Darts

[JBiz]

Tried to find another thread regarding this however not much to go on.

Two reason for starting;

1. One of my favourite tv competitions of recent years starts in ten days - the PDC world championship at Alexander palace. Anybody looking forward? Any betting tips? A player I’ve met a couple of times, Dave Evans is in this year, playing Ross Smith.
 

2. Lockdown this year has meant several hours more than usual on my own practice board. I’ve updated my setup board and light, darts, flights etc - interested in any other BRFCS lads who play for any practice games you might have come up with, any tips or chat on your setup, and we have also made up for the pubs being shut (a little at least) by playing google hangout games and tournaments, always welcome to new players.

[Ewood Ace]

A very open looking tournament this year none of the top players playing at their best of late although MVG's win at the Players Championship could perhaps be an ominous sign that he is peaking at just the right time after a poor year by his standards. I've backed Price to win it at 11/2 and also had a little each way flutter on Gary Anderson at 33/1 he's in no form but he does have a habit of peaking for the Worlds and at those odds I'd have been kicked myself if I didn't back him.

[JBiz]

13 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

A very open looking tournament this year none of the top players playing at their best of late although MVG's win at the Players Championship could perhaps be an ominous sign that he is peaking at just the right time after a poor year by his standards. I've backed Price to win it at 11/2 and also had a little each way flutter on Gary Anderson at 33/1 he's in no form but he does have a habit of peaking for the Worlds and at those odds I'd have been kicked myself if I didn't back him.

That’s a nice tip on Gary - one of my favourite players on his day.

Some others worth a mention who’ve had decent years 20/1+ Nathan Aspinall, Glen Durrant, Devon Peterson and James Wade.

Also Mervyn King who put up a decent fight against MVG is 100/1 and Jackpot Lewis 110....!

 

[Ewood Ace]

53 minutes ago, JBiz said:

That’s a nice tip on Gary - one of my favourite players on his day.

Some others worth a mention who’ve had decent years 20/1+ Nathan Aspinall, Glen Durrant, Devon Peterson and James Wade.

Also Mervyn King who put up a decent fight against MVG is 100/1 and Jackpot Lewis 110....!

A few months ago I'd have backed Durrant but having seen him at the Grand Slam last month, it's hard to see him winning this. Aspinall's a decent bet especially each way, semi finalist the last 2 years. Wade I think is destined to be the best player never to win a World title but he has been playing well lately and looking at his section of the draw you have to fancy him for a quarter final place at the very least.  I'd love to see Lewis back on form on his day he's such a good player to watch.

[JBiz]

Blackburn fan Bradley Brooks is currently playing in this tourney (sky darts)

Very good young player, world youth champion, been playing for a few years - has a PDC tour card. Also repping ARTE ET LABORE on his shirt.

First set of competition he averaged 109! Exciting talent 👀 

Edited December 18, 2020 by JBiz

[Aqualung]

On 07/12/2020 at 19:57, JBiz said:

Tried to find another thread regarding this however not much to go on.

Two reason for starting;

1. One of my favourite tv competitions of recent years starts in ten days - the PDC world championship at Alexander palace. Anybody looking forward? Any betting tips? A player I’ve met a couple of times, Dave Evans is in this year, playing Ross Smith.
 

2. Lockdown this year has meant several hours more than usual on my own practice board. I’ve updated my setup board and light, darts, flights etc - interested in any other BRFCS lads who play for any practice games you might have come up with, any tips or chat on your setup, and we have also made up for the pubs being shut (a little at least) by playing google hangout games and tournaments, always welcome to new players.

Hope Dave does well. I knew him as a tall lanky teenager who tried his hand at cricket with Stacksteads in the Ribblesdale league. Decent bowler but an accident waiting to happen with the bat 🙂🙂

Good luck to him. 

[JBiz]

29 minutes ago, Aqualung said:

Hope Dave does well. I knew him as a tall lanky teenager who tried his hand at cricket with Stacksteads in the Ribblesdale league. Decent bowler but an accident waiting to happen with the bat 🙂🙂

Good luck to him. 

