Paul Nicholson 26 Gram Onyx Grip Darts Review

For some time now I have been tempted to get these darts. The sheer look of them is enough to make me want to throw them for hours. I had my doubts about the Onyx Grip, to be honest, I didn't even know what it was so I decided to do some reasearch and found out that it offers more grip with a black coating over the dart. That was me sold!

I visited RedDragonDarts.com and the next day when I arrived home from work I was surprised to see them in my postbox in the usual packaging with a case and signature Paul Nicholson flights, great service as usual. The first thing I noticed about these beautiful pieces of Tungsten was that they were HUGE! Well the thin barrel and large stems gave them that impression. Straight to my practice room and the first 3 darts didn't go so smoothly, 26 scored (possibly the score I hate most). Another 3 brought the same result, I noticed the flights were touching my eye on each throw so I changed the stems to small ones and had a go. Bearing in mind I have only scored 180 twice in my short career, hitting one with new equipment was a big ask, but after 2 hours of playing it happened. 

I couldn't beleieve it, they are now actually challenging my Thorntons for number 1 spot on my list of favourite darts.
The Nicholson Darts are weighted and gripped towards the rear which makes for perfect flight. To get  maximum grip from them, holding further back on the dart would be preferable but if this isn't your style, don't worry, the Onyx Grip makes it 'grippy' all over the barrel and it eliminates any slips. The white and green grooves that you can see in the picture offer grip in 3 separate parts of the dart and allow many different styles to use them. Red Dragon rates the grip 4/5 (1= smooth, 5= aggressive).

These darts need to be tried by every darts enthusiast, they are nothing like any dart I have ever thrown and I would highly recommend them. 

Premier League Week 3 Preview

Michael van Gerwen will be looking to continue his phenomenal run of form this Thursday in Liverpool when he faces World Champion Gary Anderson for the second time in a week in the Premier League.

The two met in the final of the German Darts Championship on Sunday and 'Mighty Mike' showed exactly why he is World Number 1 with a 6-2 win and an average of 117.94. He produced some of the most incredible darts seen in recent years and was so dominant that Scotsman Anderson didn't get a dart at a double after the fourth leg despite averaging 103.78.

It will take something extraordinary stop the Dutchman who has won 30/31 matches since his elimination in the World Championships in the Ally Pally, but if anybody can, it will be the current World Champion.

Phil Taylor will take on Stephen Bunting this week in a match that promises big scoring and high checkout percentages. Bookmakers don't give Bunting much of a chance, but I think they might have this one wrong. 'The Bullet' will have the crowd firmly behind him cheering his every dart and after only getting 1 point in his first 2 matches, he will need to get a win this week to climb up the table and away from danger at the bottom. The St Helens man will need to improve on his latest performance in the German Darts Championship where he was demolished 6-0 by eventual winner van Gerwen averaging just 84.27, which I think he will do when he gets up on the big stage in front of his home fans who know exactly what the Big Man is capable of.

'The Power' will be looking to follow up on a 7-2 victory last week against Adrian Lewis where he averaged 108.33. He has averaged 100+ in 18 of his last 19 matches, which dates all the way back to October (93.74 against Terry Jenkins in the Masters being his only sub 100) and he will no doubt keep that record going, the outcome of this match depends on which Bunting shows up.

Peter Wright vs Raymond van Barneveld is a tough match to call. Both have not picked up a point in the opening 2 weeks and have honestly played poor. Wright's constant changing of darts is frustrating. Why doesn't he stick to the same set if he has previously played well with them? Who knows...maybe he just enjoys changing his darts like he changes his look every week? Whatever the reason, for the sake of his performances of late, it needs to stop. I fear that 'Snakebite' could be in danger of an early relegation this year from what i have seen so far.

One thing that winds me up more than Wright's darts changing is Barney's glasses. If he can't see the board then he should wear them. From what I've seen he performs better with them on so I hope to see the specs again this Thursday. The Dutchman's averages reflect his results with just 85.68 in the first week and 91.73 last week, he will need to improve on them to get his first points this week and I expect him to do so and get the points.

James Wade vs Dave Chisnall (Finishing vs Scoring). These two are completely different players and I think they will cancel each other out throughout the match. Dave will leave a double after 12 darts with Wade stepping up to the oche with 121. who wins from this point? 50/50? This is why I'm calling a draw in this one. 'Chizzy' has been on the form of his life and he says that a change of practice routine (only throwing for 2 hours a day instead of 6) is to thank for this.

