lookupsport

The Premiership of darts is a month old now and it appears at this stage that the young guns are going to take some beating.

Phil “The Power” Taylor who until this season had never lost a Premiership match, is now languishing in the bottom half of the table and in danger of not making the final stage, having lot 3 of his first 4 matches.

Once new boy James Wade showed he could be beaten, Taylor seemed to lose that air of invincibility and confidence, and that coupled with the decision to change his darts has led to the 13 times World Champion looking a shadow of his former self.

It’s funny how this happens to great players in any sport. It takes enormous mental strength and dedication to compete regularly at the highest level, and with that comes wealth and opportunity. It is therefore understandable that at some point other interests will take over and the once long hours of practice that are important to sustain excellence start to fall away.

Taylor took his eye off the board so to speak about 18 months ago when his business interests, which will secure his future, took precedence. Once he realised that things had begun to slip he went on a fitness regime, losing weight and upping his practice hours. However, the damage has been done.

Once people realise you are beatable they beat you. Its that simple. It’s like once people know it is physically possible to run a mile in under 4 minutes, many realise they have it within themselves to do it.

Taylor managed to win last years Premiership title on reputation. A number of times he was on the rack and his opponent choked when they realised it was Phil Taylor they were about to beat. He was then able to claw back and either win or force the draw.

Now that reputation has been damaged he will find it hard to regain it. What is most sad is that he has resorted to tinkering to try and get it back - why oh why would you change the type of dart you have used so successfully for your entire career? It’s the sign of a man desperate to find that missing something - that elixir of youth. Unfortunately it doesn’t exist and once you have fallen from the pedastal it is nigh on impossible to climb back on.

There aren’t too many sports that still allow the bloke that goes to the pub with you, to go through a few rounds of qualifying and end up on TV playing and beating some of the worlds top players, while earning the best part of a years salary.  Darts is one of them though.

Last weeks Grand Slam of Dart on ITV4, showed it can still be done.  Unknown Geordie lad Kevin McDine did just that getting all the way to the semi-final, thrashing Jelle Klaasen (a former World Champion) 10-3 in the quarter final. 

It was not only his first time in a major tournament, but his first time playing in front of a huge and boisterous (some would say drunk and a little out of order) crowd, and his first time in TV. But none of this seemed to phase the 22 year old. 

Unfortunately  I missed the semi-final but it sounded like an epic going all the way to the wire with McDine finally cracking under the pressure and miscalculating, hitting a 15 instead of a 10 and leaving himself without a finish. 

Still I’ve seen enough and I’m no expert admittedly, to see that he has the ability to go all the way. His throwing style is very relaxed and he looked totally at home in the atmosphere, so no doubt we will see plenty more of him.

Phil Taylor went on to take the £80k first prize and the title, which will put him in good stead for the PDC World Chamipionship over Christmas and a rematch hopefully with Barney in the final!

I sat down to watch the start of the Las Vegas Desert Classic hoping it would provide more excitement than watching England get thumped in the cricket again.  It was in all honesty big on excitment with most matches in the short race to 6 format with no tie break going down to the wire.  But what a lack of atmosphere provided by the normally loud and brash Yanks.  After the exctiment of the PDC Premiership darts league this year, we are now used to a roudy loud and noisy atmosphere with each decent score or miss greeted with a cheer or groan.  There is more life in a tramps vest than there is at the Mandalay Bay Hotel.  Strange for nation that don’t observe such calm on other sports where such etiquette is the norm.  For example Golf, where every shot is greeted with “get in the hole” and a large whoop, and who can forget the scenes when they won last the Ryder Cup, walking all over the green before the European team had actually putted out.

Anyway the real reason for this comment is for a quiet word about Colin Lloyd.  He has to be currently the most unlucky person in darts.  He has struggled for form in the televised tournaments for a couple of years but in the last 3 months or so has finally knuckled down, put the work in and hit some form.  But when he does he comes up against a player who in just for the occasion plays out of skin.

