The World Grand Prix - Night 4

Posted: 06.10.11 in Tournament Analysis Blog category

Night 4 and we have "shifty" looking blokes wandering around the stage, a not so smart sit down protest and inflatable palm trees.

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The Welsh Wanderer

Richie Burnett moved “shiftily” into the quarter finals with a fine win over Dennis Ovens last night. Richie has the demeanour of someone who is up to no good, he looks nervous and edgy. If a film director wanted someone to play the part of a look-out man for a gang blagging security vans then Richie would be well advised to go along to the audition. However, looks are deceiving and “no good” was the last thing on anyone’s mind after watching the Red Dragon sponsored star play Dennis Ovens last night.

Richie first came to my professional attention when I was working with AJ Urmston-Toft during Anthony's short career at the PDC. I would spend my time watching as many games as I could and making notes about other player’s habits or in Richie’s case idiosyncrasies. I wanted to ensure AJ had no surprises when it came to knowledge of the opposition.

I noticed Burnett had a habit of wandering off the oche, not just to the back of the oche he was on but on a couple of occasions he was behind the oche one or two rows down! His opponent did seem surprised to finish his throw and to turn around and discover that “The Prince of Wales” was a mere blot on the horizon moving towards the oche from the outfield!

He did try and set off on a “walkabout” last night but was contained by the borders of the stage. It didn’t stop him marching proudly into the quarter finals and another step closer to the big bag of swag and a “Hollywood” ending to his incredible story.

Intelligent, Clever But What About Smart?

Paul Nicholson is an intelligent guy. He is articulate and a deep thinker about all things darts. He has a team behind him. They are called “Team Nicholson”. I do not know who is involved or what their roles are. I would envisage though that there is a very clever marketing man involved somewhere such has been the hype surrounding Paul and the clever way they have “bullied” the PDC into giving him a place in The Premier League. It must be a done deal as “The Power” started his Premier league mind games during his interview last night “advising” Paul on what to do.

This intelligent and clever team came up with a plan to put off The Power last night. To play mind games on the king of mind games! Nicholson sat down on the stage as “The Power” went through his walk on ritual. The result: a 3:0 drubbing. Not very smart that!

Pot, Kettle, Black

Paul Nicholson got ticked off by Wayne Mardle last night for his eccentric decision to sit out “The Power`s” walk on. Hmmm, lest we forget Wayne’s eccentric and bizarre arrivals to the oche? At least Paul’s attempt to derail Phil Taylor didn’t expend any energy. Wayne continued his inflatable palm tree tossing and mad dance routine despite them having an adverse affect on the opening leg of every match he played whilst using his madcap entrance.

It reminded me of a “retro” blog, from October 2009 when I was corresponding with Sid and I was still at UWIC on the Performance Analysis of Sport course. I pointed out to Sid the adverse affect this was having on Mardle which kick started an amusing chain of events.

Here is Sid’s blog entry from the Sky Sports website:

Two things happened after that. Sid told Mardle and Rod Harrington about the findings. Wayne tried walking on calmly and won the first leg against The Power. Rod advised punters, live on Sky Sports to back Mardle to lose the first leg! As for me, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry!

Get well soon Sid! 

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