Darts World Championships (PDC or BDO)

PDC world semis on at the moment, Taylor looking like he will beat van Barneveld here but for me the other dutch lad van Gerwin will win this title. He almost hit back to back 9 Dart legs tonight and last night beat Adrian Lewis in what can only be described as the greatest match i have ever seen, if you can get a chance to watch it do so!

Feel free to add and argue.

As soon as a post, Barney wins 2 sets on the bounce to make it 5-3 to Taylor, surely we can't have a repeat of last years Lewis/Wade semi?

See Boxty thread reference "sports"

Darts, ring throwing, skittles, hoopla, Aunt Sally ( a pub game i played in Uk) are pub games.

Can't wait to see skittles on Sky!

I see Taylor was his usual, classless self after the match - he is as graceless in victory as he is in defeat. Barney, though, bottled it as he often does. For a man who has 5 world titles, and came back from the dead to beat Taylor in what was really the greatest game ever played (note, not Lewis/Van Gerwen), his lack of self confidence is incredible.

Van Gerwen is the man in form. He was outstanding against Lewis, and only marginally less so against Wade. The 17 consecutive perfect darts were a once-in-a-lifetime moment. On form, he should beat Taylor, however, despite dominating on the trebles, he didn't put either Lewis or Wade away, and won both matches with little to spare. Taylor's, who started the tournament slowly, now has his averages close to what MVG is hitting, mainly due to hitting far more doubles.

Van Gerwen is currently the best player around, and is good enough to win the title. Truth be told, he is good enough to win comfortably if he continues to bombard the treble and hits even 40% of his doubles. Taylor of 3-4 years ago could have lived with MVG's scoring, but he hasn't been averaging well into the hunderds in a long time. Still, it's very hard to pick a World Final debutant over a man in his 19th, especially when the latter has won 15 titles already. Purely on past record I'd back Taylor, but I hope I'm wrong and hope that the young Dutchman hammers him.

The thing with MVG is that his scoring is so heavy he creates so many finishing chances it's unreal! I personally dont read too much into averages or checkout percentages, they are not always accurate and are often blown out of proportion by Sky. A man who has only had the chance to check out once and took it first time will have a 100% check out % and more than likely a higher average than the guy winning due to the fact he hasn't shot at a double often enough to get a true reflection of his average.

MVG scares the life out of Taylor, hence Taylors comment last night. The spanking at the Grand Slam is playing on him more than he will ever let on, plus unlike Barney confidence doesn't seem to be a problem with MVG. He has won and lost a PDC major final within the last 6 months so he really has nothing to fear with Taylor in my opinion.

You're right, Taylor was classless after beating Barney, people on other forums are saying tht you don't know what Barney said to him but Taylor has been about long enough to know how to handle things like that.

I watched both the Barney/Taylor final & the Lewis/MVG Q/f yesterday one after the other and i stand by my statement that the Lewis/MVG match is the greatest darts match i have ever seen, both players played to a massively high standard throughout the whole match. The Barney/Taylor had a great comeback and nailbiting finish but the standard throughout for me made the Lewis/MVG match the best for me!

It's been a great PDC Championships, pity it will end tomorrow night but hey, at least we can look forward to the BDO Championships.......kind of!

I think part of what made Lewis/MVG so exciting was the speed at which they both play. There's no doubt that the scoring was phenomenal, but Lewis wasn't at his very best, until the last 2-3 sets.

I know what you mean about averages/stats, but you do get a good idea of what is happening from them. The stat that would worry me from MVG's quarter final was that he only hit 6 out of his first 33 attempts at doubles. If he does that against Taylor, he will lose, no matter how many trebles he hits.

Yes, I heard Taylor's comments, and it is clear that he is more concerned about Van Gerwen than he was about Barney. Barney was playing very well up til that point, and talked bullishly beforehand, but the reality is that he is completely over-awed by Taylor, despite being one of the very few players who possesses the talent to compete with him.

As I saw it, Barney tried to congratulate Taylor and was snubbed. When he insisted, Taylor told him where to go. I've often said that Taylor must have been a very unloved child, as no amount of success/accolades are ever enough for him. He still has that 'me against the world' attitude, always with something to prove, and while it is what makes him such a prolific winner, it also makes him thoroughly unlikeable.

MVGs 17 perfect darts, so close to 2 9-dart legs!

Some final so far! 2-2 in set & legs and both playing magic darts!

Taylor fully deserved to win the first Sid Waddell trophy and add a 16th world title to his collection also, although i feel MvG handed ittohim a bit when his high scoring deserted him along with his finishing. Nice to see Taylor getting emotional at the end, a rare sight.

On to the BDO this weekend, i was reminded of this classic leg when reading twitter last night, enjoy all that is good about the BDO (of which i am a proud member), you don't get this type of action in the PDC!!!


Skip to 3-10 where the action begins! Magic darts!