In the Premier League earlier this year he lost to Terry Jenkins despite hitting an average of 104.  Last night he face the little know (comparitively) Wes Newton, who just happens to feel most at home in Vegas.  Lloyd finished with a respectable average of 97 and checkout stats of over 60%, stats which on the night would have beaten pretty much everybody else, including Dudbridge, who beat World number one Phil Taylor.  Unfortunatley for Lloyd though Newton was in inspired form and ran out a 6-3 winner.  It said it all when in the 7th leg, Newton shooting for 90 made a mess with his first dart and hit a single 1, but then hit treble 19 and double 16 to finish.  Lloyd just turned away and afforded himself a wry smile. 

I am now looking forward to seeing how it might pan out, with some big names falling at the first hurdle and an open draw.  There are bound to be some great matches over the next few days, lets just hope the American crowd join in.

Phil The Power Taylor extended his unbeaten run in the PDC Premiership to 42 matches with an 8-5 win over World Champion Raymond van Barneveld. 

In a match which has been hyped ever since they met earlier in the season, Taylor never really looked in trouble although the error of victory was slim.  It sounds like a contradiction in terms but Barney had a dart at a double in the first 2 legs, missing by the narrowest of margins but losing both.  That’s how much pressue Taylor puts on his opponents.  You only get one chance and if you don’t take it you get punished.

Barney himself wasn’t playing badly averaging a 109, but went into the break 4-2 down.  When they met earlier in the season he led 5-1 at the half way stage, but Taylor came back with the best 8 legs I have ever seen averaging 115 to take 7 of them and win the match 8-6.  Barney staged a mini comeback of his own this time, levelling the match at 4-4, but then Taylor went into another gear and rattled off 3 legs on the trot to enure the draw. before going on to win.

The big question is can anybody stop Taylor.  Over recent weeks it would appear that Barney is the only one with the game to do it, and he has to bring his best game to the Oche to stand even a chance.  He would almost certainly have beaten anybody else last night. Taylor himself said its like Chelsea and Manchester United - those two are way better than anybody else and the rest are playing catch up.  Harsh words but fair.  Certainly since losing his world title, Taylor is more determined that ever to win win win.  On this performance  it will take him to have an extraordinarily bad day or soembody else to play out of their skins to beat him.  It all makes for great entertainment though, as the longer he goes unbeaten the more the tension builds…

Well the 888.com World Snooker Championship is upon us already, although for the first time in 27 years without the legend Whirlwind Jimmy White, who failed to qualify. 

It seems like it was just last month that Graham Dott ground out a victory over Peter Ebdon.  Like so many former Champions, he has fallen already to the crucible curse, losing in the first round to fellow Scot Ian McCulloch.  Clearly devastated Dott said that the result had “ruined his year”, although he can have no complaints with the result, having played some of the worst snooker of his professional career.

Rocket Ronnie looks set to send Ding packing having stormed to an 8-1 lead.  If body language is anything to go by Ding was beaten mentally after the first 2 frames.  (Perhaps he has memories of the masters still resonating in his mind).  The drama of the first round though was saved for the match between veterans John Parrot and Steve Davis.

In a nail biting match Davis came back from 6-1 down to take Parrot to a deciding frame.  In a nervy frame riddled with mistakes, Parrot eventually won, with Davis unfortunately sinking the white off of an attempted pot to give Parrot the chance he needed.  An interesting point came up during the final frame though.

Parrot had only the black to aim at and no clear safety shot on with a red hanging over a corner pocket.  A debate immediately sprang up between Terry Griffiths and Willie Thorne with Thorn suggesting that Parrot deliberately play the black onto the red conceding the 7 points but leaving the white safe.  Griffiths seem to think this could be called a deliberate foul and a miss for unsportsmanlike conduct.  Parrot tried it nervetheless and whether by accident or design the red failed to drop.  The referee would have faced a difficult decision had it gone in.  Davis carefully side-stepped the issue by saying it could have been deemed unsporting, but was a mute point as it hadn’t gone it. 

I wonder if it would have ruined a friendship - either way it could have led to an interesting atmosphere in the commentary box later in the tournament!

