Darts

[ivoralljack]

Finals night of the Premier League at the 02 in London.

Semis:
Littler beat Smith 10-5
Humphries beat MVG 10-5

Smith had 11 trebleless visits to 5 from Littler and his doubling was only 28%. Smith was off form and no chance of beating Littler.
Humphries won a routine game against MVG and took out 132 with a champagne visit of bull, bull, double 16.

Final:

Littler 11-7 Humphries.

At 5-5 Littler nailed a 9 darter whilst Humphries always seemed to be chasing the game. He had some very decent legs (took out 134 with treble 18 and two double tops) but was slightly off it and that can't happen against Littler. Humphries' first dart rarely hit the 60 bed as it so often does when he's at it, so he was unable to put any great pressure on Littler who went on to be a deserved winner and take the £246, 000 first prize.

 

[ivoralljack]

Wales, the current champions, beaten 6-8 by the mighty Croatia in the World Team Cup. Well done to Jonny Clayton and Jim Williams for our humiliation. For some reason Gerwyn Price was missing from our team leaving our second and third division players to represent us. They needn't have bothered.

 

[ivoralljack]

World Matchplay started tonight a prestigious and notoriously difficult title to win. Gez went through beating Daryl Gurney 10-4 and Jonny, last year's beaten finalist, made a welcome return beating Raymond van Barneveld 10-7. Both averaged as close to 100 as dammit. But the performance of the night belonged to Luke Humphries who averaged 108+ in winning his game 10-4 against an opponent who racked up an average of just over 100. Luke's was the 4th highest average in the history of the competition. Current holder Nath Aspinall went through 10-8.

Gez has not enjoyed the best of health in recent times, the reason he's missed out on several competitions including his favourite, the Nations doubles event where Wales, the reigning champions, were beaten by Croatia (post #262). Last week Jonny won his first competition in a long time and his newly found confidence was evident against RvB. Great game coming up on Monday when Littler faces MVG with a bit of needle involved - seems like Littler has upset some of his fellow pros with his mouthing off. Can't wait!

 

[ivoralljack]

Good game between MVG and Littler with the Dutchman prevailing 10-6. Both players averaged just over the 100 with MVG just edging it. Littler's game seems to have fallen away of late and Gezzie actually described his current form as rubbish a few days ago as Littler has been knocked out of quite a few tournaments recently sometimes against almost unknown players. In one match that he lost his average was just 76 which at his level IS rubbish. Obviously a very talented player, I wonder if the weekly grind is beginning to get to him.

 

[ivoralljack]

Both Gez and Jonny knocked out tonight; Gez went down 9-11 to Ross Smith and never found any form worth talking about. Health problems still? Jonny was hammered 11-5 by Dimitri Van den Bergh in a strange match. Strange because there was only .13 difference in the averages (Jonny 96.72 against 96.85). Jonny had one less trebleless visit 13/14. Scoring was close 100+ 16/18; 140+ 10/11; 180s 5/6 and Jonny's doubling was better at 42% to 39%.

So how on earth did he get walloped by six clear legs? The answer might be that VdB nailed 2 ton plus finishes that got him out of jail and earned him 2 legs that he might have lost. But I think it was in the timing of the big scores, which can be critical in deciding the outcome of matches. It's difficult to explain quickly but darts followers will know what I mean.

 

[ivoralljack]

Luke Humphries beat MVG 18-15 to win the Matchplay tonight. At 15-17 MVG missed darts at double 8 to take it further but Luke then took out 100 with a 20 and 2 x double tops to win it. Good stuff with MVG totally gutted. That's the attitude of a champion and he'll win more titles.