William Hill PDC World Championship

Posted: 17.12.14 in Tournament Analysis Blog category

The first of the World Darts Championships start on Thursday!

Yes I know you know, The PDC World Championships start Thursday! Sky has gone into hype overdrive this year, my twitter feed has been bombarded with reminders and trips down memory lane that coincide with how many days there are to the tournament! Oh yes, 9 days to go and the 9 darters were produced. The Dean Winstanley one is worth remembering of course, never has taking one leg of darts in the middle of the game been celebrated like that (and probably never will be again). It is even more special as Deano went on to lose the match!

Sky has also rebranded Sky Sports 3 as the Sky Sports Darts Channel. All the action will be covered as well as bits of all the darts content Sky have built up during their ground breaking reign as the most prolific broadcaster of darts ever. Even though we tease them a bit for their exuberant self -promotion as well as darts promotion overall, Sky’s input (and the PDC’s of course) has improved darts in many, many ways!

So, what is going to happen in 2015? Taylor has dipped in and out of form this year and MVG is on a bad run when you consider his very high standards. The Power came bouncing back from being written off once again with a victory in Wolverhampton at the Grand Slam in November. Later that month Phil was beaten by (the eventual winner) Gary Anderson in the 1/4 finals of the Players Championships.

Taylor has also gone on record discussing his health kick and his juice diet which he claims has boosted his energy levels which has allowed him to compete at the top at age 54. More controversially he demands that he gets the kick off times to games that suit him and does not want any late games in his schedule. Hmmm, “player power” is not always a good thing!

MVG has suffered a dip and you have to go back to Muelheim in October to find his last tournament win. MVG was beaten by Wade in the Unibet Masters, Kim Huybrechts at the Grand Slam and The Bull at the Players Championships.

The bookies still fancy one of them to win it though: Phil Taylor is a not very juicy 2/1 and MVG a best price 11/4. What about the other contenders?

Adrian Lewis has had a classic Lewis season, one minute brilliant, the next, not! Jackpot is 11/1. Ahead of Lewis in the betting is Gary Anderson. Off the back of his Players Championships he is priced at 6/1. Do any of these appeal? No, didn’t think so. Ando will have his backers mind, but he’s not for me at that price.

James Wade at 16/1 is interesting.  He has had his issues, dealt with them and he has started to look back to his best. He has even announced he is planning to get married! The reigning Lakeside BDO World Professional Darts Champion Stephen Bunting is available at 22/1 if you shop around too. Bunty has adapted well to the PDC and can go on a run here. Another hitch is that Wade and Bunting will clash in the 2^nd round if they both win their openers.

In the top half of the draw the path for an outsider to make progress looks slightly less hazardous. Yes MVG and Anderson are in the top half but if one of them becomes a casualty, the likes of Chizzy, last year’s finalist Snakebite, The Thorn, Barney, Terry Jenkins are all available at 40/1 or more!

I like the look of Peter Wright at 40/1. He got to the final last year, yes his season has been erratic but he is a classy player and he should not fear anyone (other than Anderson) in his section of the draw.

Other stand outs are Keegan Brown at 150/1! Got to be worth an Isle of Wight pound on that! Another stand out for the wrong reason is Mark Webster- 750/1, his star needs to rise again!

So rather than mess about with short price favourites I am going for the rollercoaster ride of The Machine in the bottom half of the draw and Snakebite in the top!

We will of course be following all the action here and we will look at the first few days action on Thursday!

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