World Matchplay 2006

NeoRox

Here is the draw for the World Matchplay which starts on Sunday 23rd July.

Phil Taylor (1) v Bob Anderson
John Part (16) v Wes Newton
Dennis Priestley (8) v Alan Tabern
Mark Dudbridge (9) v Alex Roy
Wayne Mardle (5) v Steve Hine
Terry Jenkins (12) v Lionel Sams
Peter Manley (4) v Andy Hamilton
Adrian Lewis (13) v Matt Clark
Colin Lloyd (2) v Steve Maish
Chris Mason (15) v Steve Beaton
Kevin Painter (7) v Barrie Bates
Denis Ovens (10) v James Wade
Andy Jenkins (6) v Alan Warriner-Little
Roland Scholten (11) v Andy Smith
Ronnie Baxter (3) v Dennis Smith
Mark Walsh (14) v Dave Askew

MBC

Was this the tournament that Barney didn't qualify for??? I'm going to throw an oul ten euro each way bet on Alan Tabern - should get a good price for him.

Kingp35

Yea Barney failed to qualify for this one. This event is Taylors favourite and he said in many interviews that this is the one that he really wants to win this year. I think this is a great tournament as well and Blackpool is an excellent venue. Im looking forward to it and it should be a great tournament.

mchurl

Always like the matchplay, the atmosphere always seems brilliant and the players seem to respond to this. Disappointing to not see Barney but should be a great tournament non the less.

kong501

the worldmatchplay is the 1 all the players like to play in......not just coz blackpool is such a great place...but the venue itself is fantastic to play in,the build up to the matchplay with the players comps before hand and also the crowds that gather to watch....with or without barney it will be a great week of darts...

The Rooster

Blackpool should be fantastic. A bit of a pity Barney isnt there, but in all fairness he was beaten in the qualifiers by Andy Hamiltion, so its Hamilton who deserves the place and he'll cause Manley plenty of problems.

Some very interesting second round matches coming up, if the seeds win through, especially:

Taylor v Part
Lloyd v Mason
Manley v Lewis

Kingp35

The World Matchplay finally gets underway tomorrow (Sunday) and here is the order of play:

Sunday 23 July
First Round
7.30pm Start
Mark Dudbridge v Alex Roy
John Part v Wes Newton
Dennis Priestley v Alan Tabern

The pick of sunday night has got to be newly crowned Desert Classic champion John Part against the man he met in the semi-finals of that competition, Wes Newton. Both players are on good form and it should be a very good first round match. Part should be favourite and I think he might have just enough to get through.

Dudbridge and Roy should be interesting too with Dudbridge struggling to make a real impact on the majors in the last while. That game could go either way. As for Priestly and Tabern, I think the menace will have too much for Tabern and should go through.

We can all look forward to a week of quality darts!!

califano

Who do you think will win the Peter Manley v Andy Hamilton game?.
Hamilton is the form horse at the moment it seems. Hamilton also beat Barney in the qualifier. He seems to be going further than Manley in recent tourneys but Manley has good form in the Matchplay and more experience on the big stage.
Any more arguments for or against these two?. Who is your pick to go through?.

Edit

Kingp35

Todays results are as follows:

First Round (continued)
Denis Ovens 1-10 James Wade
Andy Jenkins 11-9 Alan Warriner-Little
Roland Scholten 10-6 Andy Smith
Mark Walsh 10-8 Dave Askew

Evening Session (7pm BST)
Ronnie Baxter 10-4 Dennis Smith
Second Round
Andy Hamilton 15-13 Adrian Lewis
Phil Taylor 13-2 John Part

The Andy Hamilton V Adrian Lewis match was an epic and was truely great entertainment. Both players were in the lead at various stages of the game but neither could pull away and it always looked like going to sudden death. Hamilton's consistency won out in the end and he probably just deserved to go through. It was a high quality game with both players playing some great darts. Hamilton looks like a very decent player who is capable of going far in this tournament.

Taylor V Part was billed as the big one. Part just won the desert Classic and he had beaten Taylor 4 times on tv where Taylor had beaten Part only 3. Whta happened to Part out there is a mystery. He was simply awful and could hit nothing. taylor didnt play particularily well by his standards but he didnt have to as Part just didnt perform. His first 3 darts of the match only amounted to 7. It was embarrassing for him up there and sad to see.

NeoRox

Yeah it was a pity to see Part throw so bad, the heat on stage didn't look to be affecting him but you never know. Dennis Smith needed medical attention after his match with Baxter. While it wasn't his usual ton+ average Taylor still managed to average 98.57.

I too enjoyed the Hamilton - Lewis match and thought Andy Hamilton was the deserved winner here. For someone who practices non stop with Phil Taylor and seems to have a lot of talent Adrian Lewis is very inconsistent. Although he is only 21 you would think that Taylor would have taught him to focus on the darts and not start muttering and blaming the crowd when an opponent starts getting on top of him, he should just knuckle down and get on with it by playing himself back into form. Hopefully as he matures he will get better and not turn into another Alan Warriner.

