(@dartistik)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
GATES AVERAGES 112 ON ROUTE TO WHITE MOUNTAIN SHOOTOUT TITLE
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eonard Gates claimed the 2018 White Mountain Shootout Men’s title in New Hampshire, beating Jay Waugh 3–0 in the final. Gates, the winner of the Syracuse Open in February, ended Tom Sawyer’s three-year unbeaten run at the competition as he dropped just five legs on route to victory. ‘Soldier Gates’ day began with a quadruple of 3-1 victories before he surged to victory in New Hampshire dropping just one single leg in his final four games - which featured an encounter with Canadian ace David Cameron. Gates produced a stunning display against the Quebec Open winner as he whitewashed him 3–0 with a huge average of 112.7. The American pinned three of his four attempts at double and hit two maximums on route to setting up a quarterfinal clash with Tom Curtin who Gates saw off 3-1. Gates then averaged 95.7 in a 3-0 victory over Bruce Robbins before comfortably winning the competition with a 3-0 whitewashing of Jay Waugh in the final on the New Hampshire White Mountains. Another title to add to the collection of titles for Leonard Gates who is still undoubtedly in with a chance of representing the United States of America at the World Cup of Darts in Frankfurt towards the end of next month with the PDC still yet to confirm the USA pairing.
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ASIA
PDC Asia Double For Ilagan
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ourence Ilagan completed the double on the second weekend of PDC Asian Tour action in Macao while Paul Lim exited at the last 32 stage in both events. The Philippine-thrower produced a magnificent display throughout the weekend as he won his maiden PDC Asia title on the Saturday before doubling his tally a day later in Macao. Ilagan thrashed Wilmer Ong in the opening round at the third PDC Asian Tour event of the year before beating Vic Erwin Burling. The former World Championship qualifier then claimed a huge win over Paul Lim, averaged 85.2 in a solid display. Two more victories put Ilagan into the semi-finals where he’d face Japanese ace Haruki Muramatsu. It was the Philippine-thrower who led in the tie but Muramatsu fought back. Eventually, Ilagan came out a 5-4 winner in a last leg decider to reach his first PDC Asian Tour final. The Cainta-based ace, who is a winner of both the Hong Kong and Malaysian Open, faced Alexis Toylo in the final. Toylo had enjoyed a run to the last two after victories over players in the calibre of former Thailand’s World Cup of Darts representative Thanawat Gaweenuntavong. Ilagan pinned two maximums and completed half of his attempts at double to ease to his first PDC Asian Tour title with a 5-2 victory over Alexis Toylo. The Philippines will not be participating at this year’s World Cup of Darts but Ilagan continued his form into the second day of action in Macao. The Philippine-thrower began the day with three successive last leg deciders, all of which he came through. A 5-2 victory over Lang Lim followed by a 5-3 win over Tenglieh Pupo made it another semi-final for the former World Championship qualifier. Yo-Hin Shek was the man he beat in the semi-finals to reach another final of the Asian circuit. Ilagan would face Royden Lam in the final, who enjoyed another run to a final after winning the first ever PDC Asian Tour event last month. Ilagan averaged 91.8 in the final as he thrashed his Hong Kong based opponent 5-1, again converting half of his attempts at the outer ring. It was another poor weekend for World Cup of Darts competitor Paul Lim who failed to get past the last 32 in either of the events in Macao. The PDC Asian Tour will now take on two month break before returning to action on the 23rd of June when the tour travels to Kobe in Japan for the fifth and sixth events of the year.
AUSTRALIA
CADBY COMPLETES PERFECTION ON ROUTE TO DPA TOUR HATRICK
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orey Cadby hit the perfect nine-dart leg in Warilla on route to completing a weekend hatrick in homeland of Australia. Cadby returned to the land down under after reaching the final at the Coral UK Open in Minehead to marry his partner Breana. ‘The King’s tremendous treble at the Warilla Recreation Club in New South Wales came just a few weeks after claiming his first DPA Pro Tour title of the year. Cadby’s opening victory of the weekend in Australia came from a 6-4 win over Lucas Cameron on the
Friday afternoon in Warilla. The former World Youth Champion saw off a two-time DPA Pro Tour winner in Raymond Smith on route to victory on day one. Cadby then saw off Lawrence Ryder – a former World Championship and World Series of Darts qualifier – 6-3 in the final of the eighth DPA Pro Tour event of the year. The Tazmanian-born ace wrapped up a successful weekend with another victory over Lawrence Ryder in the final but this time Cadby whitewashed Ryder 6-0.
Cadby enjoyed a nine-dart leg in his opening round whitewashing of Jason Seifried, executing the perfect leg via the original route of 180, 180 and the 141 to complete the same spectacle as fellow Aussie Kyle Anderson has completed multiple times on television. The next DPA Pro Tour weekend will be held from May 18-20 at the ALH Brook Hotel in Brisbane.
