Issue 24 (June 10, 2016)

Friday 10 June 2016

Darts Weekly

BETWAY WORLD CUP OF DARTS FINAL ENGLAND 3 NETHERLANDS 2

Did Lewis go over the top?

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No comment BDO’s reply to Masters venue drop out Page 6

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Friday 10 June 2016 Darts Weekly

Celebrations in World Cup decider were just repeating what MVG does says Lewis Alex Moss CHIEF DARTS WRITER Adrian Lewis insists his antics in the decider of this year’s Betway World Cup of Darts final were only repeating what Michael van Gerwen does every week.

The two-time world champion certainly milked the crowd in Frankfurt on Sunday night, as he edged closer to the winning line and securing the point that would retain the World Cup for England.

After taking out 76 to go 3-1 up against van Gerwen in the best of seven legs tie, Lewis gesticulated to the crowd to make more noise before going to retrieve his darts from the board to then start the next leg.

A 180 to kick off what would prove to be the final leg sent Lewis into another frenzy, with van Gerwen now visibly irritated at the prolonged time he had to wait until he could throw his darts again.

Lewis wrapped up a 4-1 win over the Dutchman with double eight and turned to celebrate to the crowd and his partner Phil Taylor, before shaking hands with van Gerwen, at which point words were exchanged between the two.

“MVG got the hump with me because I give it large,” Lewis told Sky Sports moments after lifting

the World Cup trophy with Taylor.

“But I said ‘well you do it every week’ you know what I mean? So you’ve got to expect a bit back, simple as that really.”

Taylor returned to the stage ahead of the presentation and pulled Lewis’ shirt in a gesture to prevent any other war of words with his partner and van Gerwen.

“Michael puts his heart on his sleeve,” Taylor said. “He’s playing for his country and obviously he’s very disappointed when Adrian hit the winning double.

“He’ll be all right in a minute.

“MVG does it every week so he’s got to expect a bit back, simple as that” We’re representing England, you know. We’ve just won the world pairs. Now we’re going to the European Championships in the football and we’re going to win that as well.

“Holland are not going to be in the finals unfortunately, but we are.”

The presentation was marred by the absence of van Gerwen’s pairs partner Raymond van Barneveld, who did not appear on stage until England were presented with the trophy. It left van Gerwen to go

How Taylor and Lewis won four World Cups in five years Hamburg, 2012 Beat Australia (sudden death) After racing into a 3-0 lead, Taylor and Lewis are pegged back to 3-3.

Australia miss four darts in the sudden death leg, before Lewis hits double five to win it for England.

Frankfurt, 2015 Beat Scotland 3-2 England reach the final without dropping a game but need Lewis to see off Peter Wright to win the deciding game in the final against Scotland.

Hamburg, 2013 Beat Belgium 3-1 Taylor and Lewis get the better of the Belgian brothers Kim and Ronny Huybrechts in the final to become the first nation to retain the World Cup.

Frankfurt, 2016 Beat Netherlands 3-2 The Dutch take a 2-1 lead in the final before Taylor beats Raymond van Barneveld and Lewis gets past Michael van Gerwen to seal a fourth World Cup for England.

up by himself and collect his silver medal and shake the hands of the winning England team.

Sky Sports pundits Eric Bristow and Wayne Mardle had their say after the dust had settled in Frankfurt, with both suggesting van Gerwen should take the defeat on the chin and bounce back by winning the next tournament.

Bristow said: “Great win for England. Well done Lewis, MVG got the hump because he played rubbish, nothing to do with Lewis’ antics.

“Not nice to see MVG be such a bad loser. I think he is a magic player. So MVG don’t get like Taylor, take it on the chin and win the next one.”

Mardle added: “They’re all winners. There’s 24 World Championships between them.

“It’s the one-upmanship. It’s the World Cup. It’s representing your country. It’s everything.

“They don’t like losing, Barney and Michael, which is fine, but whoever gets over the line, just

Darts Weekly Friday 10 June 2016

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give them the credit, shake their hand and let them revel in their win for today.”

It was a dramatic finale to this year’s World Cup, with the pretournament favourites, the Netherlands, aiming for their third title and defending champions England aiming to lift the trophy for the fourth time.

Taylor got England off to the perfect start in the final, checking out 149 and finishing with a 103 average as he beat van Gerwen 4-3. It was the 16-time world champion’s first televised win over the world number one since the 2014 Perth Masters, but it could not inspire Lewis in the second game.

Van Barneveld triumphed 4-3 with a brilliant 11 darter to level the final up at 1-1, before the Beaten man: van Gerwen after losing

Champions again: Taylor and Lewis win the World Cup Dutch went ahead for the first time when they won the doubles contest 4-2.

Needing just one more win from the reverse singles games, the Netherlands were forced into a winner-takes-all decider after Taylor beat his old rival van Barneveld 4-1. Lewis defied his recent record against MVG to win the deciding clash 4-1 and hand England their fourth World Cup crown.

“I didn’t play very well in the doubles and I’d lost to Raymond in the singles, and I think the best two players on the night were Phil and Raymond. I believe in Phil, I thought that he could beat Raymond and put me in to win it.”

Harris lights up World Cup in his debut defeat against Scotland Cody Harris produced one of the best performances of this year’s Betway World of Cup Darts, with a 102.60 individual average in New Zealand’s 5-3 defeat to Scotland.

The 30-year-old, who lives in Auckland, fired in eight scores of 140 as well as a 125 checkout in the opening leg of their first round clash last Thursday night.

Following his impressive display, many darts fans called for Harris to follow in the footsteps of Australia’s Kyle Anderson and migrate to the UK and play on the full PDC tour.

Harris’ performance left a mark on Sky Sports pundit Wayne Mardle, who said: “Every time he threw the dart there was venom behind it.

“There was a poise to his game.

There was a composure, a

“He threw one or two bad darts but it was a fantastic performance” confidence, he’s got it. He’s got all the attributes and the 125, going for the 54 was such a kind of old school way of doing it.

“But he knew exactly what he had planned, 54, 39, 32.

“Most players will now go for the bullseye but he was having none of it.

“He threw one or two bad darts and that was it. This is someone with hardly any experience on the big stage, fantastic performance.”

Harris, who will be back on our screens next weekend in the Auckland Darts Masters, plays on both the PDC-affiliated and WDFaffiliated tours in New Zealand.

Currently top of the DPNZ men’s rankings, Harris won eight events in a row on the tour from January to May, before he was absent for the Porirua Grand Prix which was held two weeks ago.

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Friday 10 June 2016 Darts Weekly

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

“You question if you are able to get over the line and a week later I won the International Open”

Nick Kenny chats to Alex Moss about winning his first big BDO title and his future plans in darts

t has been two days since Nick Kenny won the BDO International Open when we speak on Tuesday evening, yet the young Welshman is still coming to terms with his recent success at Brean Sands.

“It’s still sinking in,” the 23-yearold said. “It’s a massive title to win and I knew I was capable of winning one of these.

“It was just doing it and it actually happening. I’m still buzzing to be honest.

“It was amazing because the previous weekend it was the World Trophy. I was 6-3 up against Mark McGeeney, missed a couple of doubles and he came back well.

“It was that voodoo in your head really of: are you going to be able to get over the line in the big tournaments?

“A week later and I won the International Open beating (Tony) O’Shea in the final. I can’t believe it.”

Kenny had previously won the WDF Europe Youth Cup in Germany and two events on the PDC Development Tour, but his biggest win to date came in Somerset on Sunday night.

The Cwmbran ace dropped only three legs on the way to the last 16, with wins over Tony Lamerton (4-1), Gary Mills (4-0),

“To be in the team that won the British Internationals was special”

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Craig Hill (4-1) and Chris Hartrey (4-1) setting up an all-Welsh clash with Martin Phillips.

After edging past the Wales captain 4-3 in a deciding leg, Kenny saw off Shaun Carroll (4-2) and former world champion Scott Mitchell (5-3) to reach his first final of 2016.

The final against O’Shea went all the way to a deciding leg, which Kenny won in 15 darts, hitting a 180 to set up a 51 checkout for the match and his first big title on the BDO circuit.

“It was the best feeling ever,” Kenny said. “Wales is only about an hour away so there was a lot of people from Gwent, and a lot of support from Glamorgan as well, even though they’re our rival county.

“I think I had the most support out there and I was really grateful for that. It really spurred me on in the final.”

Kenny was always likely to pick up a set of darts, his parents run and play in a local pub league. At the age of nine he hit his first 180 and four years later he beat a 17year-old Ross Smith on the way to reaching the semi-finals of a youth event at, ironically, Brean

Darts Weekly Friday 10 June 2016

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Sands. Aged 17, Kenny beat Ireland’s Paddy Meaney 3-1 to win the WDF Europe Youth Cup. Kenny would have been one of many young Welshman watching his fellow countryman Mark Webster win the BDO World Championship in 2008, but he insists his inspiration is the country’s skipper Phillips.

“I actually played Mark Webster

“I want to get to Lakeside and see how far I can go in the World Champs” in Prestatyn in a county game when he was still in the BDO,” Kenny recalls.

“He battered me 4-0, I was only about 15 or 16. My inspiration is Martin Phillips, the Wales captain.

“Just his total attitude towards the game, he’s not got a bad word to say about anybody.

“Another one is Wayne Warren, he’s one of the best players I’ve

Rising star: Kenny won the International Open at Brean Sands Pictures: David Gill ever seen when he’s on form. I just don’t know why he doesn’t do the tour properly.”

Kenny was part of the Welsh team which won the men’s British Internationals outright for the first time in April.

“That was a really proud moment to win the British Internationals,” he said. “Especially because some of the boys in the team are now coming to the end of their careers and have been trying to win it for years. To be in that team was special.”

Kenny has another year available to him on the PDC Development Tour in 2017 and has no immediate plans to move over to the PDC’s full tour just yet.

“I want to give the BDO a couple more years,” he said. “I want to get to Lakeside and see how far I can go in the World Championship and keep playing for Wales.”

Sparidaans wins first title of 2016 with triumph in the Swiss Open Jeffrey Sparidaans claimed his first title of 2016 with victory in the Swiss Open at the weekend.

The young Dutchman beat Belgium’s Geert de Vos 3-1 in the final at the Mehrzweckhalle Stutz in Lausen on Saturday night.

De Vos had been beaten in two previous Swiss Open finals, 3-1 to Wesley Harms in 2012 and 3-0 against Remco van Eijden the next year, and his record third final in this event resulted in the same outcome, with the runner-up prize.

For Sparidaans it was his second BDO title, with his success in Lausen following on from his Czech Open win in November.  World number one Deta Hedman won her ninth title of the season after beating Aileen de Graaf 2-1 in the final of the Swiss Open ladies competition.

Ashton cruises to her maiden International Open success Lisa Ashton dropped just four legs to become BDO International Open ladies champion for the first time on Sunday evening.

Fresh from retaining her World Trophy crown at Lakeside the previous weekend, the 45-year-old looked in imperious form as she scooped the £1,000 prize at Brean Sands at the weekend.

Ashton began her title-winning campaign with whitewash 4-0 victories over Teresa Brookshaw, Shannon Hall, Donna Gullock, Tricia Wright and Rachel Brooks, putting her through to the semifinals without losing a leg.

A 4-1 win against Rhian Griffiths in the last four booked Ashton a place in her first International Open final, where she beat Deta Hedman 5-3 to lift the trophy.

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Friday 10 June 2016 Darts Weekly

BDO have “no comment” after World Masters venue pulls out The BDO had “no comment” to make after the Winmau World Masters was confirmed it was now without a venue last week.

London’s Copper Box Arena was set to host the major tournament, which has been held every year since 1974, but two weeks ago the venue removed it from the events page on its website.

Late last week the BDO altered its own diary of events, which now reads: ‘Nov 24 - 27 BDO Winmau World Masters To be advised.’

With the start date for this year’s World Masters less than five months away, the BDO must now find another location to host one of their most prestigious events.

The last six stagings of the World Masters have been held in Hull, but before that it has been played in various locations in England.

When contacted by Darts Weekly earlier this week, the BDO had “no comment” to make about the Copper Box Arena no longer hosting the event, or if a new venue had been secured yet.

After answering our call as “the

chairman of the BDO” and then passing the phone onto another person, we were told that the BDO had “no comment” to any of our questions relating to this year’s running of the World Masters.

All of our other enquiries were answered with the response of “never heard of it” in relation to our magazine. The BDO were, however, not tight-lipped when the

Not home: The Copper Box is not hosting the Masters Copper Box Arena was originally announced as the new venue for the World Masters in December.

Sue Williams, chairman of the BDO, said in December: “This is a new era for darts in Britain and I would like to thank all the people who have worked so hard over the last few months to make this happen.

“These are exciting times for the BDO and darts internationally. We look forward to the BDO growing from county to professional level, backed by the biggest brands such as Winmau.”

Darts Weekly Quiz 6 1 Who won the first PDC Austrian Open back in 2012?

2 And who did he beat in the final and by what scoreline?

3 Why did Michael van Gerwen withdraw from the 2014 Austrian Open, and who was his scheduled opponent that received a bye into the next round?

4 Who knocked out Phil Taylor and Peter Wright on their way to reaching the final that year?

Last week’s answers - 1. Carlos Rodriguez; 2. Ken MacNeil and John Part; 3. Five; 4. Scotland.

Darts Weekly Friday 10 June 2016

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Taylor makes his long-awaited return to the European Tour Phil Taylor will end a two-year exile from the PDC European Tour this weekend, as qualification for October’s Unibet European Championship starts to hot up.

The 16-time world champion has missed the last 16 European Tour events, with his most recent appearance having been a second round defeat to Michael Smith in the Gibraltar Darts Trophy back in June of 2014.

At the end of last year, the PDC announced there would be changes to the qualification criteria for the European Championship, with this year seeing qualification based solely on prize money won in the 10 European Tour events held during the year.

Ahead of the Austrian Darts Open being held this weekend, Taylor is one of three players in the top 16 who is set to miss out.

Dutch duo Raymond van Barneveld and Vincent van der Voort are also currently not in the top 32 of the order of merit for the £400,000 tournament.

Taylor won the first four stagings of the European Championship between 2008 and 2011, while world number one Michael van

Gerwen has emerged victorious at Belgium’s Ethias Arena for the last two years.

A run to the semi-finals in Vienna this weekend should put Taylor into the top 32. The 12th seed will begin his bid for a fourth European Tour title when he faces either Mervyn King or Steve West in the last 32 tomorrow night.

Van der Voort, who won the last

staging of the Austrian Darts Open in 2014, begins his title defence against former world champion Steve Beaton tonight, with a second round clash with Wales’ Gerwyn Price awaiting the winner.

Top seed van Gerwen takes on Jonny Clayton or Nico Mandl for his first game, while second seed Peter Wright will face Jermaine Wattimena or Brendan Dolan.

Race to qualify for the Unibet European Championship after four of 10 ET events 1. Michael van Gerwen 2. James Wade 3. Dave Chisnall 4. Peter Wright 5. Daryl Gurney 6. Mensur Suljovic 7. Ian White 8 Michael Smith = Benito van de Pas 10. Gary Anderson 11. Kim Huybrechts 12. Jelle Klaasen 13. Mervyn King 14. Joe Cullen = Adrian Lewis 16. Simon Whitlock = Terry Jenkins 18. Kevin Painter

£80,000 £30,500 £25,500 £20,500 £15,000 £13,500 £11,500 £11,000 £11,000 £10,500 £9,500 £9,000 £8,500 £7,500 £7,500 £7,000 £7,000 £5,500

= Max Hopp 20. James Richardson = Justin Pipe = Chris Dobey = Robert Thornton = John Henderson 25. Stephen Bunting = Devon Petersen 27. Jermaine Wattimena = Cristo Reyes = Rowby-John Rodriguez = Alan Norris 31. Dyson Parody 32. Brendan Dolan

£5,500 £5,000 £5,000 £5,000 £5,000 £5,000 £4,500 £4,500 £4,000 £4,000 £4,000 £4,000 £3,500 £3,000

Top 16 players currently set to miss out: P Taylor (3), R van Barneveld (11) V van der Voort (15)

Database PDC BETWAY WORLD CUP OF DARTS (Eissporthalle, Frankfurt)

BDO SWISS OPEN (Mehrzweckhalle Statz, Lausen)

Last 32 - Czech Republic (77.06) 3-5 China (80.81), Greece (76.96) 2-5 Canada (81.85), Republic of Ireland (82.09) 5-4 Hong Kong (79.40), South Africa (75.22) 1-5 Singapore (81.28), Northern Ireland (85.80) 5-2 Japan (79.98), Wales (84.52) 5-1 Finland (77.17), England (90.99) 5-4 Spain (95.68), Austria (85.40) 5-0 Italy (76.93). Last 16 - England 2-0 China, Austria 2-0 Singapore, Wales 1-2 Canada, Northern Ireland 2-0 Republic of Ireland, Scotland 2-0 Norway, Belgium 2-0 Hungary, Australia 2-1 Denmark, Netherlands 2-0 Philippines. Quarter finals - England 2-0 Austria, Canada 1-2 Northern Ireland, Scotland 1-2 Belgium, Australia 1-2 Netherlands. Semi finals England 2-0 Northern Ireland, Belgium 0-2 Netherlands. Final - England 3-2 Netherlands.

Men’s final - J Sparidaans 3-1 G de Vos. Ladies final - D Hedman 2-1 A de Graaf.

