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Post by -Big Dan- on Jan 1, 2014 23:32:15 GMT 1
Michael van Gerwen becomes PDC World Champion, beating Peter Wright by 7 sets to 4! In doing so, he also takes the world number one spot.
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Post by Panda on Jan 1, 2014 23:39:11 GMT 1
Great final - if Wright had taken that 11th set, I think he may just have gone on to win it...
Apparently the 10 names for the Premier League are being announced later tonight. My understanding is it's the final 4 from Ally Pally, 4 PDC (Barry Hearn) wildcards and 2 Sky wildcards...
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Post by Panda on Jan 1, 2014 23:42:02 GMT 1
Great coverage from 5Live. Darts on the radio shouldn't work but somehow it did. Nicholson was very good as co-commentator.
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Post by Panda on Jan 1, 2014 23:57:03 GMT 1
Confirmed Premier League line-up: Phil Taylor Michael van Gerwen Simon Whitlock Adrian Lewis Dave Chisnall Peter Wright Raymond van Barneveld Robert Thornton Wes Newton Gary Anderson
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Post by Panda on Jan 2, 2014 20:51:56 GMT 1
A few facts following yesterday's final:
At 24, van Gerwen is the youngest ever PDC champion, though Jelle Klaasen remains the youngest player to win either version of the world title. He is only the second player to win the PDC title without winning the BDO title first (the other being Adrian Lewis), though he did win the World Masters while in the BDO. The MvG-Wright final means Peter Manley, Mark Dudbridge, Kirk Shepherd, Adrian Lewis and Andy Hamilton remain the only players to appear in a PDC final who haven't played at the Lakeside World Championship. Dudbridge would've played in 2003 after winning the World Masters but chose to immediately switch to the PDC without playing at the Lakeside. van Gerwen is the 11th player to win a world title having previously won the BDO's World Masters (Barney and Martin Adams had already won world titles when they won the Masters for the first time). Dudbridge, Tony West, Mervyn King, Robert Thornton and Stephen Bunting are the other active Masters winners who haven't yet won a world title.
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Post by Panda on Jan 2, 2014 21:07:36 GMT 1
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Post by raliverpool on Jan 3, 2014 20:12:44 GMT 1
Confirmed Premier League line-up: Phil Taylor Michael van Gerwen Simon Whitlock Adrian Lewis Dave Chisnall Peter Wright Raymond van Barneveld Robert Thornton Wes Newton Gary Anderson It looks like Barry Hearn was talking a load of BS about the omission of James Wade from the 2014 PL: www1.skysports.com/darts/news/12040/9098908/james-wade-bitterly-disappointed-to-miss-out-on-premier-league-dartsPDC Order of Merit (as at January 2 2013) Previous Position Current Position Name Nationality Total Prize Money 2 1 van Gerwen, Michael Netherlands £775,650 1 2 Taylor, Phil England £748,350 4 3 Whitlock, Simon Australia £311,300 3 4 Lewis, Adrian England £287,400 7 5 Chisnall,Dave England £247,300 6 6 Wade, James England £240,000 16 7 Wright, Peter Scotland £239,500 8 8 Newton, Wesley England £220,200 9 9 Thornton, Robert Scotland £209,400 10 10 van Barneveld, Raymond Netherlands £209,100 5 11 Hamilton, Andy England £205,700 11 12 Pipe, Justin England £192,600 12 13 Huybrechts,Kim Belgium £171,000 13 14 Dolan, Brendan Northern Ireland £165,400 14 15 King, Mervyn England £160,400 18 16 White, Ian England £153,650 19 17 Baxter, Ronnie England £132,300 17 18 Anderson, Gary Scotland £130,550 15 19 Jenkins, Terry England £129,300 21 20 Painter, Kevin England £123,700
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Post by Panda on Jan 3, 2014 21:01:40 GMT 1
I don't know what Hearn said but I thought Wade was very unlucky to miss out. Anderson's a great player but didn't have a particularly good year. It does look like they've wanted to up the Scottish quota to help shift tickets for the Scottish dates.
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Post by Panda on Jan 12, 2014 18:25:39 GMT 1
Stephen Bunting v Alan Norris in the BDO final this evening. Will hopefully be a great match. Norris's games against Dekker and Wilson were two of the best I've ever seen - particularly the Wilson game, where both players were magnificent and Wilson lost 5-2 despite averaging 99.
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Post by -Big Dan- on Jan 12, 2014 19:48:11 GMT 1
The overall standard of play in this tournament has been head and shoulders above recent years imho, and I'm thoroughly enjoying the final so far. There really isn't much to choose between them.
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Post by Panda on Jan 12, 2014 22:11:14 GMT 1
A great final and Bunting a deserving champion.
The PDC's reached the point where the overall standard is always going to be higher than the BDO (compared to the first 15 years when there was really nothing between them if you took out Taylor) but the BDO keeps producing new stars at a much faster rate than the PDC. It took the PDC 20 years to start putting some sort of system in place to bring through new talent, rather than just taking the BDO's best players.