My 2 cents.

swalsh

I have met Adrian Lewis when he came over to Ireland with Taylor and he is a nice guy, really down to earth. Had three darts to beat him, the first being for a 13 dart finish but bottled it and he took out a 115.
Defo one for the future, nearly dropped when I found out he was 19- it was 1 and a half years ago

Kingp35

There is absolutely no doubt that Lewis has great potential but he is just too inconsistant at the moment. I agree with NeoRox that he is far too easy to get wound up. You could see the pure concentration Hamilton had on the game last night whereas Lewis was letting the crowd get the better off him and it was putting him off his game. Remember what happened between him and Manley at the Worlds in December when Lewis let Manley get to him and totally lost it.

He has a long way to go before we can count him as a truely good player but I think he will be one day. Comes off a little too cocky for my liking though.

Kingp35

Here are todays second round scores:

Dennis Priestley 13-8 Alex Roy
Wayne Mardle 13-10 Lionel Sams
Kevin Painter 9-13 James Wade

Andy Jenkins 8-13 Roland Scholten
Steve Maish 7-13 Chris Mason
Ronnie Baxter v Mark Walsh

I didnt get to see any of the first three games but im delighted both Priestley and Mardle got through. Priestley will now play Taylor in the quarters and that should be a great game as these two were rivals in the 90's. Priestley so nearly beat Taylor last year in Blackpool when he led 13-12 but lost 13-15. Should be a great game. James Wade is also looking good. He is only 23 and quit his job 12 days ago to become a full time professional and now he finds himself in the quarter finals.

Jenkins and Scholten game was a close match up until around the 12th leg when Scholten began to take control. Once he went 9-6 up ther was no way back for Jenkins. Scholten looked good but he can play better and will need too if he is to beat Baxter in the next round. Mason against Maish was a strange game. Mason was always just ahead but he couldnt pull away. Mason has a tendency to drop his head and lose it in games. He doesnt have the pyschological edge tpo keep himself positive during games and thats why he has never lived up to his incredible talent. Luckily he managed to get through this round but he needs to start focusing more.

Baxter and Walsh was one of the strangest games I have seen. Baxter was brilliant in the first seven legs as he went into a 7-0 lead. Walsh was playing terrible but Baxter was playing some great stuff. He then managed to go into a 12-3 lead and it seemed as if it was a stroll in the park for him. Then Baxter went on to miss 17 shots at doubles to win the match as Walsh fought his way back to 12-9 and you could see the pressure munting on baxter. Finally he managed to win the match 13-9 but I wonder will he be thinking about all those missed doubles before his next round match.

The Quarter Final lineup is as follows:

James Wade V Chris Mason
Roland Scholten V Ronnie Baxter
Wayne Mardle V Andy Hamilton
Phil Taylor V Dennis Priestley

The Rooster

Saw most of the quarter-finals yesterday. Some great action.

James Wade was superb against Mason. Mace was playin quite well himself, but Wade just blew him away. 16-4.

Baxter v Scholten was nip and tuck the whole way. Scholten did go into a decent lead at 9-6, but Ronnie clawed it back to 12-12. Then Rollie took out a 138 to go ahead again and ended up winnng 16-13. Scored well and finished well.

Hamilton was 1/2 odds on fav going into his match against Mardle. That was right based on his current form, but a look at the current rankings shows Mardle at 5th and Hamilton at 33rd, and Mardle vastly more experienced at winning big games. I thought Hamilton might struggle to justify the bookies odds. Mardle started off well but Hamilton is a fighter and stuck with him. I dont think there was ever more than one leg in it up to 9-9. Then Hamilton went into overdrive and was tremendous, winning 7 on the trot to walk away with the victory. Very impressive.

Dennis Priestley put up a great show against Taylor. Came back from 6-3 down to level at 6-6, then from 8-6 down to go 10-8 ahead. Sometimes Taylor starts missing doubles when he's put under this kind of pressure, but not this time. He missed feck all and played really well to win 4 legs on the trot to put him back in the drivers seat, and subesequently to win out 16-13.

So Friday night's semi final line-up is:

James Wade v Roland Scholten
Phil Taylor v Andy Hamilton

Kingp35

So Phil Taylor has won the title after a 18-11 win over James Wade. Wade played really well and was leading for a while. The important leg was when Taylor broke Wades throw to go 10-9 ahead and this hurt Wade badlty. taylor moved into overdrive and there was no way back for Wade.

You have got to give Wade credit as he had a fantastic week and im sure we are going to see plenty more of him in the future. His epic semifinal win over Scholten was a great match and Wade showed his true quality. Andy Hamilton has exploded onto the scene this week as well with some great darts. He averaged over 100 in is semifinal against Taylor and I expect Hamilton to be around for years.

A great week in Blackpool. Next up is Dublin and ill definitely be there!