Very unlucky really VDB (nI way attempting to spell the name) came back in style at 2-0 down. 
 

Will be a good learning curve at least, well done Bradley! 

[Hasta]

I've backed Dimitri Van Den Bergh. Already a major winner this year. He's 22/1 because he is in MVG's quarter of the draw,  but MVg has been very beatable this year and if that inflates VDB's price even better.

Edited December 19, 2020 by Hasta

[JBiz]

On 19/12/2020 at 17:42, Hasta said:

I've backed Dimitri Van Den Bergh. Already a major winner this year. He's 22/1 because he is in MVG's quarter of the draw,  but MVg has been very beatable this year and if that inflates VDB's price even better.

Just about to kick off against Paul Lim, who amazingly came back from 2-0 in the first game to beat Luke Humphries

Also Dirk Duijvenbode just put in a brilliant performance to beat Rob cross - who performed well to be fair, a twelve dart leg against the throw at 2-2 and 2-2 in legs was an exhilarating finish!

[Ewood Ace]

On 08/12/2020 at 14:27, Ewood Ace said:

A very open looking tournament this year none of the top players playing at their best of late although MVG's win at the Players Championship could perhaps be an ominous sign that he is peaking at just the right time after a poor year by his standards. I've backed Price to win it at 11/2 and also had a little each way flutter on Gary Anderson at 33/1 he's in no form but he does have a habit of peaking for the Worlds and at those odds I'd have been kicked myself if I didn't back him.

A very profitable tournament for me. Pleased for Price he's had an excellent few years and thoroughly deserves to be World Champion. 

[JBiz]

Masters on ITV starting tonight.

Anyone got any tips?

Ive put a few quid on chizzy at 20/1

[K-Hod]

1 hour ago, JBiz said:

Masters on ITV starting tonight.

Anyone got any tips?

Ive put a few quid on chizzy at 20/1

By ‘a few quid’, do you mean 20p? 😏

[JBiz]

1 minute ago, K-Hod said:

By ‘a few quid’, do you mean 20p? 😏

Ha.

I only ever put pence bets on things with daft odds or just to get bits out of my account!

You can imagine my frustration having 50p on Rothwell to score two at 225/1 and then seeing him subbed immediately after scoring 😂 

[K-Hod]

Been well on board the hype train with this lately, it’s gotten me well and truly hooked, though! What a game.

[Hasta]

12 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

Been well on board the hype train with this lately, it’s gotten me well and truly hooked, though! What a game.

 I’ve always loved it. At the moment, because there is no dominant force, it’s especially engaging.

The Premier League will knock the enthusiasm out of you though. The same 8 players playing each other every week for 4 months with little decided until the last couple of weeks. 😴😴😴

[ScorpioRover]

On 20/01/2024 at 10:46, Hasta said:

 I’ve always loved it. At the moment, because there is no dominant force, it’s especially engaging.

The Premier League will knock the enthusiasm out of you though. The same 8 players playing each other every week for 4 months with little decided until the last couple of weeks. 😴😴😴

yea its a shame its only every Thursday would of been better with more players over 2 nights

[Hasta]

36 minutes ago, ScorpioRover said:

yea its a shame its only every Thursday would of been better with more players over 2 nights

 I don't know what I would do with it. It's a struggle to fit it in the calendar as it is, so I can't see it going over 2 nights. 

As a competition it just seems to go on and on. The early rounds seem to have very little riding on them, but by the time you get to the last weeks you tend to know generally who is through and who is eliminated with maybe 1 or 2 spots up for grabs. So many games feel like dead rubbers and there is little drama.

It's never hidden the fact that the week nights are glorified exhibitions to let fans who won't get tickets for the major tournaments experience live darts, albeit from a distance. It's just very meh compared to most other tournament on TV.

 

[AllRoverAsia]

Bloody hell, that was good.

Luke is on form too.

Come on Nathan!