That said, tomorrow effectively sees the darts equivalent of the transfer window, when we see which BDO players have put their names forward for the PDC qualifying school. Christian Kist has already confirmed he's moving over. Will we see any more? Meanwhile, Co Stompe is returning to the BDO after a poor run of form in the PDC.
It's a shame the Lakeside is the only darts tournament the BBC bothers with now, though that's partly down to the BDO - for all the hard work it does developing the grassroots side of the game, it doesn't do anywhere near enough to promote it as a sport, which is how the PDC came about in the first place. It's also partly down to the BBC's reluctance to push non-Olympic sports - darts, snooker, F1 and american football have all had their coverage reduced or stopped in recent years, despite being popular with viewers, while sports like athletics, swimming and gymnastics have seen the amount of BBC coverage increased.
Meanwhile, ITV is stepping up its coverage of PDC events by signing a contract to show 4 tournaments a year, including the UK Open - the first time it won't be on Sky. I believe Sky have the PDC World Championship rights until 2018, but I'd love to see ITV try and buy it up after that.
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Post by Panda on Jan 13, 2014 15:33:38 GMT 1
BDO Rankings after the World Championship: 1. Stephen Bunting 2. James Wilson 3. Robbie Green 4. Jan Dekker 5. Geert de Vos 6. Remco van Eijden 7. Darryl Fitton 8. Jeffrey de Graaf 9. Gary Robson 10. Martin Adams 11. Glen Durrant 12. Ross Montgomery 13. Scott Mitchell 14. Rick Hofstra 15. Tony O'Shea 16. Jim Williams 17. Wesley Harms 17. Ron Meulenkamp 19. Paul Jennings 20. Tony Eccles 20. Jamie Hughes 20. Garry Thompson 23. Martin Atkins 24. Tom Gregory 24. Sam Head 24. Alan Norris 27. Richie George 27. Madars Razma 29. Benito van de Pas 30. Michel van der Horst 31. John Walton 32. Scott Waites 33. Martin Phillips 34. Jamie Bain 35. Jimmy Hendricks 36. Willy van de Wiel 37. Phil Borthwick 38. Steve Douglas 39. Terry Hayhurst 40. David Cameron 41. Yordi Meeuwisse 42. Jonny Nijs 43. Jim Widmayer 44. Tony Carmichael 45. Jeroen Geerdink 45. Dave Smith 47. Mike Day 48. Vladimir Andersen 49. Paul Coughlin 50. Christian Kist 50. Gary Stafford 52. James Hurrell 53. Wayne Warren 54. Harley Kemp 55. Sam Hewson 55. Dion Laviolette 57. Mark Blandford 57. Jason Ladbrook 59. Carl Dennel 60. Martin Jongejan 60. Tony Martin 60. Jonathan Silcock 63. Marco Flach 64. Bryan Whyte 65. Phillip Blackwell 66. Craig Caldwell 66. Leonard Gates 66. Francois Schweyen 66. Anthony Urmston-Toft 70. Jeff Howard 71. Jeffrey de Zwaan 71. John Goldie 71. Shaun Narain 74. James Bailey 74. Darius Labanauskas 74. Matthew Medhurst 74. Linsay Wells 78. Danny Noppert 78. Brian Steed 78. Martin Tremblay 81. Mark Oosterhuis 81. Tom Sawyer 83. Bill Fergus 83. Paavo Myller 83. Warren Parry 86. Martin Carvill 86. Stevie Plank 86. Joey ten Berge 89. Mitchell Clegg 89. James Summers 91. Ulf Ceder 91. Jim Edwards 91. Nigel Lamb 91. Greg Moss 91. Eddy Sims 91. John Sison 97. Bjarne Iversen 98. Tony David 98. Roy Gokoel 98. Freddie Granada 98. Troy Hanlon 98. Craig Pullen 98. Karel Sedlacek ------------------------------- 134. Dave Prins 161. Paul Hogan 246. Andy Fordham
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Post by Panda on Jan 13, 2014 15:55:51 GMT 1
PDC Order of Merit after the World Championship: 1. Michael van Gerwen 2. Phil Taylor 3. Simon Whitlock 4. Adrian Lewis 5. Dave Chisnall 6. James Wade 7. Peter Wright 8. Wes Newton 9. Robert Thornton 10. Raymond van Barneveld 11. Andy Hamilton 12. Justin Pipe 13. Kim Huybrechts 14. Brendan Dolan 15. Mervyn King 16. Ian White 17. Ronnie Baxter 18. Gary Anderson 19. Terry Jenkins 20. Kevin Painter 21. Paul Nicholson 22. Jamie Caven 23. Steve Beaton 24. Colin Lloyd 25. Mark Webster 26. Andy Smith 27. Richie Burnett 28. John Part 29. Vincent van der Voort 30. Michael Smith 31. Mark Walsh 32. Stuart Kellet 33. Wayne Jones 34. Colin Osborne 35. Jelle Klaasen 36. Dean Winstanley 37. Joe Cullen 38. Darren Webster 39. Arron Monk 40. Jamie Lewis 41. Ronny Huybrechts 42. Scott Rand 43. Micky Mansell 44. John Henderson 45. Mensur Suljovic 46. Steve Brown 47. James Hubbard 48. Dennis Smith 49. Denis Ovens 