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?

I have got my life back!

After 5 weeks and 25 exams, my time at high school is finally over! Due to the enormous amount of pressure heaped upon students today, exams have been at the forefront of my mind for the last 2 months. Now that time is over. Exams have finished. I have my life back! This means I am now able to get back to what I know and love…darts! 

However, for all us England fans it has been a miserable start to the summer, we have been knocked straight out of the football World Cup, our cricket team continues to lose and the rugby team have just been thrashed in New Zealand. We only even managed to come 17th out of 26 in the Eurovision Song Contest! Moreover, our form has been no better in darts and I am asking you whether you think we are coming to the end of an era and is English darts dominance coming to an abrupt end?

Since my last post after Raymond Van Barneveld won the Premier League Darts, there have been 7 more significant tournaments. Most notably the biggest tournament of the last month took place in Hamburg on the 8th June as we saw the Netherlands whitewash England in the World Cup of Darts final to win their first World Cup since 2010. Now, although Taylor and Lewis were massively outclassed by the Dutch pairing in the final, as a stand alone tournament I don’t think it is too worrying for English Darts as they still reached the final. However, when you look at 2014 as a whole, the Netherlands now hold the Premier League, World Championship and World Cup trophies. 

In addition, it is not just the major tournaments England are failing to win. Michael Van Gerwen also won the Dubai Darts Masters and even when he pulled out of the Austrian Darts Open this weekend with an ankle injury, Vincent Van Der Voort stepped up to the plate to win his first ranking title since 2011. This shows the strength in depth of the Dutch as if Van Der Voort can keep up this form then he can also become one of the best and most entertaining players in the world with one of the quickest throws in darts. 

Finally, it’s not just the Netherlands who England should be fearful of but the Scottish trio of Anderson, Wright and Thornton are also having fantastic results. After Peter Wright won the 9th Players Championship, Gary Anderson then went on to win the Players Championship 11 after he beat Robert Thornton in the final! This is definitely worrying for England fans as not only are they challenging England for the major honours but if Darts’ plan to become an Olympic Sport is achieved and Scotland vote ‘Yes’ in their independence vote later this year, we can’t rely on their help for a medal! 

Nonetheless, lets be optimistic, Terry Jenkins won the Players Championship 10 at the end of May to end a 2 year wait for a ranking title and we still have some of the greatest players in the world. The World Matchplay is the next major on the horizon so come on England! Give us something to shout about!