Instead of making one each time a tournament comes a long, thought I'd make a general darts thread for occasional chat about the goings on in the dart world when appropriate xAnyone watching the world matchplay? Semi finals is looking like Van Gerwen v Whitlock and Taylor v Anderson. Cracking pair of games tbf. These two QFs tonight have been very dissapointing tbh though, Anderson steam rolled Lewis 16-8 and Taylor is currently 14-6 up on Newton.
Missed tonight's but watched quite a bit so far. Great pair of matches last night with Wade/Whitlock and van Gerwen/Chisnall. I assume Anderson continued his great form. I hope he doesn't shit the bed against Taylor.
Anderson only averaged 98/99 and was up against a very below par Lewis. Taylor and MVG will both scrape through 17-13/14/15 I would imagine, would set up some final.
Anderson will bottle it as he always does, sadly. Whitlock will fall apart against Van Gerwen. As he normally does. Van Gerwen vs Taylor final. Van Gerwen to beat Taylor 18-15. Every couple of tournaments Anderson looks fantastic and beats big names then he struggles/breaks down once he gets to a quarter final. I always used to think that Whitlock was a fantastic player, but when I watch him now. As harsh as it sounds, I find myself just think average. He is a player that will generally get through the first couple of rounds, then Out, to someone who again is pretty average. Ie. Newton, White, Wright etc.
Cause hes a nob?! Remember watching a interview with him on TV and he was on about how hes taking the sport seriously and he had been to the gym to 'improve his game'... You throw a dart FFS.
That's a great average in any format, but in best of 31 legs it's very impressive. Don't let these Sky Sports mongs fool you with their 'get a hundred average or don't turn up' nonsense. Sadly, I agree, this is how I see it going. Taylor looks a riiiiight prick in that cap. And he wears it like a ****ing ned.
Yeah I know but it won't be good enough to beat Taylor, especially as this is basically "his tournament", as he's undefeated in it for the last 7 or 8 years or so. On the subject of the sky sports pundits does anyone else think Wayne Mardle is a f*cking idiot?
It depends, maybe not if Taylor plays his top game, but averages are just a guideline really. The thing with them is, let's say you have a shocking leg or two on the opponent's throw.. it drags the average right down, but it's basically just a couple of legs lost against the throw. A couple of solid legs with throw to hold and it's no big deal, though the average won't look so good. Then it has to be considered that a 13-darter is ultimately no better than a 15-darter, a 16-darter is no better than an 18-darter, etc. Yet the differences in numbers that they produce is quite startling. Then say you miss a dart at D4 for the leg, and the opponent punishes you. Well the average isn't gonna be all that different whether 8 is scored or it isn't, but it could be a big miss if it loses an important leg. Taking the big/important shots out in the big moments is what wins these games, not having the bigger average, and it's been shown time and time again, yet Sky still act so shocked when someone with 2-3 points less in the average is winning. Happens all the time. Obviously this is all within reason and there's no way someone with a 105 average is gonna lose to someone with 85 or whatever. It's a useful guideline that should definitely be reported, but the way they obsess over them is probably a way of posturing against the BDO, the most concrete way that they can say "look how shit they are compared to us". Mardle's a clown of course, but I think he and Part make the best commentary team. Stuart Pyke and Nigel Pearson should really be ****ed off. Gotta say, Whitlock's looked like a different guy so far this week and played very well.
Yeah I get all that, averages don't tell the full story. MVG was just too good for Whitlock tonight unfortunately, looks like it will be the same story with Phil and Gary. Cracking game though tbf, Taylor will just edge it out 17-14 unfortunately. Will set up some final though!
There's bound to have been some others but off the top of my head I can't think of a pair of matches where the the closeness and consistency of the matches has been so high.
Shame it didn't go to sudden death. The tournament as a whole has been great from what I've seen. Why is the daft prick name-dropping Tyson Fury ffs?! It's a bit of a changeup from Ronnie O'Sullivan.
The Matchplay is my favourite. I've always maintained my opinion it's the pinnacle of the sport. You can get away with lulls in standard in set play but in matchplay, every leg counts.
Yeah, agreed. Prefer it to the World Championship by a long way. Actually the WC probably isn't even in my top three favourite tournaments, there's something very sterile about it since they moved to Alexandra Palace. And the crowd is just the worst.