For a list of UK Snooker shops visit Lookupsport.com

I tuned in to the final of the BDO “World” Championship to watch Martin Walsh the “world” number one up against the qualifier Phil Nixon.  Walsh, who is number one within the BDO rankings, despite never having won the World Championship, (I can only assume thanks to Barneveld changing allegiance).  Having taken a 6-0 lead, Adams then managed to lose the next 6 sets, missing a number of darts to finish Nixon off.  Although great entertainment, it has to call into question the future of the BDO as mentioned in a previous blog here. 

With Andy Fordham struggling with his health still, it’s no wonder that Walsh has pledged his allegiance to the BDO - it’s easy money and a guaranteed number one spot for a player who would struggle to make the top 5 and probably the top 10 of the PDC rankings. 

The BDO were dealt another blow this week with 3 more players moving across to the PDC, and Mervyn King being linked with a move as well.  The writing is on the wall and I give it 2 years maximum before the BDO collapses.

The downside to not having Sky Sports on Monday night was that I missed the final of the PDC Darts Championship.  And what a match to miss.  It had everything from 180 scores, a maximum 170 checkout, and the excitement and tension of a tie break sudden death finish.  It finally looks like The Power finally has some competition with Barney staging a remarkable comback.  Fair play to him though as my understanding is that he encouraged Barney to make the move across.  Does this spell the end of the BDO though?  It will only take another one or two stars to make the move to the PDC and the BDO would surely be forced to merge or face collapse.  I’m not sure there is room for 2 organisations in the sport anyway so it might not be a bad thing, although I’m sure there would be huge resistance in some quarters!

What on earth is going on with Rocket Ronnie.  Known to be a a little volatile he walked out of his quarter final match yesterday conceding after missing a red, while already trailing 4-1.  As the match was best of 17, there was still a lot of snooker left to play.  All he did was confound Stephen Hendry his opponent and upset his army of fans who had paid good money to see him.

Ronnie is undoubtedly a genius but as with many he has a flaw in his make up somewhere - put him in the category as George Best, Paul Gascoigne et al unfortunately.  If he really is not enjoying the game he should take some time out as John Parrot suggests.  Although contrite over the incidence he can’t let the game, his fans or himself down like that again.

Ok.  So we seem incapable of beating the Australians at Cricket, but who says we can’t beat the Amercians at their own game of 9 ball pool.  Obviously when I say “we” I mean “Europe”.  The Mosconi Cup is the Ryder Cup of 9 Ball Pool and is a quick fire and exciting version of Englsih 8 ball pool.  For those of you that haven’t seen it before it’s well worth tuning in for with the tournament starting today.  The UK are represented by Imran Majid currently ranked 3 in Europe and making his Mosconi Cup debut.  In the 12 year history of this event, Europe have only won it twice, but we could do with some good news this side of the Atlantic!

I don’t often sit down and watch darts, but last night I did and have to say that it was one of the best night’s sport I’ve seen for ages. 

The two most gripping games were good for completely different reasons.  Firstly, the local qualifier Anto McCracken took on and beat the 14th Seed Mark Walsh.  Not a game of high quality, with Walsh sadly out of sorts, and McCracken erratic, but what an atmosphere generated by the local partisan crowd!  Edge of the seat stuff right down to the end, because both were missing doubles and it was never over till it was over. 

Then a match of the highest quality when World No 1 Colin Llyod played veteran Bob Anderson.  Lloyd started like and express train and looked odds on to win, but Anderson came back hard and fast - either player would have won any other match that night easily with Anderson averaging 103 (with a double required to start).  The fact that he would have beaten anybody else last night will be small consolation for Lloyd having now lost on 3 televised tournaments in the first round.  But well played Bob and roll on Wednesday night when he plays McCracken, although Anto will have to play a lot better if he doesn’t want the dream to end!

Hats off to Sky for their coverage and no wonder the Premier League Darts league nights are sold out within hours with the atmosphere and excitement the events generate these days.