PDC World Championships Night 5

Posted: 22.12.14 in Tournament Analysis Blog category

It was another fascinating day at the Ally Pally and a great night ahead!

This really is the World Championship that keeps on giving! Not all of it positive, but the darting yin and yang has made for compelling viewing. I was reading some film reviews in a spare moment between watching the darts yesterday and found a new term I liked, “an ego bath”!

Some film critic was slating a Hollywood movie and used the expression ego bath to describe an awful movie that was only made to promote the star playing the main role. Now, I don’t know if Paul Nicholson knows this expression but he certainly gave the impression that he thought that perhaps the PDC World Championships had been staged for his benefit.

After losing 3:2 to Benito Van de Pas in the opening game he exited the stage, dramatically leaving his new black Winmau darts on the stage table. He then claimed that at the end of the match it felt like he had thrown his last ever dart! The image transformation that Nico has been craving has at least worked, he has gone from a “bad boy” dart player to a prima donna dart player!

On a performance level it would be a tragedy if Nico packed in darts. He has the skill to become a top dart player (in fact he is already a top dart player), no question about that, isn’t there an expression about 90% of darts being in your head, in Nico’s case it seems this is true.

We then had Chizzy who, bless him, changed his darts just as he was about to go on stage and suffered the most horrendous batch of bounce outs and fall outs ever witnessed on a darts stage. The stage was swimming in lost points by the end of the game.

He came under fierce cross examination in his interview after the game. The interviewer (or was it someone tucked away in the depths of the Ally Pally via an earpiece) managed to get Chizzy to admit that it was all his fault for not sharpening up his points before the match, hmm, a bit of sponsorship protection going on I think there.

I will send Chizzy one of our best selling point sharpeners, the slydart sharpener,so he is ready to go in round 2!

Wayne Mardle didn’t hold back, and good for him not toeing the party line, transparency is a vital ingredient for the integrity of any organisation and he said what everyone was really thinking that something has to be done about the boards. Yes, a player does have a responsibility to ensure his kit is primed for a match and Chizzy’s opponent didn’t suffer in the same way so it is not a clear cut case. However, there have been way too many bounce outs for this to be swept under the Ally Pally stage.

Monday December 22 Matches and Odds:
7.10pm Jamie Caven (1/5) v Jason Hogg (4/1)
8.15pm Nolan Arendse (4/6) v Alex Hon (13/10)
9.00pm Michael Smith (1/3) v Mensur Suljovic (11/4)    
10.00pm Raymond van Barneveld (1/4) v Rowby-John Rodriguez (4/1)
11.00pm Brendan Dolan (1/7) v Nolan Arendse/Alex Hon  (9/2)

Another great night ahead. Michael Smith v Mensur Suljovic should be interesting. On paper it should be a routine win for Smith but his suspect temperament will be tested by the “old hand” Mensur. Barney v Rowby-John should be a good game too. Our friends at Global Darts interviewed Rodriguez recently, the interview is here.

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