There were a few players that caught my eye at the tail end of 2014 through losing after playing well or by exceeding all expectations of them by progressing through to the latter stages of a tournament when looking like they will stumble at an early obstacle.
World Number 18 Jamie Caven falls into the unlucky loser category. He had a slow start to 2014 failing to get past the last 32 stage in any tournament until May but that was turned round towards the end of the year. 'Jabba' had an impressive run in the Players Championship reaching the Quarter Finals where he was an unlucky loser against 2-time World Champion Adrian Lewis. Caven was drawn against Ian White in the first round and won convincingly 6-4 with an incredible 85% checkout rate which set up a 2nd round tie against Robert Thornton. This proved to be more testing as he won the match in a last leg decider via the bullseye, a win none the less and on he went to the Quarter Finals but this would be as far as he would go, losing 10-9 to Lewis with a 98 average and 50% checkout rate, although he did collect one of the highest pay cheques of his career pocketing£11,500.
This good run of form came at the perfect time, because a month passed and its now time for the World Championships where he seemingly got an easy first round match against World Number 82 Jason Hogg, but Jabba made hard work of this only scraping through 3-2 in sets and averaging only 81 in a poor contest. He surely needed to improve massively on that if he was to eliminate the 5 time World Champion Raymond van Barneveld in the next round.
He did improve, A LOT, but not enough to get the better of the big Dutchman losing 4-3 in a very close contest which really could have went either way, but one of the players had to lose and unfortunately it was Jamie. This was as far as he would go, despite averaging 95, hitting 4 180s and having a 44% checkout rate.
Jamie Cave in my opinion is a fantastic player who is good to watch when playing well. His finishing is his strong point and when he is hitting the big scores not one player would like to face him in a match. I definitely think he is worth keeping an eye on this year and no one deserves to win a trophy more than Jabba himself.
I am a big fan of Benito van de Pas (as some of you may have noticed) and I think he has a bright future. He is creeping up the rankings a is now placed at number 41, mainly due to £18,000 he pocketed for reaching the last 16 of the World Championship. He is capable of big scores, high checkouts and has a lot of bottle when it comes to hitting important doubles despite his unorthodox style of throwing, but it seems to be very effective as he showed at the recent World Championship. The Dutchman faced an out of form Paul Nicholson in the first round in a tight contest but Benito edged the match 3-2 to set up a second round tie with St Helens star Dave Chisnall.
Benito stunned the World Number 9 with a 4-2 victory averaging 91.44 and he progressed into the last 16 to face Robert Thornton. This was to be as far as van de Pas would go losing 4-0 to the in-form Scotsman but he had a great tournament and surpassed everyone's expectations of him. He is improving with every tournament he plays in and I'm excited to see him in the coming months to see if he improves further and i expect to see him make at least 1 semi final in a televised tournament this year.
Keegan Brown has been tipped by many as a future World Champion and I can't find a reason to argue otherwise. His list of top players that he has got the better of is increasing with every tournament, Adrian Lewis, Raymond van Barneveld and Andy Hamilton to name a few. The World Youth Champion's run in the Grand Slam was incredible, he made it all the way to the Quarter Finals and averaged 96.91 over the tournament and was eliminated by Dave Chisnall losing 16-14 in a match he could have won. He is as short as 50/1 with some bookmakers to win next years World Championship so there is an expectation that he will improve into a top class player within the next 12 months.
Vincent van der Voort is, in my opinion, the most improved player in the PDC this year after fantastic runs in both the Players Championship and the World Championship. He made it to the Semi Final stage in the Players (losing to eventual winner Gary Anderson) and the Quarter Final stage of the Worlds (losing to eventual runner up Phil Taylor), not exactly easy matches, and to Vincent's credit, he put up a great fight against 16 time World Champion Taylor and was 3-2 ahead at one stage in the match. His throw looks reckless but he seems to find the treble 20 more than most would but his finishing is his downfall. During his last 16 match with Dean Winstanley in the World Championship, the commentator said "You will always get a chance against Vincent" in a reference to Vincent's reputation of missing doubles, but he turned that around during his good run of form where he only once had a checkout rate of under 38%. If he can keep his percentage around that mark for a few tournaments then I think he will go close on a couple of occasions and I'm sure the fans will not complain about that.
I am a big fan of Benito van de Pas (as some of you may have noticed) and I think he has a bright future. He is creeping up the rankings a is now placed at number 41, mainly due to £18,000 he pocketed for reaching the last 16 of the World Championship. He is capable of big scores, high checkouts and has a lot of bottle when it comes to hitting important doubles despite his unorthodox style of throwing, but it seems to be very effective as he showed at the recent World Championship. The Dutchman faced an out of form Paul Nicholson in the first round in a tight contest but Benito edged the match 3-2 to set up a second round tie with St Helens star Dave Chisnall.
Benito stunned the World Number 9 with a 4-2 victory averaging 91.44 and he progressed into the last 16 to face Robert Thornton. This was to be as far as van de Pas would go losing 4-0 to the in-form Scotsman but he had a great tournament and surpassed everyone's expectations of him. He is improving with every tournament he plays in and I'm excited to see him in the coming months to see if he improves further and i expect to see him make at least 1 semi final in a televised tournament this year.
Keegan Brown has been tipped by many as a future World Champion and I can't find a reason to argue otherwise. His list of top players that he has got the better of is increasing with every tournament, Adrian Lewis, Raymond van Barneveld and Andy Hamilton to name a few. The World Youth Champion's run in the Grand Slam was incredible, he made it all the way to the Quarter Finals and averaged 96.91 over the tournament and was eliminated by Dave Chisnall losing 16-14 in a match he could have won. He is as short as 50/1 with some bookmakers to win next years World Championship so there is an expectation that he will improve into a top class player within the next 12 months.
Vincent van der Voort is, in my opinion, the most improved player in the PDC this year after fantastic runs in both the Players Championship and the World Championship. He made it to the Semi Final stage in the Players (losing to eventual winner Gary Anderson) and the Quarter Final stage of the Worlds (losing to eventual runner up Phil Taylor), not exactly easy matches, and to Vincent's credit, he put up a great fight against 16 time World Champion Taylor and was 3-2 ahead at one stage in the match. His throw looks reckless but he seems to find the treble 20 more than most would but his finishing is his downfall. During his last 16 match with Dean Winstanley in the World Championship, the commentator said "You will always get a chance against Vincent" in a reference to Vincent's reputation of missing doubles, but he turned that around during his good run of form where he only once had a checkout rate of under 38%. If he can keep his percentage around that mark for a few tournaments then I think he will go close on a couple of occasions and I'm sure the fans will not complain about that.
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