BDO Championships Draws

Mens -

(16)         DARRYL FITTON (ENG)                     v             BENITO van de PAS (NETH)
(1)          STEPHEN BUNTING (ENG)              v             JAMES WILSON (ENG)
(9)          ALAN NORRIS (ENG)                         v             WAYNE WARREN (WAL)
(           WESLEY HARMS (NETH                   v             RUNE DAVID (NOR)
(12)        SCOTT MITCHELL (ENG)                 v              MARK BARILLI (SCOT)
(5)          ROBBIE GREEN (ENG)                     v             CHRISTIAN KIST (NETH)
(13)         STEVE DOUGLAS (ENG)                    v            GARY STONE (SCOT)
(4)          TONY O'SHEA (ENG)                         v              JOHN WALTON  (ENG)
(15)         RICHIE GEORGE (ENG)                    v              DAVE PRINS (ENG)
(2)          MARTIN ADAMS (ENG)                     v             JIMMY HENDRIKS (NETH
(10)         GARY ROBSON (ENG)                       v             GARRY THOMPSON (ENG)
(7)          JAN DEKKER (NETH)                       v             JEFFREY de GRAAF (NETH)
(11)        MARTIN ATKINS (ENG)                     v             JASON CULLEN (REP of IRE)
(6)          ROSS MONTGOMERY (SCOT)       v              PAUL JENNINGS (ENG)
(14)        GEERT de VOS (BELG)                     v              TONY ECCLES (ENG)
(3)          SCOTT WAITES (ENG)                      v              WILLY van de WIEL (NETH)
 
 
WOMEN'S
 
(4) IRINA ARMSTRONG (GER)                          v           SHARON PRINS (NETH)
(1) DETA HEDMAN (ENG)                                   v           LISA ASHTON (ENG)
(3 )JULIE GORE (WAL)                                         v           TRINA GULLIVER (ENG)
(2)  ANASTASIA DOBROMYSLOVA (RUSS) v            LORRAINE FARLAM (ENG)

The much laughed at BDO championships start this weekend, i enjoy watching this one due though as it is the best pub players around, as long as you remember that the majority of these players still hold down a full time job (excluding Tony O'Shea & Martin Adams) then it's bearable. Kist still works as a road worker and Waites is still a full time carpenter!

I feel that Grand Slam runner up Kist & former Grand Slam winner Waites are hard to look past for the mens champs, and Anastasia is a class act in the womens and should win easily.

BDO (whatever that stands for, it looks like an RMD makey-uppy acronym) World Championship my arxe....

I've had a quick peep, about 80% English, 15% Salford Van Hire types and a few pub throwers FFS. A joke of a yoke..

Yeah, I remember that clip, BE. The 'Lakeside nerves' clearly got to him, which is surprising given that he'd obviously drunk a couple of gallons of dutch courage. And Martin Adams, bottler extraordinaire, was little better, barely able to close out a leg against a man who could hardly stand.

For a long time, an amalgamation of the 2 rival bodies seemed impossible, but I have a feeling that it may now be closer than was previously thought.

Thing is boxty, most of the overseas players nowadays throw their hat into the PDC due to the bigger prizes on offer, the BDO (British Darts Org.) are very stubborn when it comes to change as well as the basic running of competition. Sure the young Irish lad Daryl Gurney was thrown out of BDO qualification due to an administration error, he made a mistake in the entry form, then a couple of weeks later he won the NI Open and qualified for the PDC Worlds Prelim round, which he won and made more money in 2 PDC games than his previous 2 BDO visits combined. Not a way to look after your up and coming talent you'll agree?

I kind of agree with you TC, they need to merge in some form. Relations have thawed in recent years with both Sky & BBC now openly talking about the other. They both need each other, the BDO are a feeder organisation and the players use it as a stepping stone, on the whole the top BDO players who make the move do well, the fact that Adrian Lewis is the only PDC World Champ to have never won the BDO title stands to this. The BDO champs must be kept if they do merge, its a reachable goal for us who pound the roads playing in local leagues, perhaps they could change the prize money to £100,000 worth of sponsorship (2 years on the PDC circuit) or something like that.

bald eagle wrote: i stand by my statement that the Lewis/MVG match is the greatest darts match i have ever seen, both players played to a massively high standard throughout the whole match.

How did last night's compare, BE? I only saw the last few legs, but it looked incredible. Lewis is getting back to the player he was 24 months ago, which is great for the game.

I was out last night spending my winnings from the weekends football qualifiers and missed the matches last night, settling down now with a glass of rouge and will report back later!

Looking forward to it as the tournament has been brilliant so far bar 2 hammerings i think!

bald eagle wrote:I was out last night spending my winnings from the weekends football qualifiers and missed the matches last night, settling down now with a glass of rouge and will report back later!

Looking forward to it as the tournament has been brilliant so far bar 2 hammerings i think!

I saw the last 4 legs, and you are in for a treat if the rest of it is anything similar.

Wow what a finish to that game! I don't think it was as good a the worlds game between the 2 but by hell it wasn't far off! The bottle of red went down well too!

Another great game this evening. Lewis threw everything he had at Taylor, but it wasn't enough.

SKY talked about Taylor's average, but it was his checkout % of 51 as opposed to Lewis' 33% that really made the difference. Lewis will take a lot of confidence from how he played, and it is shaping up to be an epic world championship.

I honestly think talking averages now in the PDC is the biggest waste of time ever, their averages are just dreamland stuff! They were questioning James Wades mentality (he suffers from time to time mentally in case any of you don't know) & his form but his average was 96! They were saying he wasn't in the right mind & not playing well yet he was averaging more per 3 darts than most of the PDC players out there & was a good 10 point average about the BDOs best from their Worlds!

Sad for Lewis as i have thawed towards him since he won his first World Champ but hes only 24/25 & has plenty of time to dominate, Taylor is a horrible hoor end of but a class act even yet.....but the gap is closing!

Easily the best tournament i have ever watched for standard across the board, people i wasn't giving a prayer to (Jamie Cavern) played brilliantly, most of the time i was just laughing at the ease they were hitting 100+ scores & checkouts! Roll on the Worlds if this was anything to go by!