Players Shining on the Small Stage

All eyes have been fixed on the Premier League for that last three months but there has been plenty of darts elsewhere on the Pro Tour. Here are a few players to keep your eye on away from the TV and big stage.

Jamie Lewis' recent run of form started at the Gibraltar Darts Trophy where he was the stand out performer of the weekend and made it to the semi-final stage, beating Michael Smith with a 96 average and 67% checkout rate, Andy 'The Pieman' Smith and Gerwyn Price along the way, only to be eliminated by World number 1 and eventual winner Michael van Gerwen in a 6-1 defeat. Lewis' form since that weekend has been on the up and he has accumulated £15,300 in prize money moving the Welshman up to 30th in the Pro Tour Order of Merit. The second Players Championship event in Coventry was one his most impressive tournaments to date beating some top-class players along the way, including Paul Nicholson, Adrian Lewis and Stephen Bunting, but he lost to the eventual winner  Peter Wright in the quarter-final stage 6-5 in a match that could have went either way. Jamie Lewis is a player that's improving with every event he plays and another few good weekends could see him creep up the Order of Merit (where he currently lies in 33rd) where hopefully he can show us all on televised tournaments what he is capable of.

'The Gentle' Mensur Suljovic is another player that we don't see very often on television, but when the draw is announced for Pro Tour events, I'm sure all players don't want to see his name next to theirs. The big Austrian's unorthodox style can be very outputting but effective and you can rely on him to score a mid 90 average in most matches, not to mention that his double 14 hitting is superb and he can cause any player in the world problems in a short format match.

Suljovic's run in the German Darts Championship has been the best he has performed this year beating Cristo Reyes, Michael Smith, Kim Huybrechts and Robert Thornton on his way to the semi-finals where he lost 6-1 to the fantastic van Gerwen. 

Since the turn of the year, Mensur has won £11,750 in prize money just from floor events and is 22nd in the PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit a good achievement considering he doesn't attend every event.

Consistency is key to Suljovic's game, he may be slow and look like he doesn't know what hes doing but, as Wayne Mardle said, he will 'ton you' throughout the match. Don't be surprised if you see him winning an event sometime in the near future.

Benito van de Pas is tipped by many to be a future World Champion and he is already showing people what he can do at the oche. The Dutchman has claimed the scalps of most of the world's top players (including Michael van Gerwen) in the past and if he did it again it wouldn't be a surprise. 

His recent form has been good, he reached a quarter-final in Barnsley beating Wayne Jones, Terry Jenkins, Robert Thornton and even managed to register a 9 darter in the process. In Coventry just a month before, Benito eliminated the likes of Jamie Bain and Keegan Brown to progress to the semi-final, only to come up against van Gerwen and lose 6-3. 

Despite the fact van de Pas has never won a Pro Tour event, he is still number 19 in the PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit having earned a cool £31,750 in the past year and he is slowly climbing up the rankings. He achieved his best run in a World Championships this year making it to the last 16 where he lost to Robert Thornton, although he did eliminated Dave Chisnall and Paul Nicholson, pocketing £18,000 for his work. This young up-and-coming star will want to better that run in the upcoming World Championships in December, but in the meantime, he will be looking to produce his best darts on the small stage and chase that top 16 spot.

John Henderson has had a stunning start to 2015. In April he had a great run in the German Darts Masters overcoming Cristo Reyes, Michael Smith, Andrew Guilding, Brendan Dolan and Adrian Lewis to make it to the final, only to be beaten by, you guessed it, Michael van Gerwen but it wasn't straightforward for the World number 1 as Henderson pushed him to a deciding leg but it wasn't enough to stop the runaway train that is MVG. The Highlander pocketed £10,000 for the weekend which is nearly half of what he earned during the entire 2014 calender year and he thanked "Easter Eggs" for his good form.
The good run didn't stop there, John then achieved a semi-final spot in the Players Championship in Coventry by eliminating a host of quality players including Wes Newton, Robert Thornton and Dave Chisnall, but eventual winner Keegan Brown stopped the Scotsman from achieving a 2nd final in as many months.
The rocking motion of Henderson is unique, but when he gets his sway in rhythm with his throwing arm he can be deadly, no player would like to face him on a good day, or after Easter Eggs apparently. He has taken his 2015 total earnings to £18,000 (excluding World Championship) which should set him up nicely for the rest of the year and we will see him in more televised tournaments and I think he can mount a serious challenge for some of the top prizes this year.

