Power Can Land 2011 World Matchplay

Despite no longer being the dominant player in the world of darts, the Bookmakers still believe that defending champion, Phil Taylor, is the man to beat at this year’s Stan James World Match-play Championship which gets underway at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool this weekend.

Taylor in fact has won this tournament nine times in the last 11 years and also won it twice more in the 90’s which is why he is the 11/8 favourite in the Darts Odds and why also most darts followers believe that this tournament is his exclusively.

The two times he was beaten in the last 11 years in this competition came in 2005 and 2007 when he actually never made the final, but the two players who got the better of him in those matches, John Part and Terry Jenkins failed to go on and win the tournament.

The reason why pundits believe that "The Power" is no longer the dominant force is simply because he has failed to win a major championship for almost a year. In that same period several other players have emerged including new world champion, Adrian Lewis and Premier League winner, Gary Anderson. Add the names of Wade and Australian number one, Simon Whitlock and former world champion, Mark Webster then it is easy to see why Taylor has struggled to maintain his number one status.

As Taylor struggles so does his former nemesis, Raymond Van Barneveld, who is without a win in big tournaments for far longer than Taylor. His best finish at the Winter Gardens in fact came 12 months ago where he suffered a 12-18 defeat at the hands of Taylor and has only flattered to deceive at best since.

Although he remains a crowd favourite, ‘Barney’ will do well to get even close to the final this year as he has been given a very tricky draw. He has a difficult first round opponent in Steve Brown which should he win he is then likely to face Paul Nicholson and Wade in rounds two and three.

Much of the smart money this year has been going on Premier League champion, Gary Anderson who is currently a good value bet still at 13/2. Although he cannot boast consistently good form in this tournament in the past, it is only been over the last 18 months or so that the Scot has arrived at the elite end of darts and has proven that he can grab opportunities such as this with both hands. If he comes to Blackpool in top form then he will be extremely hard to beat.

10/1 shot Lewis proved that he has the temperament for the big time when he defeated Anderson in the world championship final back in January and although his consistency has never been one of his strong points he is still a big danger to Taylor.

For two or three years Taylor saw Wade as his chief rival and the two have met in several finals in the past. However, Wade much like Lewis suffers from inconsistency and is prone to putting in a bad performance in the early part of a tournament. Should he however get through to the third round and overcome ‘Barney’ he is in with as good a chance as any. He too can be backed at 10/1 with sponsors, Stan James.

Despite the poorish run of form, Taylor has proven time and time again that he is the man to beat in the ‘big ones’. He is defending the title in one of his favourite events and is well motivated to prove to the chasing pack of rivals that they will need to be at their absolute best to beat him. He also knows that even that might not be enough if he turns up in Blackpool in the form he was in 18 months ago.

Premier League Darts Week Two: Taylor looks for Revenge against Webster

Phil Taylor is an incredible talent, no sooner had he lost his world crown to his protégé Adrian Lewis he was being pronounced the winner of the prestigious Players Championship just at the Doncaster Dome a few weeks later. While Taylor was winning the tournament for the second time in the three years since its inception, Lewis floundered, knocked out in the first round by former BDO World Champion, Steve Beaton in his first competitive match since being crowned world champion in January. Taylor defeated world final runner up, Gary Anderson 13-12 in an epic final, the Scot proving that he has lost none of his form since losing to Lewis in the World Final at the ‘Ally Pally’ six weeks ago.

The scene was set therefore for the two to meet on opening night in the hugely popular Premier League of Darts at O2 Arena in London last week, a title that Taylor has won five times from the six years it has been played and who went totally unbeaten last year, winning twelve and drawing two of his fourteen league matches. On Play-Off night he dispatched Mervyn King 8-1 in the semi finals and then won the final 10-8 against James Wade, scoring two nine dart finishes in the process. With such a record it was surely too much for even the new world champion to cope with.

