sold for the event, I wouldn’t argue with Barry Hearn that “this event is the hottest ticket in British sport right now!”

Even if you aren’t lucky enough to have a ticket for the main event, there is still no excuse for missing the action! This year, the World Championship will receive better TV exposure than ever before. Not only has Sky Sports reflected the popularity of darts by dedicating a whole channel to the tournament but the channel will also screen exclusive programmes focusing on the sport's top names, as well as showing some classic games from the PDC's history. If that wasn’t good enough, the drama will also be aired worldwide with the PDC's international broadcast partners. Plus, fans with a LIVEPDC.TV International Pass subscription can watch live coverage of every game, with highlights of all matches available for all LIVEPDC.TV subscribers.

So, this year’s event kicks off on Thursday night with a potential shock in store as former World Champion John Part takes on the Grand Slam’s surprise package in Keegan Brown. Michael Van Gerwen also kicks off the defence of his title on the opening night where he takes on youngster Joe Cullen. The first round games will then entertain us up until the Christmas break and I’m sure there will be a few shocks in store. 

I think this year’s tournament is possibly the most wide open tournament we have ever had with numerous names capable of reaching the latter stages. However, if I was a betting man, I would probably put my money on the in form Gary Anderson. Since I told you to watch out for him on the 7th of September, he has gone from strength to strength and I honestly think he is capable of winning the prestigious Sid Waddell trophy. Next time I write for you, this wonderful tournament may be over for another year so the last thing I want to say is good luck, savour the moment and enjoy the action!

The Flying Scotsman steams ahead...

I’m no psychic but you may recall on the 7th of September I picked Gary Anderson as a player to watch out for. ‘I am very confident that Anderson will continue his form and he is definitely capable of a huge major success’ were my exact words! Joking aside, it didn’t take any darts expert to predict that Anderson would win a major as he has been in such excellent form all year. 

Anderson was the number 1 seed going into the Players Championship this weekend and he held on to that spot to lift only his second PDC major title. His only other major title was the Premier League back in 2011. Even the weekend before the main event, Anderson had shown he meant business by winning the final Players Championship Qualifier in Coventry. 

The tournament kicked off for Anderson with a tight 6:5 victory over Christian Kist in which he averaged over 110 and hit eight 180’s! He then went on to defeat Stephen Bunting 10:5 in the second round before knocking out Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor in the quarter-finals. This was incredibly the first time in seven years that Anderson had defeated Taylor in a televised knockout match. In the semi final, Vincent Van Der Voort, the tournament’s surprise package, stood in Anderson’s way but despite a late comeback from 10:3 down, Anderson still went on to win the match 11:7. Finally, only two time world champion Adrian Lewis stood between Anderson and the trophy but it was a comfortable win for the Scotsman who came away 11:6 winner. 

This win rounded off an excellent tournament for Anderson who averaged over 100 in every match. He is now 4th in the Order of Merit and this triumph will provide him the perfect platform for success at the Ally Pally. Incidentally, the bookies now have him as third favourite to lift the Sid Waddell trophy. 

Another talking point from the Players Championship was the absence of both Phil Taylor and Michael Van Gerwen from the semi-finals. Incredibly, it was the first time since the 2012 European Championship that this had happened. Again, this shows that darts is getting more and more unpredictable! When the world’s top two players aren’t reaching the semi finals, it shows the strength of the full field. In one match, every player in the world’s top 30 is capable of beating each other and that is what is going to make the upcoming World Championships so exciting. For instance, who would have predicted that after a underwhelming year Vincent Van Der Voort would reach the semi-final of the Players Championship playing with such conviction? Similarly, did you predict that Wes Newton would turn his form around to also reach the last 4? Credit must also go to Terry Jenkins for knocking out Van Gerwen and to Jamie Caven who was extremely unlucky to lose 10:9 in the quarter finals against Adrian Lewis. Undoubtedly, Darts is in a better place than ever and I can’t wait for the action to begin. 

The Alexandra Palace is now officially the next stop on the PDC Circuit. The final qualifiers took place today and the draw takes place tomorrow. The only controversy dampening my spirits tonight is the rumours regarding Richie Burnett that are circulating on Twitter. It is worth noting that no official statement has yet been made and as far as we know, the reports could just be vicious rumours. I hope that this is the case and that Burnett can continue to compete on the main stage but if the rumours about potential drug use are true, I hope he is punished accordingly. The only other case of a darts player being banned for drug use was in 2006 when Robbie Green was banned for 8 weeks after testing positive for marijuana. However, I’m sure the PDC will release a statement in due time so lets turn our attentions to the best tournament in the world. It’s 17 days to go…I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait!