William Hill World Championship Day 3

Posted: 20.12.15 in Tournament Analysis Blog category

Taylor talks Boll****! Literally! What a day and night.

William Hill World Championship Day 3

Saturday was another fascinating day and night with a spectacular finish. The Power staggered up to the interview room and talked boll****, literally! He has been working them off you see (his boll****), and his socks, because he is sick of MVG winning everything and the stage is too close. Oh yes it’s too hot as well. Also, he has changed his darts, but wouldn’t commit as to whether we would see them for his next game. Besides that Taylor is looking every inch the William Hill World Champion!

Look At It From This Angle

I was lucky enough to be at the Ally Pally on Friday. I sat there for a while trying to figure out why the arena looked different from my past visit a few years before. Our host, Graham, from Unicorn darts explained that the stage had been turned 90’ to accommodate more fans.

The “downside” of this is that the stage is shorter and the fans closer. Forget The Power moaning though, this is a good thing! This is the view when you first walk in.

Great isn’t it? It’s a win/win from what I saw, more tickets for the fans, more revenue for the sport and a much better viewing experience for everyone in there.

Shhh, Keep This Quiet

I had a man on the inside on Friday! The word was that both Justin Pipe and John Henderson were convinced that the oche in the players' practice area had been measured incorrectly and both claimed that “it was at least half an inch out”. They both came to the stage with this niggling them and what happened? Yep, they both lost. Definitely a lesson there in only concerning yourself with things you can control and not taking excess baggage up to the oche.

Silence Is Golden

One of the big differences about being at an event as opposed to watching it on TV is that you can’t hear the commentators or pundits! The WIFI at the Palace is pretty poor so even trying to see what the word is on Twitter can be tricky.

We were sitting a few rows behind the family and friends and Justin Pipe had a small entourage supporting him. After his woeful display he left the stage only to stop and lob his darts case to one of his group. At the time I wondered about the significance of this. Was that what he always did, offload his case whilst he conducted any interviews or completed any other commitments? Or did it have a deeper significance.

It was not until the next day that I found out that he had said in an interview that he was considering his future. I think to threaten to pack in darts is over the top. He has hit the bottom, instead of giving up this is his chance to try something new. New darts and a new action-things can’t get any worse so this is his chance to at least not look back in a few years and say “what if”.

Tricky Ricky

A quick word about Ricky Evans – Brilliant!

Sunday December 20
Afternoon Session (1pm-5pm) 
Michael Rasztovits (6/4) v Rob Szabo (3/5) (P)
Andy Hamilton (8/11) v Joe Murnan (13/10)
Mensur Suljovic (1/6) v Jermaine Wattimena (6/1)
Jamie Caven (1/5) v Rasztovits/Szabo (9/2)

Evening Session (7pm-11pm) 
Aleksandr Oreshkin (21/10) v Paul Lim (6/13)  (P)
Stephen Bunting (2/7) v Jyhan Artut (10/3)
Raymond van Barneveld (1/6) v Dirk van Duijvenbode (5/1)
Mervyn King (1/6) v Oreshkin/Lim (5/1)

Tips

Ian White was pretty awful yesterday although Dimitri Van den Bergh was excellent. White never really got going and he scuppered our 180 bet.

I did suggest I fancied opposing Whitlock and have another old favourite in my sights today. I am backing Joe Murnan to KO The Hammer at 13/10. 

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