KNOB OF THE WEEK
This week it goes to the fat little waddling entitled cunt Luke Littler and to a lesser extant to the English "team". I do not blame both Lukes for the ridiculous comments from the media how they were "unbeatable", Not their fault the bookies made them unworthy of backing, nor was it the fault of both Luke's you had so many others like Mardle rim the England team only for the Lukes not to perform. Dennis Priestley said in an interview “Luke Littler and Luke Humphries let their country down at the World Cup of Darts, from what we’ve heard they weren’t sitting together or practising together. He also said both Lukes did not deserve their MBE's getting them too soon.
I like Priestley and agree that the MBE's came very early, especially when you consider how long it took Bristow to get one who was a bigger star than Littler ever was. Bristow was a household name and global star before social media was even a thing. Did both Luke's let their country down ? I think Priestley's word were a little harsh. Price mentioned how the players were not a "team" did not practice together, nor arrive together. There was most definitely an ego issue with both Lukes.
PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPS
EVENT #17
Last 128: Carnage for a lot of seeds as 13 of them went out, they included Chizzy, Clayton, Schindler, Ando, Searle, Gilding, Ratajski, Joyce, Cullen, Woodhouse, Edhouse, Lukeman and Zonneveld. The highest average of the round was 105.15 by Ando who lost.
Last 64: The remaining seeds were dominant in this round with only Wattimena and Pikachu exiting. Smudger had the highest average with a 102.40
Last 32: The seeds took a bashing in this round wIth Smudger, de Decker, Wright,MenzIes, Noppert, Barney and Gurney, with the highest average of the round a 105.11 for De Decker who lost.
Last 16: Out went Bunting, Josh Cock, Nijman the match fixer and O'Connor. For the third time that day the highest average of the round which was 103.28 belonged to a player that lost, this time O'Connor.
Last 8: Heta averaged 108.94 dumping out Veenstra, Van Veen beat Tricole, Dirk walloped Bellyboy 6-1, and Dobey sent a piss poor Wade packing 6-3.
Semis: Dirk averaging 98 beat Heta 7-6 in a decent game dobey averaging 9 beat van Veen 7-5
Final : Dirk was averaging 110 after 5 legs and trailed 3-2 to Dobey's 96. A 13 darter saw Dobey go 5-3 up and now he was averaging over 101. Despite back to back maximums from Dirk, Dobey broke for 7-3, but Dirk broke and then Dobey missed match darts after hitting 2 maximums, Dirk held for 5-7 and broke again after Dobey missed a 3rd match dart, and was throwing for 7-7 which he got with a 105 checkout. Dirk left 55 after 12, but Dobey wrapped it up, Class final that had 15 maximums.
Dobey's win solidified his hold on the #7 spot, the only movers in the top 32 were Dirk and Woodlouse who swapped places with Dirk moving above to #30. Bellyboy got to within around 3k from the matchplay
EVENT #18
Last 128: The seeds that went were Price, Ando, Wright, Menzies, Dirk, Woodhouse, Joyce and the match fixing Nijman
The highest average of the round was 111.88 by Smudger.
Last 64: Out went Cullen, Bellyboy, Gilding, and Barney. De Decker hit the highest average of the round with a 106.08.
Last 32: The seeds that went out were Dobey, Schindler, Van Veen, Rock, Noppert, Gurney, Pikachu, Ratajski and Lukeman, with Searle clocking the rounds highest average of 108.97
Last 16: Out went Clayton, Wade, Smudger, Heta and Searle with 106.4 the highest average by Bunting.
Last 8: Chizzy the #1 seed beat Crabtree, Bunting beat evil Charlie in a last leg decider, Zonneveld beat Rues in a grim encounter, and Wattimena beat De Decker who lost with an average of 103.42
Semis: Bunting beat Chizzy, and Wattimenna beat zonneveld, both games going to last leg deciders.
Final: Bunting took the title averaging 104.84 winning 8-5 against Wattimena.
Wade moved above Cross to world #8 after another bit of a run, Bunting solidified his position as #4. Smudger was up to number 14 overtaking Wright. Bellyboy still remained 3250 quid outside the matchplay.He would have been worse off if Joyce did not bomb on the fist 2 days.
EVENT #19
Last 128: Out went 10 seeds, they were Chizzy, Price, Bunting, Seale, Dirk, Menzies, Noppert, Cullen, Woodlouse and Ratajski. Highest average of the round went to Gilding with a 110.38.
Last 64: The remaining seeds fared a lot better this round with only Schindler, De Decker, Pikachu and Lukeman going out.Highest average of the round was 101.91 by the match fixer.
Last 32: With more seeds facing each other, out went Dobey, Clayton, Wright, Ando, Bellyboy, Wattimena, Barney and Zonneveld. With so many tight games the highest average was only 99.66 by Gruellich who lost.
Last 16: Out went Smudger, Joyce, Gurney, O'Connor and Doets, with the match fixer posting the highest average of the round with a 104.70.
Last 8: Wade playing dog shit came from 4-0 down to Van Veen averaging over a ton to win 6 legs on the trot,The match fixer beat Soutar, Gilding sent Heta packing 6-2 and Scott williams beat Bradley Brooks by the same score.
Semis: Wade averaging 98.74 was too strong for Gildin and won 7-3. The match fixing cunt missed at least 4 match darts and out he went to Scott williams, a wonderful result.
Final: Legs went with throw until leg 6 when Wade broke for 4-2, and took out 120 for 5-2, held for 6-3 with a 10 darter.He broke for 7-3 and threw for the win, which he took, averaging 101.5 and a comp average for the entire day of around 99. It was Wade's 24th floor title if you count the old UK open qualifiers and players championships.
RANKINGS & MATCHPLAY
Wades win saw him extend his lead over Cross in the #8 spot and Heta is breathing down Cross's neck ready to overtake. Smudger moved above Wright to #14, The biggest drop was Woodlouse dropping 2 spots to #32. Outside of the top 32. Whilst Bellyboy did win games, he did not win enough and with Joyce going further in the last event Bellyboy is now 4,250 quid outside a matchplay spot. The 2023 Matchplay was won by Aspinall so he defends 200k and a first round exit could see him drop outside the worlds top 20, Clayton defends 100k. Cullen defends 59k, from a semi and I doubt anyone believes he will go that far again. On the flip side there are a few top players like MvG, Bunting, Wade and Smudger who are only defending a first round loss and will benefit.
EURO QUALIFIERS
The previous days finalist Williams went out early along with Babs van den Bergh, Dolan and Clemens. In the last 40 the seeds of Edhouse and Doets went.
Of the 10 qualifiers, there were 5 English, 3 Polish, A Belgian and an "Austrian.
For ET##10 the qualifiers were more evenly spread out with 3 English , 2 Germanh, and one from Sweden, Ireland, Holland, Czechia and Austria.
4 players managed to qualify for both event in Rydz, Suljovic, Lukeman and White.