Lewis' Late Challenge For Premier League Title

After 11 weeks of marvelous darts and terrific entertainment, we are now at the 'business end' of the Betway Premier League. There are just 4 weeks left for players to cement their places in the top four and realistically, there is only one place up for grabs with Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson and Dave Chisnall all occupying the first three places and they don't look like they'll be moved.
So five players will fight it out for the last available place which Phil Taylor is currently occupying, but he won't be sitting to comfortably.

Adrian Lewis, arguably the best natural talent in the game, couldn't have started his Premier League campaign any better as he demolished reigning champion Raymond van Barneveld 7-1 with an incredible 113 average and he looked to be back to his best, but the next week was the start of a run which saw the two time World Champion be sucked into a relegation battle.
In Lewis' next seven matches, he only won three points with draws against Huybrechts, van Gerwen and Wade and between those draws, he was defeated by Taylor, Bunting, Chisnall and current World Champion Anderson.
On week 9 we saw a different Adrian Lewis from the one we had been watching for the past two months. With relegation staring him in the face, he pulled off a hugely important 7-4 win against Peter Wright and from that point on the man from Stoke didn't look back. He turned what looked like an early exit from the competition into a very realistic chance to get a top four spot and get a shot at winning the Premier League trophy, a piece of silverware that he has never had the honour of lifting.

Away from the League, Lewis' form has been excellent recently getting to five Pro Tour event finals and winning three of them, he also had an impressive run in the German Darts Masters making it to the Semi-Final stage but lost to eventual runner up John Henderson.

Lewis is currently one point behind Phil Taylor with a game in hand, but more importantly, the pair meet this Thursday night in a match that could be pivotal in deciding who gets fourth place. Taylor's form has been up-and-down lately, but last week he proved his doubters by gaining 3 points out of a possible 4 and looked more like the 16-time World Champion that we all know.

Jackpot's remaining fixtures are against Taylor, Chisnall, van Barneveld, van Gerwen and Anderson, with 10 points on offer you feel that Lewis will need 6 or 7 points, but he is more than capable on his day. Obviously it won't be easy and if he does claim fourth he will have the tough task of playing the World Number 1 Michael van Gerwen, but when people predict who they think will win the Premier League, you don't hear many saying Lewis, his scoring power and high checkouts cannot be overlooked and don't be surprised if he walks away at the end of the campaign with the trophy because I fully expect him to.

Rare Glimpse of the Lower Ranked in Gibraltar

The second European Tour event this year, The Gibraltar Darts Trophy, was available to stream online and we were treated to a weekend of some interesting darts to say the least. Predictably, the usual suspects prevailed with Michael van Gerwen beating Terry Jenkins in the final of this first to 6 legs tournament but the up-and-coming stars of our game gave the old-guard a run for their money with a few stunning performances against the odds.

Jamie Lewis was the stand out performer of the weekend as he reached the Semi-Final, defeating some useful players along the way including one of the pre-tournament favourites Michael Smith in the Second Round with a 96 average and a remarkable 67% checkout rate. This set up a last 16 match with ' Andy Smith who pushed the young Welshman in a match that could have went either way, but a 95 average and 3 180s from Lewis was enough to knock the stuffing out of 'The Pieman'.
In the Quarter-Finals Lewis faced another future star in the shape of Gerwyn Price who was having the best weekend of his darting career by coming out on top against Robert Thornton and Simon Whitlock. Sadly, one of these top prospects would be eliminated and it was 'The Iceman' Price who was edged out in a last leg decider, hopefully a sign of more to come.
A 6-1 loss in the Semi-Final to eventual champion Michael van Gerwen was as far as the young Welshman would go, but its another step in the right direction and I'm sure we will be hearing more from him soon.

