Premier League Darts Week 8

It’s the halfway point of the Premier League and James Wade is in pole position after his fifth successive win. Phil Taylor moves ominously into second with Mervyn King dropping to third and winless in his last three games. Jelle Klaasen is rock bottom and the only player not to have tasted victory.

The first match at the N.I.A. in Birmingham sees Mervyn King take on Wayne Mardle. Both players played in Saturday’s Brentwood Players Championship and Sunday’s Blue Square UK Open South-East Regional final. King reached the quarter finals on the first day before being whitewashed by Co Stompe over six legs. On the Sunday he took out new PDC arrival Gary Anderson six-three before succumbing by the same scoreline to the in form Terry Jenkins. Mardle exited both tournaments early in rounds two and three. King has out powered Mardle on the scoring in the Premier League with fifty-eight 140+ scores, Mardle has ten less.

There is also a significant difference in the League three dart averages with King on 98.81, almost ten points in front of Mardle. Tied in with dropping points King scored his lowest three dart average of the tournament last week with 89.27, yet Mardle has failed to beat that average on four of the seven occasions he has played as he struggles on his doubles. Mardle will have the crowd in his corner as King finds himself the subject of the boo boys who are always looking for the pantomine darts villain. King needs a win here to arrest his drop in form and solidify his place in the qualifying spots. The head to heads stand eight-four in favour of the King.

Will Terry “The Bull” Jenkins be slain by “The Matador” that is Jelle Klaasen? Jenkins secured a good win last week against King, his first in the League to keep him in the hunt for a qualification place and another two points this week is a must. Jenkins played extremely well over the weekend finding only Taylor too good, beaten by the worlds number one – twice.

On the Saturday Jenkins played Taylor in the quarter-finals and had opportunities to win before going down in the deciding leg. He then reached the final on the Sunday pushing Taylor all the way, only to lose six-four. Klaasen stayed in the UK to play but was probably wishing he had lost his passport after being eliminated in the 2nd round in both tournaments. The League scoring points to a Jenkins win with 138 100+ scores recorded so far compared to Klaasen’s 97. Last week certainly didn’t smell of roses for the Dutch romantic, with the second worst average thus far of the tournament – a humble 85.99.

Game three sees James Wade play John Part. Wade suffered two defeats to Ronnie Baxter over the weekend and the fourth round was as far as he progressed with the big Canadian Part electing to return to his homeland. Wade’s 140+ plus scoring power is almost double that of Parts 71 to 36 in the League and that’s a big swing in the “lefty’s” favour. Anyone thinking of plunging in on him at best odds of 8-15 though must be concerned with recent comments by Wade in which he likened himself to snookers enigma Ronnie O’Sullivan saying, “I’m possibly a bit like Ronnie, sometimes I can’t be bothered. When I can’t be bothered its obvious, I play like I can’t be bothered”. He ideally would want to be bothered here as a win keeps him atop the league and in all likelihood further away from a potential match against Phil Taylor in the Play-Offs where first will play fourth and second will play third.

The big guns are rolled out for the last match of the night, Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor versus Raymond van Barneveld. Whenever these two players play its always a special game with both being two of the finest throwers of tungsten to have ever strutted the stage. Taylor has admitted his mind has not been on darts for the last couple of weeks owing to a family problem, yet he has shown himself again to be the ultimate professional winning both tournaments over the weekend and has won seven titles this year before the daffodils have sprung.

On scoring power both players are very similar. Taylor has hit 116 100+ scores in the League with Barney on 114. 140+ totals has Barney ahead 68 to 63. To live with Taylor, Barney must raise his game from last weeks disappointing average of 91.51 his lowest in the league so far.

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