Adrian Lewis is also playing some incredible darts. His performance last week was a shock considering his form in 2015. He is the only player to get the better of MVG this year on his way to winning a UK Open Qualifier recently. In the first week of the Premier League he averaged 113.8 against Barney and if he plays like that then I can't see anybody beating him. After his win in week 1 when he was interviewed by Wayne Mardle, 'Jackpot' admitted that he is 'lazy' and that Kieth Deller gets the best out of him. He is getting back to the form he showed when winning back-to-back World Championships.
His opponent this week is Kim Huybrechts who's first Premier League campaign has not got off to the best of starts with 2 losses despite averaging 98 in week 1. He needs something to kick-start his campaign but I don't think it will come this week, maybe next Thursday when he faces Chinall.
I think Lewis should win but be sure that 'The Hurricane' won't lie down without a fight and might push the World Number 4 all the way

Thornton 26 Gram Review

Robert Thornton is getting yet another mention on this blog. I'm sure if you have read a few of my other posts, you will have realised that I am a big fan. This post, however, is not about 'The Thorn' himself, but about his darts.

My first 'decent' set of darts were the Unicorn Raymond van Barneveld Super Darts 23 gram from my local Argos store. I noticed myself beginning to throw better with these darts, I loved them, but one Saturday night I decided to bring them to the local pub to show them off, this was a pointless exercise because the bar was far too busy to play and 8-10 beers later the darts were gone. Gutted would be an understatement. 

The next morning, in my fragile state, I went on a hunt for the perfect replacement. A simple Google search threw up a website called RedDragonDarts.com. I had seen this advertised on a few players' clothing before so I gave them a go. I stumbled across Robert Thornton 26 gram and the first feature of this dart that caught my eye was the rough grip that received a 4/5 rating (1= smooth, 5= aggressive) so I decided to go with my instinct and purchased them for a reasonable £25.90.

Two days later they arrived and from that point onward I have never considered throwing another dart. The weight, thin barrel and amazing grip are what keeps me throwing at a good standard and in the past I have struggled maintaining a consistent throw due to an awkward throwing style that consists of using 3 fingers (one being on the stem and another slipping onto the point from time to time) but these feel like they were made just for me. Highly Recommended.

A mention to Red Dragon Darts for their speedy delivery and easy to use website, I have since used them to buy other darting equipment (Flights, stems etc.) and the products have arrived within 3 working days on every purchase, I would also highly recommend them.

Post World Championship Record

I've had a look at how some of the top players perform in the months that follow the World Championship to see if any suffer from a 'World Championship hangover'. I hope this will help your predictions for the upcoming Unibet Masters. The number in brackets is the amount of events the player participated in.

Players prize money won in 2014 up to and including UK Open.

Adrian Lewis- £65,000 (7)

Michael van Gerwen- £51,500 (8)

Gary Anderson- £39,500 (9)

Terry Jenkins- £32,000 (12)

Robert Thornton- £14,000 (8)

Phil Taylor- £13,500 (4)
Peter Wright- £11,000 (9)

Raymond van Barneveld- £9,000 (8)

James Wade- £8,500 (6)

Simon Whitlock- £6,250 (8)

Players prize money won in 2013 up to and including The Masters

Adrian Lewis- £25,500 (4)

Phil Taylor- £23,000 (2)

Michael van Gerwen- £15,500 (4)

Simon Whitlock- £6,100 (4)

Robert Thornton- £5,900 (4)

Raymond van Barneveld- £5,900 (4)

Peter Wright- £3,100 (3)

James Wade- £3,000 (1)

Gary Anderson- £2,300 (4)

Terry Jenkins- £2,100 (3)

Based on these findings and current form my 3 picks for the Unibet Masters are;

Terry Jenkins 66/1

Robert Thornton 35/1

Adrian Lewis 7/1

Who to Keep an Eye on in 2015

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.

World Championship Predictions

Tomorrow is the start of the PDC World Championship and this blog post is highlighting who I think will go far or possibly win the tournament based on form and the draw. 

Consistency is the most important aspect in this magnificent tournament, winning a first to six legs match when playing badly is possible but sets format will expose players' inconsistency and it will prevent any flukes, this is what makes it the best tournament on the darting calendar.