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onny Clayton claimed his maiden European Tour title as he came through a 48-man field in Graz, pocketing £25,000 a long the way. Clayton won his maiden PDC title just six months ago and has already had another taste at glory as he beat Gerwyn Price 8-5 in a thrilling final on Sunday evening in Austria. It was a successful debut for the Steiermarkhalle in Graz after the Austrian Darts Open was moved from crowd-favourite Mensur Suljovic’s residence of Vienna. ‘The Ferret’ started off a sublime weekend with a 6-3 win over fellow European Tour event holder Max Hopp before knocking out the final unseeded player left in the field of play in Austria – James Wade. Clayton averaged 105.32 on route to his first third round victory on the European Tour circuit. In his first European Tour final session, Clayton saw off Ian White before silencing the Austrian crowd as he sent Mensur Suljovic out of the tournament to
earn a spot in his first final since the Players Championship in Minehead last November. Gerwyn Price was the man waiting in the final. Price received a call up to the Unibet Premier League earlier this year and that didn’t go to plan but in recent weeks, since being eliminated and finishing bottom of the Premier League, Price has found a bit of form. Price enjoyed a 6-2 win over Scott Taylor in the second round with an average of 101.36 before continuing his resurgence with wins over Wayne Jones, Rob Cross and Joe Cullen to book his place in his first final since his UK Open run over a year ago. The final was a very close and competitive match with the game being locked at a draw throughout. A break of throw in the twelfth leg was crucial for the Pontyberem-based star as he pinned double 10 in the following leg to wrap up a win over his fellow countryman. Clayton not only claimed £25,000 from the tournament in Graz, but also now looks set to make his debut at the World Cup
of Darts, World Matchplay and Europwan Championships later this year. The World Grand Prix and Grand Slam of Darts could also be tournaments that ‘The Ferret’ will now be able to participate in. “It’s my first [European Tour] title and I’m chuffed to bits,” said Clayton. “It’s been a great weekend for me. “It’s been a brilliant crowd – I had to play against them all against Mensur but I got through it. “It’s nice to see Welsh darts back on stage. There are some brilliant players and we’re all there to do a job.” Photography courtesy of Michael Braunschädel, PDC Europe
Austrian Darts Open Evening Session Quarter-Finals Joe Cullen 6-2 Michael Smith Gerwyn Price 6-3 Rob Cross Mensur Suljovic 6-1 Daryl Gurney Jonny Clayton 6-4 Ian White Semi-Finals Gerwyn Price 7-6 Joe Cullen Jonny Clayton 7-6 Mensur Suljovic Final Jonny Clayton 8-5 Gerwyn Price
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ax Hopp added his name to the European Tour role of honour in Saarbrücken after a historic victory over Premier League competitor Michael Smith in the final in Saarbrücken. Hopp became the first German to win a PDC title in the history of professional darts and became only the fourth player to win a European Tour event as a qualifier, joining the likes of John Part, James Wade and Vincent Van der Voort. ‘The Maximiser’ was not even a confirmed competitor in the German Darts Open just 80 hours before his win but the former World Youth Champion ran riot on homeland to claim his maiden PDC title at the age of just 21! Hopp’s story began on Friday evening in Saarbrücken when he demolished fellow German speaking thrower Zoran Lerchbacher 6-1 before he produced a huge upset as he saw off six-time European Tour winner Peter Wright. Despite averaging just 84 in his third round tie with Benito Van de Pas, Hopp’s run continued in
Germany as he saw off the Dutchman with a 6-4 victory. ‘The Maximiser’ made it back-to-back European Tour finals with the victory over ‘Big Ben’ and reached his first European Tour semi-final with a 6-4 win over Joe Cullen – in a match where the German averaged 98.1. An outstanding performance was needed from Hopp if he was to progress into the final in front of a huge host-nation crowd and their main man delivered once again as he averaged above that 100 mark for the first time in the tournament. A stunning 121 checkout was needed to seal the final spot for Hopp and he pinned the bullseye to send the Saarbrücken crowd into party mode. The former World Youth Champion would face Michael Smith in the final. Smith had already beaten Steve Lennon, Mervyn King and Ian White – who was averaging 106 for the day before the Dunvegan Darts derby. Hopp made a slow start in the final as Smith led 3-0 and 6-3 in the tie but it seemed to be written in the stars for Hopp as he reeled off the next three legs to
level up the encounter at six legs a piece. The next two legs went with throw a dramatic final into a last leg decider and Smith left 64 after 12 darts in the final leg but Hopp repeated his last three darts from his semi-final clash with Rob Cross as he pinned the 121 once again to claim his maiden PDC senior title and his first tournament win since his World Youth Championship victory in Minehead. A huge leap in the career of Max Hopp and it has come at the perfect time for the German with the German Darts Masters event taking place on the World Series circuit and the World Cup of Darts just around the corner in Frankfurt.