BDO INTERNATIONAL OPEN (Brean Sands, Somerset) Men’s last 32 - G Durrant 2-4 W Warren, K Mitchell 2-4 D Parletti, T O’Shea 4-1 M Padgett, M Atkins 4-1 L Turle, D Reynolds 4-2 M Craddock, A Fordham 2-4 A Beck, G Thompson 4-1 P Hogan, S Stainton 4-1 L Venes, S Mitchell 4-1 C Whitehead, R Edwards 1-4 J Hurrell, P Blackwell 1-4 J Hendricks, S Douglas 4-3 M McGeeney, M Phillips 4-0 R Long, N Kenny 4-1 C Hartrey, D Neads 2-4 S Carroll, S Ritchie 3-4 J Hughes. Last 16 - W Warren 2-4 D Parletti, T O’Shea 4-2 M Atkins, D Reynolds 4-1 A Beck, G Thompson 4-2 S Stainton, S Mitchell 4-0 J Hurrell, J

Hendricks 4-3 S Douglas, M Phillips 3-4 N Kenny, S Carroll 4-2 J Hughes. Quarter finals - D Parletti 2-4 T O’Shea, D Reynolds 2-4 G Thompson, S Mitchell 4-2 J Hendricks, N Kenny 4-2 S Carroll. Semi finals - T O’Shea (83.88) 5-3 G Thompson (78.60), S Mitchell (87.54) 3-5 N Kenny (90.24). Final - T O’Shea (87.45) 5-6 N Kenny (88.35).

Ladies quarter finals - D Hedman 4-1 M Sutton, T Gulliver 4-3 A Dobromyslova, M O’Brien 3-4 R Griffiths, R Brooks 0-4 L Ashton. Semi finals - D Hedman (79.32) 4-1 T Gulliver (74.64), R Griffiths (70.59) 1-4 L Ashton (82.44). Final - D Hedman (75.39) 3-5 L Ashton (78.48).

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Friday 10 June 2016 Darts Weekly

SEAN McCORMICK TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE DART x

Would return to group stage format make the World Cup less predictable?

It was the PDC’s turn to hog the darts television space at the weekend, as England’s Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis won the World Cup for the fourth time, beating Dutch pair Michael van Gerwen and Raymond van Barneveld in Sunday’s final.

There was some great darts on display and some decent tussles, but once more I was left feeling that it was all too predictable.

Those two finalists are the only two teams to have lifted the trophy and like each of the last two years only one unseeded team made it through to the quarter-finals.

In fact, according to the seeding system there was only two notable shocks throughout the tournament - Canada beating Wales and Belgium beating Scotland.

Thus it is arguable that unlike other televised tournaments, the World Cup isn’t really worth watching until the final day, when these seeded teams begin to face off with each other.

An improvement which is often suggested by fans via social media is the introduction of B teams for the stronger nations, where the likes of England, Netherlands and Scotland have a team consisting of their third and fourth ranked players.

While this would unquestionably make the tournament more competitive, PDC chairman Barry Hearn is actively opposed to the concept, calling it a backward step in the global growth of the game.

My suggestion would be to return to a group stage format.

This would probably require an extension in the duration of the tournament, but you only need to look at the last group stage version of the World Cup to see the possible benefits it could have on the overall competitiveness of the 32 teams.

In 2013 eight groups of three teams faced off in a best of nine

‘In 2013 giants like Netherlands and Scotland went out at the last 16 stage’ legs pairs format. The top two advanced to the last 16, where the same pairs format was utilised.

From the quarter-finals onwards singles games were introduced.

Incredibly, five unseeded nations made the quarter-finals, while the emerging Huybrechts brothers went all the way to the final where they were beaten by England.

Giants like Netherlands and Scotland were dumped out at the

LAWRENCE LUSTIG/PDC

last 16 stage by minnows Finland and Spain, while Japan and Croatia also made it to the last eight.

Had the same format been in place this year, who knows what teams may have emerged? We saw a glimpse of New Zealand’s talented Cody Harris, while Spain’s Cristo Reyes and Antonio Alcinas arguably gave England their toughest test in the first round.

Had they played three group games, before tackling one of the seeded nations, they may have gathered enough momentum to beat them and go far in the event.

To go back to Barry Hearn’s argument (see below), seeing a country play one pair’s game in a best of nine format isn’t going to encourage a growth in that country.

However, seeing them play at least three games and giving the tournament a real go may well just do that.