Competitions SCS Premier League Darts- World Championships - Tuesday 27th December @10:00pm AEDT

[Connoisseur]

Current draft:
G Price
M Van Gerwen
M Smith

N Aspinall
G Anderson
D Van Duivjenbode

K Ratajski
S Bunting
C Dobey
R Van Barneveld

J Rock (C)
A Lewis
K Barry (VC)
A Soutar

D Baggish
D Labanauskas
B Greaves
J Smith

Very tough decision with at least half a dozen players unlucky to miss out and that could switch places over the next week and a half.

 

[Connoisseur]

Fallon Sherrock:
Became the first female player to win a match at the World Championships in 2020 and then followed it up with a win against Mensur.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1599327650463481858

Faces Rapid Ricky Evans in the first round with Joe Cullen awaiting the winner. Joe has a poor record at the Ally Pally with only 2/12 past the second round but has shown this year to win with different levels of play and should be too strong on the scoring and finishing if he faces Fallon.

As for Ricky, a partisan Fallon crowd should not faze him but it will be interesting to see if he intentionally lowers his speed a tad for finishing doubles, etc.

 

[Connoisseur]

Nathan Aspinall:

Finalist at the World Grand Prix and the Grand Slam over the past few months after dealing with a wrist injury towards the back end of 2021 and start of 2022. Capable of going one better than 2019 and 2020 and the biggest threat (along with Gary) outside the top eight seeds.

World Championship Appearances:
2019: Semi Finalist
2020: Semi Finalist (2nd for Most 180’s for the tournament)
2021: Third Round
2022: Third Round

 

[Connoisseur]

Peter Wright:

Two time world champion (2020 and 2022). Involved in some of the highest qualify matches against Gary Anderson and Michael Smith last year to win the title. Peter trailed four sets to five against Michael before winning nine of the next ten legs with a 110+ average to claim his second title.

Peter has also had a few early exits recently and survived a massive scare against Noel Malicdem in his opening match in 2020.

• Lost to Jamie Lewis 1-4 in the 2nd Round of 2018
• Lost to Toni Alcinas 1-3 in the 2nd Round of 2019
• Survived a match dart at bullseye to then win in a sudden death leg (6-5) against Noel Malicdem in the 2nd Round of 2020
• Lost to Gabriel Clemens 3-4 in the 3rd Round of 2021. Only averaged 92.6 in his opening match win against Steve West 3-1.

Faces either Mickey Mansell or Ben Robb to start his title defence. Mickey Mansell is an experienced player but highly unlikely to trouble Peter. In 2019, Mansell was fined £500 pounds for not playing to the best of his ability in a 0-3 loss against Canadian qualifier Jim Long, with both players averaging under 75.55. Has been whitewashed in 3/5 losses. Kiwi representative Ben Robb could pose a tougher challenge to Peter in the second round with the potential to sneak a set or two, if Peter starts off slow.

 

[Connoisseur]

Keane Barry:
Expecting Keane to be a very popular selection this tournament and for good reason. Two time world youth champion under both the JDC (Junior Darts Corporation) and BDO (British Darts Organisation) in 2019 and 2020. Reached the Semi Final of the UK Open this year at the age of 19 and has impressed at all TV tournaments this year.

Ten 100+ checkouts between he and Jonny Clayton in their superb second round matchup from the 2022 World Championship with Jonny registering the third highest average of the tournament with 8 180’s and a checkout percentage just under 50% to defeat Keane.

18:50 to 23:32 of the below clip.

Faces debutant Grant Sampson (South African qualifier) in the first round before Huybrechts in the second round. Kim has only progressed past the third round on two occasions from his eleven appearances.

 

[Connoisseur]

Gary Anderson will be defending his runners up prize money from 2021 (£200,000) and will need a deep run to hold onto his position within the top 16. This and the money received as a 2022 Semi Finalist account for 73.04% of his earnings for the last two years.

Gary at the World Championships:
2010= Second Round
2011= Finalist
2012= Quarter Finalist
2013= Third Round
2014= Third Round
2015= Winner
2016= Winner
2017= Runner up
2018= Quarter Finalist
2019= Semi Finalist
2020= Fourth Round
2021= Runner up
2022= Semi Finalist

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1599758822645460993

 

[Connoisseur]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1600030106113560576

 

[Connoisseur]

Michael Smith:

Michael will need to be on his game early on, especially his doubles, as his opening opponents Rafferty/Wattimena and Lukeman/Schindler all have the game to trouble him in the best of 5 sets if they capitalise on their opportunities and Lukeman/Schindler have been very impressive on the floor and/or tv events this year. Michael lost to Luke Woodhouse and Jason Lowe 3-1 with a mid nineties average in both 2020 and 2021 as the fourth seed in his opening match.

He set the tournament record for most 180’s at the most recent staging of the World Championships and last month finally registered his first televised major title win (Grand Slam).