However, 26 year old Lewis appeared to cast aside reputations, clearly not letting Taylor’s pedigree in the tournament faze him in any way and proceeded to do a demolition job on Taylor running out an 8-2 winner, inflicting the heaviest defeat on Taylor in this competition that he has ever known. Lewis’s victory immediately raised question marks concerning Taylor’s fallibility particular from those with short memories who had already forgotten Taylor’s Players Championship win.

Taylor like any true champion, took the defeat like the champion that he is admitting that he played second string to Lewis who clearly had rekindled the form he showed to win the World Crown and had, very professionally forgotten his poor display in Doncaster.

After one round then the Premier Darts League looks strange reading with Phi Taylor’s name at the bottom for the first time ever. He will not be there for long however, that is for certain. That said he next faces the man who dumped him out of the world championship, Mark Webster, who comes into the match, having beaten James Wade 8-3 in his first ever Premier League match last week. This week’s matches take place at the Capital FM Arena in Nottingham. Should Webster win, particularly if wins in the same emphatic style as Lewis achieved last week, then it would certainly ‘put the cat amongst the pigeons’ and possibly persuade the Bookmakers to remove Taylor from the top of the Premier Darts League betting.

In the other three matches Simon Whitlock takes on Raymond Van Barneveld, who both last week, Whitlock 5-8 to Anderson and ‘Barny’ 6-8 to outsider, Terry Jenkins. Lewis will take on 2009 Premier League champion and runner up last year, Wade, while Anderson is the favourite, as short as 4/9 with Victor Chandler to win against Jenkins.

2011 PDC World Darts Championship – Lewis Wins Magnificent Tournament

“Out with the old and in with new” is a traditional New Year cliché which could have particular significance this year as Adrian Lewis became the youngest ever PDC champion, after beating Scot, Gary Anderson by 7-5 in the final.

His victory was completely deserved and just reward for a young man who has improved significantly over the last 12 months, particularly with his accuracy and match focus which should he maintain or even improve upon would keep him at the ‘top of the tungsten tree’ for many years to come.

Lewis arrived in the final by virtue of four ultra impressive victories in the first four rounds, where he dropped only four sets. His first real test therefore did not come until his semi final against 2008 BDO Champion, Mark Webster, the man who had knocked out Lewis’s mentor, the legendary 15 time champion, Phil Taylor and who was the favourite to do the same to Lewis. However, ‘Adey’ was having none of it; remaining in command of the match throughout finally winning 6-4 to go through to meet Anderson in the final.

The two finalists had clearly earned the right to be called the best two players on the tournament this time around, Anderson if anything however was playing slightly more awesomely than Lewis, which is why he had been made the favourite to become the first Scots PDC World Champion.

However the explosive first set soon set the ‘Ally Pally’ alight with both men going at it, scoring heavily trading blow by blow, but it was Lewis, who achieved what both men had threatened to do at various times during the tournament who came up with a ‘9 darter’ which sent the crowd into a complete frenzy; It was the first ever 9 dart finish recorded in a PDC World Final.

Lewis then took the second set and never really looked in serious trouble from that moment, but much credit must be paid to the Scot who was forced to play ‘catch up’ and did so on three occasions, before finally conceding defeat.

So where does this result leave the likes of Taylor, the man who has stuck around long enough to make sure that the world of darts has a big future and does it leave the world or darts betting on its head in 2011? Part of the Taylor legacy in fact is Lewis himself; it was Taylor who encouraged him at the outset, making Lewis his protégé after coaching him at his pub in their home town of Stoke on Trent. It is someone ironic therefore to see his crown taken by his discovery, but will it be even more ironic to see Taylor come back in 2012 and retrieve it. After all Taylor has done nothing other than achieve the impossible after the impossible – has he got more impossible left in him?