After the trophy was won and the cameras had been turned off, I reflected on what was a really good weekend of darts and thought "Why is there not more tournaments with lower ranked players on TV?" People love an underdog and neutrals will always cheer them on so why can we not see them more often?

The World Championships allows us to see the top 64 in the world and that's great, but when it concludes we don't see players outside the top 16 until the UK Open over 2 months later (with the exception of number 22 Stephen Bunting who was invited to participate in the Premier League). Thanks to PDC TV we can stream to European Tour events once a month that players qualify to play in and that's a good chance to see the lesser known talents of the game, but what about the travelling? Should they not get a chance in the UK to show what they can do in front of cameras and a packed arena with an electric atmosphere?

Television and stage experience is vital in a players career, many of big names can play their best darts on the floor but when they get on the stage they fall apart. After the UK Open they only have 1 more chance to appear on our screens (not including streamed events) until October.
Don't get me wrong, I love watching van Gerwen, Taylor, Anderson and Lewis, they amaze me every time I see them, but its nice to see a new face coming through and getting the better of the established players and I think it is very important for the sport.

I understand that Sky and ITV want the big names for their tournaments, but a suitable solution would be to bring cameras along to Pro Tour events and televise some of the matches, some great darts are thrown at these events with some ridiculous averages being achieved. Showing these matches would do darts and TV companies no harm and it would bring in more fans, more money and more players.

European Championship Darts Report

Michael van Gerwen makes it two major television tournaments on the bounce as he wins the European Championship in Mulheim Germany to follow up his World Grand Prix win earlier this month.

Van Gerwen swept Justin Pipe and Brendan Dolan aside in the early rounds, while the on form Gary Anderson couldn't make it past the first round as he came out second best in a deciding leg and lost 6-5 to Terry Jenkins. The Scotsman wasn't the only big name to crash out in the opening round, James Wade, Simon Whitlock and last years winner Adrian Lewis failed to get over the first hurdle.
The quarter finals awaited with some terrific contests, the highlight being Peter Wright vs Van Barneveld. The German crowd were behind Wright all weekend and chanted his name everytime he stepped onto the stage, but this didn't stop a new look Barney (sporting glasses for the first time in this tournament) from getting the better of 'Snakebite' winning 10-7. 


Terry Jenkins played the game of his life when he eliminated Stephen Bunting 10-7, 'The Bullet' played respectably but Jenkins brought his A game and proved too much for his opponent meanwhile, bookmakers favourite MVG made light work of Dave Chisnall with an 111 average in a 10-5 win, he was looking mighty impressive at this point.

The second round produced undoubtedly the best match of the weekend. Four time winner Phil Taylor took on the PDC new boy Stephen Bunting. Both men played world class darts averaging over 100 and they took the match to a deciding leg, Bunting threw first and it proved to be the deciding factor as he took the match 10-9. 16 time World Champion Taylor said  "Stephen was brilliant there and he didn't miss anything. I can't fault him and I hold my hands up, he was the best player on the night, he played superbly and I've got no complaints."

Bunting hit 10 180s and missed double 12 for a nine-dart finish in the epic encounter, the current BDO World Champion said "It would have been lovely to hit the nine-darter and the double 12 wasn't a million miles away, but I had to shut it out afterwards because Phil could have walked all over me."

Jenkins set up a clash with Mervin King in the semi finals and MVG would meet fellow Dutchman Van Barneveld. This was the second time in one day that these players would compete and it took its toll on King, he looked very warm and was sweating heavily, his arm started dropping and he was throwing sloppy, low darts, I think this cost him the match as an average Terry Jenkins took the match 11-8.