 

Edited March 14, 2024 by AllRoverAsia

[ABBEY]

Premier league time again ...

Great night's entertainment 

[ABBEY]

another fantastic night ..the asp won btw

[K-Hod]

Been watching the worlds with intent so far, but that match between Aspinall & Littler last night was mint. 
Even my girlfriend was hooked.

Must have been soul destroying for The Asp, to absolutely smash it, then Littler comes back with all those 180s….

[RevidgeBlue]

I'm an avid watcher of the big  televised darts tournaments, and and was really looking forward to Ally Pally this year but have to say I found it very disappointing overall.

It seemed to go on and on forever with countless matches involving players you'd never heard of or had only ever seen on the very odd occasion. Considering how long the tournament goes on for the early games are also an extremely short format which can catch players cold and which this year did for Michael Smith, Rob Cross and my personal favourite Gary Anderson very early doors. Lots of games in the last 16 and 32 involving relatively poor players and very few barnstorming matches - the two semi finals and final being a case in point, two 6-1 matches and 7-3 in the final. I think the tournament would be better if they knocked a round out and  limited it to 64 players and made the opening couple of rounds a little longer.

Delighted though that Luke Littler won, apart from a nervy opening match he was the pick of the crop by far and is the most naturally gifted darts player I've ever seen. I wonder how he can maintain his enthusiasm for it having won the major prize a mere  year into his career but if he could maintain Phil Taylor levels of discipline and focus and current form he could have a good stab at Taylor's record. Huge ask though - if he won one every two years he'd still be nearing 50 by the time he did it.

Surprised to see the negative comments on the Premier League though, I find it compulsive viewing!

Each to their own. It does badly need some fresh faces in the starting line up though and this year I expect we'll get that.

[chaddyrovers]

Littler was totally class and much deserved win

[Hasta]

11 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

I'm an avid watcher of the big  televised darts tournaments, and and was really looking forward to Ally Pally this year but have to say I found it very disappointing overall.

It seemed to go on and on forever with countless matches involving players you'd never heard of or had only ever seen on the very odd occasion. Considering how long the tournament goes on for the early games are also an extremely short format which can catch players cold and which this year did for Michael Smith, Rob Cross and my personal favourite Gary Anderson very early doors. Lots of games in the last 16 and 32 involving relatively poor players and very few barnstorming matches - the two semi finals and final being a case in point, two 6-1 matches and 7-3 in the final. I think the tournament would be better if they knocked a round out and  limited it to 64 players and made the opening couple of rounds a little longer.

Delighted though that Luke Littler won, apart from a nervy opening match he was the pick of the crop by far and is the most naturally gifted darts player I've ever seen. I wonder how he can maintain his enthusiasm for it having won the major prize a mere  year into his career but if he could maintain Phil Taylor levels of discipline and focus and current form he could have a good stab at Taylor's record. Huge ask though - if he won one every two years he'd still be nearing 50 by the time he did it.

Surprised to see the negative comments on the Premier League though, I find it compulsive viewing!

Each to their own. It does badly need some fresh faces in the starting line up though and this year I expect we'll get that.

Disagree with most of this Rev. The thing that makes the Worlds special IS that generally most of the players on the tour get to feature, plus those based abroad who can’t commit to a generally European-based tour get to feature.

Theres a danger that all big tournaments are contested by the same players due to the top 16 qualifying  automatically, and then the money they win in those tournaments keeps them in the top 16. So the others have some difficulty breaking in. That’s also why the premier league is so stale - because it’s the same players every week when there are plenty of other pros that could be involved and hold their own - take Ryan Joyce for example. World number 33 before the tournament started and gave Littler by far his toughest game. 

As for the short format early on, most floor and European tournaments throughout the year are first to 6 legs. In the early stages of the worlds you’ve got to win at least 9 legs to win 3 sets, and nobody would call best of 17 legs a ‘short format’.  The Matchplay at Blackpool is only beat of 19.
 

