Donkeys become stallions as top seeds are rocked in Blackpool

Night One

There was no warming up at the Matchplay this year as we plunged straight into a session of incredible darts on night one in Blackpool.  

Picking a performance of the night from the opener is as tough as it gets, but the moment of the night was unquestionable as John Part rolled back the years to produce a nine-dart finish in the final contest of the evening to bring the house down.

Let's start at the beginning though and we were treated to the first of many shocks of the first round immediately when the Bronzed Adonis neutered the Raging Bull with a 100.9 average and a 48% checkout average which will win you a match against pretty much anyone.  If former World Champ Super Steve can keep up that form then he will be a stern test in the next round and he'll be delighted with his surprise 10-3 win.

Big Vince van der Voort didn't quite do it in such style but he got the better of a low quality contest against The Saint Al Tabern.  There was nothing in it but VdvV just had the better of the doubles and that made all the difference to take it 10-7.

The World Champ possibly just pipped the Adonis to the win of the night award with an absolute epic win of The Terminator "Eyes of a machine" Kev Painter.

The Artist was 9-6 up at one stage and looking nailed on for a win but Lewis showed why he is champion of the world with an incredible come back and a total of 12 180s to take the match 14-12 after an eternity on the oche.

Following that one was no easy task but Darth Maple new exactly what he needed to do to do it and that was hammer home 501 points in just nine chucks.

What wasn't part of the plan though was losing seven of the opening 10 legs before he managed the perfect performance.

Johnny P rallied after the impressive feat but couldn't quite overturn the deficit ending the match just two legs behind at 10-8.

Night Two

Maybe not such a scintillating night on Sunday but a marker was laid down by my pick for the tournament as The Machine looked very well oiled indeed.

Paul Nicho managed to take a break from baiting Phil Taylor to come through a tough encounter with Colin “Ozzy” Osbourne who looked to be back to somewhere near his best, but the motor-mouthed Geordie’s finishing of over 50% was tasty enough to pick up the win.

The only real shock of the night say Dave Chisnall crash out 10-3 at the hands of Special Brew Mark Walsh, Chizzy’s finishing was woeful, just three out of 18 and that allowed Walshy to prosper with a solid performance.

Then came Wade’s rout of Jamie Caven as he whitewashed him 10 to nil.  What must be pointed out though is how poor Jabba Caven was in Blackpool, Wadey romped to a whitewash win averaging under 90 and hitting just one maximum.  A 10-0 win is a 10-0 win though and his confidence will be flowing.

Barney put some doubters (including me) in their place last up as he swatted away the challenge of Bomber Brown with a very solid performance. Averaging 95 and checking out at 40% is about par for the course and will get you through most first round matches and it worked for RvB.

Night Three

The King’s abdication of power continued on Monday night, but the overlord of arrows showed he is still very much a contender.

The evening kicked off with the ever-dependable Wayne Jones seeing off the challenge of debutant Scott Rand.  Randy was decent, but didn’t quite perform at his best and the experienced Jones did enough, a 161 finish being the highlight.

Then came the continuation of Merv King’s pretty dire form on TV, it goes down as a shock but for many it won’t have been.  Mr Pipe has been impressing over the last 18 months and is becoming a real contender and while his star is rising, Merv’s is very much on the wane.  The King’s finishing was pretty good but he couldn’t keep up with JP’s scoring and The Force ran away with it 10-6.

Match of the night was undoubtedly Mr Taylor against Mile High Mark Hylton who continues to impress on the PDC circuit.  It was the perfect test for Taylor really as he had to be really on his game to see off Hylton’s challenge which was an extremely stern one.  Mile High banged in seven 180s, averaged 99 and finished 50% of his doubles, that would have won him any other game in the first round but The Power threw a 101.6 average and a 59% finishing rate, to sneak it 10-8.   

Taylor looks good , everyone beware.

Although The Warrior Newton was my outside tip for the tournament I was a little worried for him here as he faced the in-form Andy Smith.  It wasn’t the Pie Man’s night though as he couldn’t find any rhythm at all and Wes strolled to a very comfortable 10-2 win.

Night Four

We were treated to the biggest shock of the first round on Tuesday evening, as the fourth seed (but the bookies’ second favourite) crashed out.

The first match of the night was reported as a shock but I have to disagree, and I for one was not surprised at all to see The Heat melt down The Rocket.  Ronnie Baxter’s form has been pretty shoddy this year whereas Ovens has been playing as well as he has done for years, yes if they were both on top of their game you’d back Baxter, but not when he’s like this.  He averaged less than 85, and although Dennis wasn’t playing too well either he edged him out to progress.

A bigger shock was seeing the giant Scot John Henderson dispatching former champ Colin Lloyd with a pretty tasty performance.  Six maximums and a near 50% rate on the doubles was impressive and with Jaws not really firing it was enough to win by three legs.  As much as it was a surprise, Lloyd hasn’t competed at the business end of tournaments for a long while now and I don’t think anyone will be especially relieved to see him exit.

The real stunning result came in the penultimate match of the round as many people’s tip for Blackpool glory was sent packing after a hammer blow to the head from Andy Hamilton.

It’s a bit of a cliché to say Anderson is an incredible scorer but can’t hit doubles, and I usually don’t go along with it but it was exactly what happened here.  An incredible 10 maximums giving him an average of 98 should win you the match, but 6/21 doubles is poor and that’s what cost him.

Hamilton showed him that the game is about how you close out a leg and huge finishes of 135, 130 and 122 swung the match in his favour.  The biggest win of the Hammer’s recent career, can he capitalise now?  Certainly a quarter-final place is on the cards which very few would have picked before a dart was thrown.

The last match of the first round went by the book but Snakebite Pete Wright gave The Wizard a real game, showing he’s close to being a real threat as he banged in six maximums and hit two ton-plus finishes. Whitlock put in a consistently good performance though and his class shone through winning 10-7.

Darts has returned to out TV screens with a bang and the opening four nights have been a real treat, my two picks remain the same of Wade and an outside chance of Newton, but Taylor has also picked up his hat and placed it very firmly in the ring, as if it was ever anywhere else.