If you have read this blog before then you will have noticed that I am a big fan of Robert Thornton. His big scoring is a joy to watch and when he is on form with his doubles he could beat anyone. The draw hasn't been too bad either, he meets World Championship debutant Andrew Gilding in the first round and should get through that without any hassle. The second round could be tricky with Ronnie Baxter or a qualifier waiting, especially if the qualifier is Daryl Gurney. The up and coming Northern Ireland man is a quality player who could ruffle some feathers this year if on his game although I think Thornton should progress into the last 16 where he could be up against either Justin Pipe or Terry Jenkins. This round isn't a certainty but the long format in the later rounds should help him and he usually steps up his game on the biggest stage of them all. Dave Chisnall or Michael van Gerwen may be next and it will be difficult for the Scotsman, but stranger things have happened. He is 80/1 at Bet365 which I think is very over priced...so over priced I think it will have my £1 each way bet.

If I was to choose which half of the draw is the most difficult, I would say the bottom half without a doubt. Current BDO World Champion Stephen Bunting must be cursing his luck after seeing that he is likely to come up against James Wade in the 2nd round, 'The Bullet' is one of my favourite players on the circuit but it's a tall order for the man from St Helens to go all the way on his debut as he also has Adrian Lewis, Jamie Caven, Brendan Dolan, Raymond van Barneveld, Michael Smith and Keegan Bradley in his quarter of the draw and if he made it past all of those he would likely face Phil Taylor in the Semi Finals. I think he will win this prestigious event in the coming years and I hope he can prove me wrong and win it this year. A big price of 33/1 sounds fair to me.

Vincent van der Voort is in the easiest quarter of the draw in my opinion with players including an out of form Simon Whitlock, Ian White, Dean Winstanly and Mervyn King. Phil Taylor is also in that quarter but van der Voort won't meet him until the Quarter Finals if all goes to plan. If he plays as well as he did in the Players Championship Finals when he made it to the semi final losing to eventual winner Gary Anderson, then I think he will have a chance of progressing far. The long format should suit the Dutchman as he always seems to get better as the match goes on. He's a player I will be keeping my eye on throughout and 250/1 is a huge price, although if he plays anything below his best he won't get past the second round.

The usual suspects all have obvious claims. Gary Anderson is fresh off the back of a great weekend which saw him win the Players Championship Finals beating World Number 2 Phil Taylor in a thrilling final and he will want to emulate that although Christian Kist or Jelle Klaasen will be his opponents in the second round and they won't be a walk in the park. Bookmakers have Fan Favourite Anderson at 13/2, just too short for me but he is very capable and I'm sure a few will have their quids on him.

Phil Taylor will be the one to beat this year but I'm sticking my neck out and saying that I think there will be a new champion this year. I can't wait to watch and with the amount of players on form, it should be one of the best World Championships ever.

Thornton/Gilding, Klaasen/Kist Preview

Only five days to go now until the start of the PDC World Championship. From now until Thursday I will post stats on some of the standout first round matches.

The number 9 seed Robert Thornton will face World Championship debutante Andrew Gilding in the first round. These two have only met twice in the past with 'The Thorn' winning on both occasions in a short first to six legs format.

Gilding's form has not been spectacular lately, he defeated Jelle Klaasen 6-0 in a Grand Slam qualifying match in November but hasn't done much since then losing to the likes of Mervyn King, Vincent van der Voort, Steve Beaton and Matt Edgar.

Robert Thornton was unlucky to be eliminated in the Players Championship  at the last 16 stage by Jamie Caven last weekend after coming back from 9-5 down to make it  9-9 in a first to 10 legs match but Caven held his nerve and took the match on the bull. The Scotsman's recent form has been decent winning against the likes of Darren Webster, van der Voort and Rowby-John Rodriguez and it would be a surprise to see him being eliminated in the early stages of the tournament with either Ronnie Baxter, Daryl Gurney or Scott Mackenzie waiting in the second round.

Arguably the best match of the first round is between Jelle Klaasen and Christian Kist. Both are in a good run of form and the match promises to be outstanding. Kist recently made it to the last 16 at the Grand Slam of Darts and the last 16 in a 128 player Pro Tour event. His most recent to match was in the Players Championship Finals second round where he lost to eventual winner Gary Anderson and if truth be told, he was unlucky not to win.

Klassen made it to the last 16 of the Players Championship losing to Dead Winstanly, but he produced one of the best performances of the weekend against an in-form James Wade winning 6-4 in the first round where he averaged 108.7 and had a 75% checkout rate. If he can reproduce that form then he will be hard to beat. Klaasen also had an impressive European Championship where he made it to the Quarter Final stage eliminating Adrian Lewis and Jamie Caven in the first two rounds before losing out to eventual finalist Mervyn King.

The two Dutchmen have met once this year where Kist triumphed 6-5, but this match will be decided on who can hold their nerve on the biggest stage.