The reason we didn’t see more of Smith, Cross and Anderson is because they deservedly got knocked out. The interest in darts at youth level is now huge (just look how many kids play in local academies). This has been spreading through the game for years. The quality and standard of people with a tour card now is far deeper than it was even 10 years ago. Most players can throw 100+ averages, the top ones can just do it more consistently. But if you run into a lower ranked player on a ‘good’ day you will see a top performance. Therefore you will get more shocks. Kevin Doets (age 26, world number 41) simply outplayed Michael Smith. Had that been best of 7 or 9 sets he probably would still have won. He then went on to the last 16 where he was very unlucky to lose to Dobey (in a barnstormer).

I do agree it ended as a bit of an anticlimax from the semis on. Once Humphries was out it took the major anticipated clash out of Littler’s half of the draw. Both vanquished semi final opponents (Dobey and Bunting) have a history of getting to the quarters and semis of major tournaments and then underperforming when it matters. That’s what happened and it was almost two walkovers. And then MVG did similar in the final by seeing his checkout percentage which had been averaging 45% all tournament drop to about 25% in the first 4 sets. That saw the game very quickly go away from him.

Littler was outstanding though. Deserved winner.

Back to the Premier League, the problem is it runs for almost 4 months and (a bit like the Champions League), you always feel like there’s little jeopardy until the very end weeks. It’s a glorified exhibition. They are all paid to turn up and there’s no ranking points at stake. You just watchit getting the feeling the players don’t care too much.

Edited January 4 by Hasta

[RevidgeBlue]

14 hours ago, Hasta said:

Disagree with most of this Rev. The thing that makes the Worlds special IS that generally most of the players on the tour get to feature, plus those based abroad who can’t commit to a generally European-based tour get to feature.

Theres a danger that all big tournaments are contested by the same players due to the top 16 qualifying  automatically, and then the money they win in those tournaments keeps them in the top 16. So the others have some difficulty breaking in. That’s also why the premier league is so stale - because it’s the same players every week when there are plenty of other pros that could be involved and hold their own - take Ryan Joyce for example. World number 33 before the tournament started and gave Littler by far his toughest game. 

As for the short format early on, most floor and European tournaments throughout the year are first to 6 legs. In the early stages of the worlds you’ve got to win at least 9 legs to win 3 sets, and nobody would call best of 17 legs a ‘short format’.  The Matchplay at Blackpool is only beat of 19.
 

The reason we didn’t see more of Smith, Cross and Anderson is because they deservedly got knocked out. The interest in darts at youth level is now huge (just look how many kids play in local academies). This has been spreading through the game for years. The quality and standard of people with a tour card now is far deeper than it was even 10 years ago. Most players can throw 100+ averages, the top ones can just do it more consistently. But if you run into a lower ranked player on a ‘good’ day you will see a top performance. Therefore you will get more shocks. Kevin Doets (age 26, world number 41) simply outplayed Michael Smith. Had that been best of 7 or 9 sets he probably would still have won. He then went on to the last 16 where he was very unlucky to lose to Dobey (in a barnstormer).

I do agree it ended as a bit of an anticlimax from the semis on. Once Humphries was out it took the major anticipated clash out of Littler’s half of the draw. Both vanquished semi final opponents (Dobey and Bunting) have a history of getting to the quarters and semis of major tournaments and then underperforming when it matters. That’s what happened and it was almost two walkovers. And then MVG did similar in the final by seeing his checkout percentage which had been averaging 45% all tournament drop to about 25% in the first 4 sets. That saw the game very quickly go away from him.

Littler was outstanding though. Deserved winner.

Back to the Premier League, the problem is it runs for almost 4 months and (a bit like the Champions League), you always feel like there’s little jeopardy until the very end weeks. It’s a glorified exhibition. They are all paid to turn up and there’s no ranking points at stake. You just watchit getting the feeling the players don’t care too much.

I didn't see Doets against Smith when he presumably must have played exceptionally well but thought he was dreadful thereafter despite scraping through a couple of rounds and a prime example of what I was talking about.