50. John Bowles 51. Dennis Priestley 52. Andy Jenkins 53. Kevin McDine 54. Ross Smith 55. Peter Hudson 56. Ricky Evans 57. Jerry Hendriks 58. Gino Vos 59. Mark Dudbridge 60. Connie Finnan 61. Magnus Caris 62. James Richardson 63. Co Stompe 64. Johnny Haines 65. Mark Jones 66. Jarkko Komula 67. Devon Petersen 68. William O'Connor 68. Alan Tabern 70. Tomas Seyler 71. Nigel Heydon 72. Matt Clark 72. Terry Temple 74. Nick Fullwell 75. Mareno Michels 76. Max Hopp 77. Adrian Gray 78. Andrew Gilding 78. Jim Walker 80. Roland Scholten 81. Steve West 82. Michael Barnard 83. Tony West 84. Shaun Griffiths 85. Beau Anderson 85. Mark Hylton 85. Per Laursen 88. Matthew Edgar 89. Richie Howson 90. Alex Roy 91. Daryl Gurney 92. Jyhan Artut 93. Jamie Robinson 94. Ted Hankey 95. David Pallett 96. Mark Cox 97. Joe Murnan 98. Paul Amos 99. Gareth Cousins 100. Royden Lam ----------------------------------- 104. Kyle Anderson 132. Paul Lim 145. Kirk Shepherd 214. Chris Mason
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Post by Panda on Jan 13, 2014 17:07:58 GMT 1
Ron Meulenkamp and Benito van de Pas have entered the PDC qualifying school, as has John Walton. Ted Hankey's name also appears on the list, but he's also reported to be returning to the BDO.
Don't know if the list I saw has been updated since today's deadline passed.
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Post by raliverpool on Jan 13, 2014 20:08:31 GMT 1
The overall standard of play in this tournament has been head and shoulders above recent years imho, and I'm thoroughly enjoying the final so far. There really isn't much to choose between them. I must admit the standard of finishing improved compared to last year, but overall the standard of scoring was not so special (poor switching, too many loose 1 & 5 darts compared to the PDC, etc). To get some perspective: The 2014 BDO WC tournament 3 dart average was 86.39, that would rank as 50th out of the 74 players who participated in the PDC 2014 WC tournament. 2014 PDC v 2014 BDO 3 dart averages: Last 32: 94.37 v 84.78 Last 16: 95.18 v 86.83 QF: 95.26 v 92.40 SF: 99.93 v 89.72 Final: 97.91 v 94.27 Incredibly, 2014 BDO WC Stephen Bunting won only 4 legs in 12 darts or less (out of 95 legs) in the whole tournament!!! If he wants to become an absolute top-class player comparable to the "PDC big 3" (MVG, Taylor, Lewis) he will probably have to improve in this category considerably.
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Post by Panda on Jan 16, 2014 0:54:22 GMT 1
Kyle Anderson, Benito van de Pas, Antonio Alcinas and Andrew Gilding won the 4 PDC tour cards available on the first day of Qualifying School. Former BDO players Joey ten Berge and Brian Woods were among those who lost in the final round, with Christian Kist losing at the semi-final stage. John Walton, Peter Manley, Peter Evison and Barrie Bates were all beaten without winning a match.
Four more places are available on each of the next 3 days, with more tour places to be awarded after that based on the Order of Merit points table at Q School.
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Post by Panda on Jan 16, 2014 23:18:26 GMT 1
PDC Qualifying School Day 2 winners: Andy Parsons Tomas Seyler Gerwyn Price (a former professional rugby player) Dave Bird
Brian Woods lost in the final round for the second day in a row.
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Post by Panda on Jan 18, 2014 22:26:16 GMT 1
PDC Qualifying School Day 3 and 4 winners: Gary Stone Matt Padget Robert Owen Tony Newell Steve West Nigel Heydon Joe Murnan Jason Hogg
Qualifiers through the Q School Order of Merit: Brian Woods Zoran Lerchbacher Mick Todd Pete Dyos Keegan Brown Stuart White Steve Grubb Ian Moss Rowby-John Rodrigues Christian Kist Jim Walker Dave Ladley Mareno Michels Mark Barilli Jamie Bain Michael Barnard David Dodds Steve Hine Terry Temple Ross Twell Stuart Anderson Conan Whitehead Mark Cox William O'Connor
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Post by Panda on Jan 23, 2014 10:23:39 GMT 1
Stephen Bunting has announced he's joining the PDC.
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Post by -Big Dan- on Jan 24, 2014 3:04:53 GMT 1
Can't say I'm terribly surprised at that.
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