Dubai Masters - 1st leg PDC World Series of Darts

KevIRL

Just noticed that this starts tomorrow evening. First time I'd heard of it, but seems to be some sort of worldwide version of the Premier League, although perhaps without accumulated points each week.

Best of 19 leg Quarter Finals tomorrow night with Semi Finals and Final on Fri

First game at 5pm and live coverage is on Eurosport it seems

QF's
Wade v Whitlock
Lewis v Barney
MvG v Newton
Taylor v Hamilton

Further confirmation if it was needed on how important now it is to qualify for the Premier League also

chalkie 501

Gary Anderson and Thornton must be fairly annoyed,esp Thornton seeing as he finished higher in the premier league than lewis and newton

KevIRL

chalkie 501 wrote: »

Gary Anderson and Thornton must be fairly annoyed,esp Thornton seeing as he finished higher in the premier league than lewis and newton

Was thinking that myself, although I imagine this tournament is strictly invite only, I wonder if Anderson particularly was unavailable as you'd imagine he'd be a bigger drawthan say Hamilton.

Must be a fair few quid for playing it though

Kingp35

This tournament is done purely on World Rankings, the top 8 in the World as of the date the tournament was announced qualified for it, it's not an invitational.

Only highlights are being shown of today's Quarter Finals on Eurosport but the Semi-Finals and Final will be shown live tomorrow. For anyone who has a LIVEPDC subscription or wants to pay for one can watch all the games live on that.

It's a $250,000 tournament so there's plenty of money up for grabs. I don't think it's a ranking tournament though.

The draw has already been made:

Thursday May 23 (8pm local time, 5pm BST)
Quarter-Finals
James Wade (3) v Simon Whitlock
Adrian Lewis (2) v Raymond van Barneveld
Michael van Gerwen (4) v Wes Newton
Phil Taylor (1) v Andy Hamilton
Best of 19 legs, first to ten.

Friday May 24 (8pm local time, 5pm BST)
Semi-Finals
van Gerwen/Newton v Taylor/Hamilton
Wade/Whitlock v Lewis/van Barneveld
Best of 21 legs, first to 11.

Final
Best of 21 legs, first to 11.

Kingp35

Seems like Eurosport have changed their minds and they will be showing the darts live today on Eurosport 2.

This is also an outdoor tournament as it's being held in a Tennis stadium so it will be interesting to see how the players deal with any breezes coming across the stage!

KevIRL

Kingp35 wrote: »

Seems like Eurosport have changed their minds and they will be showing the darts live today on Eurosport 2.

This is also an outdoor tournament as it's being held in a Tennis stadium so it will be interesting to see how the players deal with any breezes coming across the stage!

Sweet! Thats made my day. Something to watch after work. Thanks Kingp

KevIRL

Wade wins the first one 10-8 in an error strewn game

Kingp35

The breeze is really effecting the players, Barneys darts going in at mad angles. I don't know if this was the best idea the PDC have ever had.

KevIRL

Atmosphere pretty non existant with no roof and the commentating sorely lacking on Eurosport again. Still better than watching the other crap on TV mind:pac:

KevIRL

Taylor mighty pi$$ed off with the crowd during his match against the Hammer, loses 10-8 and then throws a bit of a strop on stage, leaves Hamilton standing there waiting for the customary handshake and eventually gives him the lightest of handshakes before walking off the stage with a face like thunder. Classy as always Phil :pac:

pudzy

mister taylor, was really pi$$ed off looking. quess he knows how poor mervin king feels when crowd always against him now.. hehe,

Devastator

Kingp35 wrote: »

will be interesting to see how the players deal with any breezes coming across the stage!

Already know how Lewis deals with it indoors

Had to go out so only seen a little of 1st match, what was up with Taylor? Being the sore loser as usual or did he have a valid point for once(or very fw times)?

I must check livepdc to see if there are any highlights of tonight...or is it worth it?

ArmaniJeanss

Devastator wrote: »

Had to go out so only seen a little of 1st match, what was up with Taylor? Being the sore loser as usual or did he have a valid point for once(or very fw times)?

I must check livepdc to see if there are any highlights of tonight...or is it worth it?

Hard to know re Taylor to be honest, sound quality wasn't the best on Eurosport so couldn't know what the level of abuse was. The crowd was definitely antiTaylor though. Ultimately he has, to use his words about previous players who've been booed 'knuckle down, ignore them, fans have paid their money, act like a professional player etc etc".

All 4 were games tight enough without being quality (averages in the 90s) so probably marginal whether its worth seeking the highlights.

Devastator

cool cheers, I'll maybe give it a miss and catch some of 2mro nights games on.

As you said he's taken advantage of others being boo'd in past so he has to take it on some occassions

Backstreet Moyes

Commentary is fairly poor to be honest. They were making out yesterday like is was very surprising that Barney was beating Lewis. Found it a bit strange and they are constantly getting mixed up on the checkouts.

Devastator

Nuts102 wrote: »

Commentary is fairly poor to be honest. They were making out yesterday like is was very surprising that Barney was beating Lewis. Found it a bit strange and they are constantly getting mixed up on the checkouts.

Woeful!
I heard them say during Barney/Wade game earlier that the standard was so poor and the doubles they were on(at that time)proved it. Barney was on D6 & Wade on D10 Barney had just went inside the wire when going for D12 and Wade on D10 is very common.

I dont believe I'm saying this but wish Mardle was commentating

ArmaniJeanss

MVG on 168.
First dart T20. Second dart T20. 3rd Dart Single 8.
Co-Commentator *guffaws* "I don't know what happened with his last dart there".

Devastator

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

MVG on 168.
First dart T20. Second dart T20. 3rd Dart Single 8.
Co-Commentator *guffaws* "I don't know what happened with his last dart there".

face palm! :rolleyes: I dont get why they couldnt have gotten any other ex(or even current) player in to help them out. Chris Mason does ITVs commentary, I think John Part does bit here n there too....even Freddie Flintoff would have been better, at least he has a clue whats going on


Thankfully its over, seems like a glorified exhibition

wilddarts

Yeah the commentary was poor alright. It was like two lads that got their darts knowledge from wikipedia and never actually watched it before. Pity they didn't/couldn't let the commentary from rod harrington and stuart pike be run (they were mentioned on screen and there was a couple of seconds of them talking just before eurosport left it).

Still at least Eurosport televised it.

As for the Tournament as a whole, it was a bit more of a novelty than anything else. Can't really see players striving for that title as they would a major.

Kingp35

I don't think they will strive for the title but you have to admit that there is serious money in it for a two day tournament where you only have to win three games to get the title. It is an exhibition though, it's a non-ranking event and it's clearly just the PDC trying to promote darts in the Middle East.

You have to hand it to MvG though, that's three wins on the big stage in a row now. Can anyone stop him winning in Bolton?

dartsfan

Devastator wrote: »

face palm! :rolleyes: I dont get why they couldnt have gotten any other ex(or even current) player in to help them out. Chris Mason does ITVs commentary, I think John Part does bit here n there too....even Freddie Flintoff would have been better, at least he has a clue whats going on


Thankfully its over, seems like a glorified exhibition

ANY one with any knowledge could have done better than that.

Didn't see much of it, but impressed by the sizeable crowd there for the semis and final.

wilddarts

True enough, the money is good for the work involved, (thats if you'd class throwing darts in Dubai as work :rolleyes:.)

As for MvG in Bolton, it would be hard to bet against him, but Hamilton came close in Dubai and theres always Taylor who must be going crazy to re-instate himself at this stage.

leoch

when is bolton on

KevIRL

leoch wrote: »

when is bolton on

Starts 6th June