'Mighty Mike' took on 'Barney' in the penultimate game of the tournament. Van Gerwen showed his class throughout, he hit the fourth televised 9-dart finish of his career as he came from 2-0 down to win the match 10-6

We had our finalists. World Number 1 Michael van Gerwen and now 9-time Major Television Finalist Terry Jenkins. Could 'The Bull' Jenkins break his final curse?
The answer was no. Van Gerwen stormed into an early 5-0 lead that left Jenkins with a mountain to climb. There was a mini-revival from 'The bull' but it wasn't enough. Van Gerwen won 11-4 with a 102 average and checked out 167 along the way.

The winner said "I've never won this tournament before, so it means a lot to me. A couple of years ago I could only have dreamed about this, but now it's a reality and a lot of it has to do with confidence and I know I can do a lot of good things at the moment."

World Grand Prix Darts Review

Michael Van Gerwen captured his second World Grand Prix of Darts title on Sunday with a convincing 5-3 victory against the impressive James Wade.

'The Machine' Wade had a great week which started with the Englishman sweeping Andy Smith aside in a tournament which proved difficult for some top players to adapt to. The unique double-in, double-out format showcased which players are most consistent at hitting the doubles and brings to life the saying "Scoring for show, doubles for dough". The match finished 2-0 and Wade went marching onto the 2nd round. Big names eliminated in the first round included Wes Newton, Simon Whitlock and Dave Chisnall.

He came up against Robert 'The Thorn' Thornton in what was arguably, the match of the tournament which included two 9 dart finishes (one a-piece), 90+ averages and some sublime finishing. The match went to the wire and a calm Wade showed no nerves and progressed into the final 8, some big names such as Peter Wright, Van Barneveld and Adrian Lewis crashed out.

The quarter-finals contained some exciting fixtures including Kevin Painter v Gary Anderson and Michael Van Gerwen v Mervin King, but the match that got the crowd going was World Number 2 Phil 'The Power' Taylor up against the man on form, James Wade. Not many people could see the 16 time World Champion Taylor being eliminated so early in the competition but 'The Machine' beat the odds and took the match 3-1 in a cool and efficient performance, efficient is the word that best describes Wades performances throughout the week.
The title of 'Match of the Round' went to Van Gerwen and King in a match which went all the way to a deciding leg. The underdog King (the man who eliminated fan favourite Van Barneveld) was a double away from victory when MVG ended the dream of a semi-final tie with Stephen Bunting.

Into the semi finals now and we had two matches with great potential; Anderson v Wade and Bunting v Van Gerwen. Two matches that I, like many others, would have expected to be tight contests.
Anderson looked on his way to the final when he was 3-1 up and firing on all cylinders, when an under-performing Wade stepped up his game and pulled off a remarkable comeback to win 4-3. Anderson was fantastic all week, never looked like missing double 20 getting into each leg but was defeated by a resilient Wade who never gave up.
The second semi-final was polar opposite to the first. Van Gerwen made light work of Stephen Bunting with lots of 180s and a high checkout percentage. Stephen Bunting played respectably, but any player would have found it hard to beat MVG on that form. the matched finished 4-0 and we now had our two finalists.

The final began with both players exchanging blows. First blood went to Wade, MVG got the next. They shared the next 4 sets and it was 3-3. Bookmakers had Wade as big favourite to get the better of the under par Dutchman after he got the highest checkout of the night, a 141 which left Van Gerwen reeling. The 7th set went to a deciding leg which saw Van Gerwen checking out 86 to go within one set of victory. After the break it was all one way traffic, 3 legs in a row to the Dutchman clinched a 2nd World Grand Prix title and cemented ranking of World Number 1 until at least the end of the year.

It was a great week of darts with some upsets, surprises and roller coaster matches that were impossible to predict. What I have taken from this week is that it will take something VERY special from a player to deny Michael Van Gerwen his 2nd world title in January.