World Championship Appearances:
2012: First Round
2013: First Round
2014: Third Round
2015: Third Round
2016: Quarter Finals
2017: Third Round
2018: Second Round
2019: Runner-up
2020: Second Round
2021: Second Round
2022: Runner-up

 

[Connoisseur]

Lisa Ashton:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1600580933995872259

 

[Connoisseur]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1600448215756611584

 

[Connoisseur]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1600751361712623616

 

[Connoisseur]

Adrian Lewis:

Two time world champion, two nine darters at the World Championships (one in the winning 2011 final) and involved in one of the greatest sets with Darren Webster in 2020. The protégé of Phil Taylor was destined and expected for more success but has failed to make a Semi Final in a ranking tournament since 2017 and his last individual win was the 2014 UK Open. Won a Players Championship event this year which was his first since 2019. Very capable of winning his quarter on his day and one of the most dangerous unseeded players. First up is experienced qualifier Daniel Larsson with Heta facing the winner. Damon has struggled in TV tournaments this season with first round exits in most.

World Championship Appearances:
2006: Quarter Final
2007: Third Round
2008: Quarter Final
2009: Second Round
2010: Quarter Final
2011: Winner
2012: Winner
2013: Quarter Final
2014: Semi Final
2015: Third Round
2016: Runner up
2017: Third Round
2018: First Round
2019: Fourth Round
2020: Fourth Round
2021: Second Round
2022: Second Round

7 of his last 10 visits to the World Championships have ended with losses to the trio of M Van Gerwen, G Anderson and R Van Barneveld.

 

[Connoisseur]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1601112333212094465

 

[Connoisseur]

Beau Greaves:
Age: 18

• Qualified as the sixth seed for the 2020 WDF Women’s World Championship at the age of 15 (youngest participant). Lost in the Semi Finals to the reigning and eventual winner, Mikuru Suzuki.
• Qualified as the fifth seed for the 2022 WDF Women’s World Championship (age 18). Lost one set for the whole tournament which occurred in the opening match to become the world champion.
• Win/Loss record of 127/6 for 2022.
• 52 wins from 52 matches on the PDC Women’s Tour for eight consecutive titles. Beau did not appear in the first twelve of twenty events. Also posted the highest average by a female of 107.86 in the final of Event 19 against Fallon Sherrock.
  

Received a nice draw and would not be surprised if she made it to the third or fourth round.

Currently competing in the World Darts Federation (WDF) Masters:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1601229242150555648

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1601207284323225601

 

[Connoisseur]

James Wade:

James is the most experienced player not to have yet hit a ton plus average on the World Championship stage, so do not go expecting to receive the ton plus bonus. Not a high 180 hitter, so expect the bulk of his bonus points to come from ton plus checkouts. Usually James is on the receiving end of a nine darter but astonishingly it is closing in on a decade since the last nine hit against him on this stage (MVG on 30/12/2012). Surely we are due for one this year? He did manage to hit one in 2021 when it was held behind close doors.

Awaits the winner of what should be one of the closely fought first round matches in Jim Williams and Sebastian Bialecki. No overly scary options in his bottom half of Section 1 in terms of power scoring, so a solid low to mid 90 with his trademark clinical finishing could see him progress to the fourth round to potentially play Danny Noppert whose game style shares many similarities with James, in regards to the clinical finishing on either combinations or last dart in hand. Hard to make a case for him to be selected given the quality of the other players seeded within the top eight and their ability to rack up more bonus points.

World Championship Appearances:
2005: First Round
2006: First Round
2007: Third Round
2008: Quarter Finals
2009: Semi Finals
2010: Quarter Finals
2011: Second Round
2012: Semi Finals
2013: Semi Finals
2014: Quarter Finals
2015: Second Round
2016: Quarter Finals
2017: Quarter Finals
2018: First Round
2019: Fourth Round
2020: Third Round
2021: Third Round
2022: Semi Finals

 

[Connoisseur]

D Chisnall:
In a year of firsts, can the six time losing finalist Dave Chisnall finally win his first television major and follow the likes of J Cullen and M Smith from earlier this year? Dangerous opening match against the winner of Gilding and Owen and his run to the quarters could include the likes of a previous BDO World Champion Stephen Bunting and then possibly two players with similar scoring power as Chizzy, in Humphries and Smith in what could shape as some high quality matchups.

Defeated MVG 5-0 in the 2021 Quarter Finals as part of his best run at the Worlds.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1599515904366153728

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1601272964673982465

Withdrew due to Covid in 2022 (3rd Round)

 

[Connoisseur]

Thread title updated to reflect the starting time for Day 1 of the World Championships.

 

[Connoisseur]

Dirk Van Duijvenbode:

Making his fourth appearance at the Alexandra Palace and has come a long way since his debut in 2016 and busting a 180 against RVB. Quarter Finalist in 2021 (lost to Gary Anderson), fourth round exit in 2022 (lost to Gerwyn Price) and will need to overcome the likes of R Smith/K Sedlacek, R Smith/D Labanauskas/J O’Shea to set up a potential fourth round match against MVG and if successful, a quarter final against the likes of Cross/Anderson/Dobey/etc awaits.

The most prolific maximum hitter over the past twelve months on a per leg basis which bodes well for his chances in the bonus points categories.

Time to bring this back for a live crowd:

 

[Connoisseur]

Rob Cross:

2018 World Champion on debut defeating Phil Taylor 7-2 with a lazy 107.67 average. The six 100+ averages as listed below all occured within his first eight matches at the World Championships between 2018 and 2019. Poor Rob has the misfortune of drawing the winner of Scott Williams and Ryan Joyce, a tie most seeds would have liked to avoid. A nicer matchup awaits if he progresses to the third round which could set up a tie against Dobey/Anderson in the fourth round.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1601217208817840134

 

[tso]

Nice work @Connoisseur