SEWA - World Championship 4

Charis writes "Luckily I had recovered a little bit on Monday morning, I was still coughing but my head was clear. I enjoyed my English breakfast and was remembered that in this hotel they served very salty bacon…At least one didn’t need to salt the eggs!

I had not too much time in the morning – I always try to be around one hour before the matches start at the venue – but I had time enough to get some food for the day. The break between the afternoon session and the evening session is not very long. I usually stay at the venue, eat something, have a look around, talk to the press room inhabitants and do some updates. Last year there was a dart equipment stand in the venue – not this year. Might be they didn’t sell too much as people were not allowed to take the darts into the hall.
Monday started with Colin Lloyd against Denis Ovens. Colin Lloyd managed to win it but it was a rather close match though not very good one with both player averaging around 88.
The second match was Kirk Sheperd v John Part and of course all of you know by now what happened. Kirk Sheperd did win but not because he played a good match – he won because John played even worse…As even John Part had no explanation for what happened I would say we just have to accept it happened and better forget that match. Probably there are those days when you find no way to get into a match – we did see during the Grand Slam it even can happen to a Phil Taylor. But I’ve to add that John by this loss was out now of the top 16 – that means he’s not automatically qualified for the Major tournaments this year.
The match Kevin Painter against Vincent van der Voort was the third match of the afternoon and it was the best. It was not only good – it was almost dramatic. Both players were not too sure with their doubles which made it harder for them. In the end somehow Kevin Painter came through.
The evening started with Mark Webster and Peter Manley – it was a match difficult to predict. Manley perhaps had an advantage with his experience and he was the one who took the lead. But Webster recovered from his nervousness and did turn the match around with a really good performance. The averages in the end were not high-class but Mark Webster convinced.
The match between Raymond van Barneveld and Brendan Dolan was at about the same level – though Barney dominated it more clearly then Mark Webster had dominated his match. Brendan Dolan hadn’t a lot of chances at the doubles. Barney dominated but was rather far from his best performance though of course he produced one “highlight” of the whole tournament – his Nine-Darter. He had thrown one last year and he repeated that this year and so far he’s the only one who ever managed a Nine-Darter during the PDC World Championship.
The last match of the day was one of those everybody was looking forward too – Baxter v Anderson. It was a good match – the best of the day but the player playing great was not Gary Anderson it was Ronnie Baxter. Every set went into the fifth leg and each time it was Baxter who did win it. So we still have to wait that Gary Anderson really proves he’s a danger for Phil Taylor as a lot of people anticipated when he moved to the PDC. By his win Baxter crowned a rather good year for him – he was on the way to a Premier League place and we by now know he managed to get it.
I had survived another day despite the cold!!! And felt almost recovered. Leaving the venue I found out the weather had turned into horrible once again – a strong very cold wind and pouring rain, really disagreeable. As it was not very late I asked in the hotel for the free internet connection they offered and finished my match report translations up in my room with a nice cup of hot chocolate. One needed that – the windows of the hotel were not really tight and there was a rather strong cold draught – well, it was my fault as well as I had forgotten to turn on the heating in the morning….
The weather was still horrible the next morning and I stayed in my room as long as possible. It was not far to the venue but I nevertheless reached it wet through because of the strong wind. The umbrella didn’t help much. Luckily it was warm in the venue and there was always warm coffee and tea – we all needed it that day. It was the last day of my World Championship visit and the German player Jyhan Artut had promised me to come and talk to me for a while. I was rather lucky – I had seen quite a lot of the first round matches, all second round matches and the first two third round matches …
This Tuesday proved to be with one exception a day of one-sided matches – Andy Hamilton, Terry Jenkins, Simon Whitlock, Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis proved to be just too strong for their opponents. The only match that at least felt a hard contest was the match between James Wade and Michael van Gerwen. It was a rather fast match and Michael van Gerwen to be sure showed the best performance I could see from him till now. He missed to hit the double for the 3:3 in the end and James Wade hit with his first Matchdart the double 20 to win 4:2.
Simon Whitlock once again impressed – he’s unbelievable focussed and he was my “player of the tournament”. I was not really surprised I had watched him during two GSODs. But some players need time after the switch to settle in the PDC. No other player till now needed so little time – in his first major tournament he already played himself into the final.
Taylor and Lewis impressed by almost identical high averages from around 103.
One of the losers of the day was Darin Young who produced one of the weakest performances I had seen of him so far. Like John Part he didn´t get into the match at all. Would they have spend Christmas together one could have believed they had infected one another. Terry Jenkins, Darin’s opponent, played a quite good match with a 90 average.
Jyhan Artut really turned up – he was flying home the same day – and he told me he had felt rather lonely in the player’s hotel after Christmas. The advantage of the player’s hotel is that the PDC usually sets up a practice room with some boards and that there exists some kind of taxi shuttle to the venue. But while before Christmas a lot of players had stayed there after Christmas no one seemed to be around. Artut has got himself a sponsor – he was not 100% sure whether everything was already settled. But should all be all right he will play the pro circuit this year full time – he would be the first German player who ever tried his luck as a full time pro for a year. I can’t tell you whether he’ll be good enough to succeed. I am not really sure - there are a lot of good players in the pro circuit and it is very hard to win through – we’ll see what happens. Of course it would be a good thing to happen for the German dart scene.
A little sad I returned to my hotel - on one side I was glad to fly home to the family on the other side it’s always a pity to have to leave in the middle of a tournament. That’s why I like the UK Open – that lasts for only four days and I can stay there all the time.
The weather was still the same and it stayed over night and the next day. But at least there was no ice and snow and I had no problems with the flight back at all other that there was no direct flight to Stuttgart. I had to change in Frankfurt to get home.
I once again had a great time during the World Championship and I hope to be back there in December…..
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