It’s the second round of the World Darts Championships at Alexandra Palace. And the match between Fleetwood’s Wes Newton and Taunton’s Justin Pipe, is hotting up. At two sets all, Newton is allowing his irritation at Pipe’s slow and deliberate style of play to show. Behind Pipe’s back, Newton is tapping his watch, Alex Ferguson style, to let us know that he is unhappy with the West Countryman’s speed of play. Then Newton feigns falling asleep, as his simmering frustration gets the better of him. Of course, with these distractions, the world number five’s game suffers, and he crashes out […]

It’s the first round of the World Darts Championships at Alexandra Palace. Five-times champion Raymond Van Barneveld is a hot favourite to beat James Richardson. Richardson is competing in the Worlds for the first time. He is given no chance. But those discounting the brick-layer, have overlooked his form and emergence in the PDC. The professionals recognise his ability and threat. Barney on the other hand, is a star on the wane. He’s been there and done it. And doesn’t seem to have the desire to get himself up to do it again. His meek surrender to Wes Newton in […]

It’s the first round of the World Grand Prix at Dublin. And World Champion Adrian Lewis is cruising. Five legs in a row against John Part. Lewis is looking the real deal. Then with the match beckoning, Lewis switches off. He lets Part back in and suddenly instead of closing out the match, Lewis is struggling. One all becomes two-one, as Part takes the game in an unexpected about-turn. From cruising to victory, Lewis is heading home. He’s fallen into the trap of assuming victory. It looks as if Lewis hasn’t thought through some varied match strategies in advance. He’s […]

It’s the first round of the World Matchplay at The Winter Gardens, Blackpool. And Dave Chisnall has finally found some form. Unfortunately, he is 9-1 down against Watford’s Mark Walsh. Chisnall picks off a couple of legs to keep Walsh on his toes, but it’s come too late to turn back the tide. Chisnall is out. After his semi-final performance in the UK Open at Bolton, many judges expected Chisnall to at least match his performance at The Reebok. After all The Reebok was Chisnall’s first TV event since he joined the PDC. He appeared fearless and unperturbed by pressure. […]

Mark Walsh has just destroyed Dave Chisnall in the first round of the World Matchplay. Normally, the winning player is taken up to the Sky studio, for a post-match chat with Dave Clarke. Unsurprisingly, we don’t get to hear Walsh’s post-match analysis. In face we rarely do. When he beat Alan Tabern in the second round of last years World Championships, the man from Watford was interviewed somewhere on the floor by Dave Clarke. And Walsh let Clarke know directly what he thought of Sky’s evasive interview policy. ‘We love you really’ was the sycophantic Clarke’s feeble response. But Walsh […]

It’s the first round of the World Matchplay at The Winter Gardens, Blackpool. And Dave Chisnall has finally found some form. Unfortunately, he is 9-1 down against Watford’s Mark Walsh. Chisnall picks off a couple of legs to keep Walsh on his toes, but it’s come too late to turn back the tide. Chisnall is out. After his semi-final performance in the UK Open at Bolton, many judges expected Chisnall to at least match his performance at The Reebok. After all The Reebok was Chisnall’s first TV event since he joined the PDC. He appeared fearless and unperturbed by pressure. […]

It’s the first round of the World Matchplay at The Winter Gardens, Blackpool. And World Champion Adrian Lewis is under-performing. Kevin Painter has three darts at double-top to defeat the man from Stoke. But he misses. In a titanic struggle Lewis eventually finds his form and rhythm, and eventually overcomes Painter 12-10 to progress to Round Two. In his post-match interview with Sky Sports Rob Stubbs, Painter bemoans his fate, repeating that he doesn’t seem to get the ‘luck’ that other players get. He is implying that he is ‘unlucky’. This is not the mindset of a winner and champion. […]

It’s the TV break in the second-round match between Raymond Van Barneveld and Brendan Dolan. Barney is two sets to the good. But he is playing poorly. During the break, his Dutch pal Co Stompe, comes to have an encouraging word. Next thing we know, at the start of set three, Barney has thrown a beautiful nine-darter. The Alexandra Palace is delirious! So what did Co Stompe say, to have such a catalytic effect on Barney’s game? He told him to attack! To throw the darts in a more assertive way. Clearly brilliant advice. But what does Co Stompe mean? […]

John Part looked unbeatable in his first round Alexandra Palace match against Tone Greebe. Could a fourth world title be on the cards for the Canadian. No! Why? Because he went home for Christmas. Flew back to Canada. And returned to London yesterday. He then played and lost by 4 sets to 1 to Kirk Shepherd, with a heavy case of jet-lag. No wonder he played so badly. Yet the jet-lag itself is not the reason for the defeat. John Part is a very experienced player. He would have backed himself to handle the inevitable tiredness. When your mind and […]