Lewis’s win has to be acknowledged as a ‘blessing’ in many respects as it has shown youngsters and even those who thought they were ‘has beens’ the way forward once again. The win has taken him to number two behind Taylor in the world rankings, but ahead of James Wade, the man thought most likely to succeed Taylor at the top, as well as five time world champion, Van Barneveld. The win has also confirmed him as one of the eight men who will contest the Premier League this year, along with Taylor, Wade and Anderson, the other four will be selected on a wildcard basis, but should include, Van Barneveld, Whitlock, Webster and Terry Jenkins. Thanks to Lewis 2011 has been set up as potentially the best darting year in history

Can anyone switch off the Power in the PDC World Championship?

It has to be said that Sky Sports have done a wonderful job promoting and developing a sport that has one man who dominates it so profoundly. The sport of course is darts and the man is the phenomenon known as Phil ‘the Power’ Taylor.

Taylor holds so many records that it will be almost impossible for any other player to equal or even come to close to equalling. With 15 world titles to his name and no sign of letting up, Taylor has become a living legend in a sport that grows continually and has become increasingly more lucrative for the top players. Taylor in fact has become the first darts millionaire and now commands plenty of extra revenue from TV appearances and media interest in general.

Taylor’s road to darts stardom began earnestly in 1988, when he selected to play for his County after initiating his interest in the sport at his local pub, the Crafty Cockney, owned by none other than Eric Bristow, who had by that time been crowned world darts champion five times.

Bristow, clearly spotting the potential of Taylor in those early years decided to sponsor him, while at the same time encouraging him to take the sport up professionally on a full time basis. Little did Bristow realise that it would be he that was on the receiving end of Taylor’s first world championship triumph in 1990, when the newcomer beat his mentor by six sets to one. Taylor showed even more of his potential by winning a host of tournaments in 1990, which included winning the prestigious Winmau Masters.

1991 however proved to be a much leaner year, where he lost his world championship to Dennis Priestley in the quarter final and failed to live up to past performances. He soon realised that with more dedicated practice he could soon be at the top again, proving this the following year when winning the world crown for a second time, this time defeating Mike Gregory in the final.

The well reported split in organised darts took place in 1993, which led to the creation of the World Darts Council (WDC) later becoming the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) which attracted many of the top players who had previously been, like Taylor with British Darts Organisation (BDO). However, the darts politics of that time ruled that the PDC were only able to set up their own version of the world championship in 1994, which, with much support from Sky Sports, has grown considerably more quickly and financially than the BDO.

It is during his time with the PDC that Taylor has established himself as the player he is today, his record is simply staggering. Although he lost the inaugural final to Priestley, he has gone on to win the PDC title 13 times, including eight consecutively between 1995-2002, he was also runner up in 2003, where he lost to John Part and in 2007 where he was beaten by Raymond Van Barneveld. In fact the only year that Taylor failed to make the PDC world final was in 2008, when Part won it for a second time beating the little known Kirk Shepherd in the final. Just to prove to the darts world that he was not finished, Taylor has bounced back winning the title for the last two years, with wins over Van Barneveld in 2009 and Simon Whitlock earlier this year.

In addition to his world crowns, Taylor has won the World Matchplay 11 times, the World Grand Prix, 9 times, the Grand Slam of darts , 3 times. The Darts Premier League, 5 times, the Desert Classic, 5 times, European Championship, 3 times, UK Open, 4 times, US Open, 4 times, as well as host of Players Championships up and down the country, plus a multitude of international events, which has seen him play his sport all over the world.

If all that is not enough, he holds the record of 9 for the largest amount of 9 dart finishes, which includes two in the 2010 Premier Darts League final against James Wade.

The worrying thing for the other players on the PDC circuit is the fact that Taylor seems to be getting better as each year goes by. He is now aged 50, which is considerably older than most of his leading rivals and unless he suffers from an abrupt loss in form, sometime very soon, then there is no chance that any younger players coming through the ranks will get anywhere near to his astonishing achievements.

The darts odds on Taylor winning a 16^th world championship at Alexander Palace over Christmas see the Power as the 8/15 favourite with Paddy Power to win, suggesting just how big a task is at hand for all on comers, the best of which according to the odds is James wade at 8/1 and the remaining players are all 16/1 or bigger to cause what would be a big upset!