German Darts Open Evening Session Quarter-Finals Ian White 6-2 Michael van Gerwen Michael Smith 6-5 Mervyn King Max Hopp 6-4 Joe Cullen Rob Cross 6-1 Gerwyn Price Semi-Finals Michael Smith 7-1 Ian White Max Hopp 7-6 Rob Cross Final Max Hopp 8-7 Michael Smith
: S R E D I ! C R E A D F G O E S L Y T R S LA E STO TH
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uring the first three European Tour (ET) events in 2018 there has been 140 matches with 23 of them (16.43%) requiring a last leg decider. It's always been seen as an advantage in the professional game to have the throw. Analysing the performance of the players who made up the last eight from each of these three ET events thus far certainly backs this up. Collectively they've won 72.15% of the legs they've played with the throw at these tournaments. Last leg deciders however don't appear to hold the same level of advantage, those with the throw have won 13 legs (56.52%) whereas those throwing second have won 10 (43.48%). The next area examined was momentum. Is there an advantage to come into the deciding leg having won the previous leg? Again, this doesn't appear to give a player an obvious edge. The victor in the deciding leg is the player who won the previous leg on 13 occasions (56.52%) and the player who lost the leg before has won 10 (43.48%). Given darts is seen as quite a psychological game it's surprising that momentum doesn't seem to have much impact in determining the winner in such a pressure cooker situation. So, given the first two statistics don't seem to identify overly strong trends what can be gleaned from the winners performances? Well, a solid start to the leg seems very important. Only 2 of these 23 last legs have been won by a player starting without a treble visit with their first throw and at the other end of the spectrum just 1 last leg has been won by someone starting with a 3 treble visit. Therefore, 20 out of 23 legs (86.96%) have been won by a player starting with either a 1 or 2 big treble visit. This is a massive improvement in this aspect given the last 8 players at each of the
first three ET events on average start a leg with a 1 or 2 treble visit just 66.52% of the time (602 out of 990 legs analysed between them). This consistency angle seems to continue throughout the winners performance in the final leg. Firstly, scoring wise across the 23 legs the winners have a 1st 9 3DA of 119.28. The quarter finalists across the three events thus far are averaging just 106.11. An increase in the 1st 9 3DA of 13.17 is quite substantial in what should be such a nerve-jangling leg. It will be no surprise to anyone therefore that the overall 3DA of the winner in these deciding legs is also up. There is a smaller increase of 6.07 in this case, up to 102.28 from 96.21 of those last 8 contestants. There's a couple of other statistics to note on the scoring front too. The first one is another positive and that is that the 180 per leg ratio in the deciding leg shows an increase too. It's 0.35, up from 0.28 overall for the same group of players analysed as above; not a massive increase but the timing of these visits could make the difference between winning and losing the match. The second however is a slight negative and that's the number of stray darts. The 24 quarter-finalists cumulatively over the three events have thrown 13255 darts with 6.08% (806) of them being stray. In deciding legs this figure for the winners rises to 7.1% - a fairly minimal increase and hardly surprising however given the last leg tension. Another statistic I have found very noticeable in last leg deciders is the darts used per leg. 47.83% of these legs have been won in 12 or 13 darts. Overall the aforementioned players have won legs using the same number of darts to win a leg just 21.54% of the time, with the most commonly thrown leg being a 15 darter on the whole. I would expect these two percentages to be much closer
generally and they probably would be if the sample of last leg deciders analysed was increased. Investigating the end of games and doubling; both checkout percentages and the missed darts per leg ratios for the two samples are very similar. What's more identifiable however is the type of opportunity taken. There seems to be quite an upturn in the bigger finishes to win a match; the players who reached the last 8 at each of the three European Tour events on average are taking out opportunities at between 41-99, 51.78% of the time and 100+, 11.98% of the time. These figures are quite good in general but in the 23 deciding legs analysed the winners have increased these percentages to 66.67% and 23.08% respectively. This is probably the main reason 12 darters have been so prevalent in these legs and also the reason doubles have been hit with the third dart in hand on 47.83% of occasions. On the face of it the short format of the ET events seems to be throwing up a number of last leg deciders. The statistical analysis of these legs suggests the victorious players are thriving on the occasion, nearly all areas are showing a marked improvement in performance with both high scoring and clinical finishing. Alan Tabern won a deciding leg with a 24 darter but this was pretty much out the norm. If there's one statistic that is difficult to analyse however, it's bottle. Some players have a mixed record in the deciders, whilst some have lost both deciding legs played but remarkably Joe Cullen seems to have mastered the art of winning deciding legs by winning four out of four across the first three ET events. The statistic of having a 'W' on the board in this leg is arguably the one that matters most in deciders as it ultimately mean you have a 'W' for the match result too. Words Carl Fletcher (@CarlyFletch)
PREMIER LEAGUE STARS PAY TRIBUTE TO ERIC BRISTOW The Premier League stars payed tribute to the legendary Eric Bristow MBE on night ten of the 16-week league phase. Bristow, passed away aged 60, after suffering a sudden heart attack when attending Judgement Night at the Echo Arena in Liverpool. Jo Wright, Peter Wright’s wife, painted the ‘crafty cockneys’ logo on the side of her husbands head in respect to the five time World and World Masters champion. A minutes applause took place before play in Sheffield, where all eight Premier League competitors took to the stage to pay tribute. It was an emotional moment and the Sheffield crowd were amazing!
ORDER OF MERIT