The debate on who is the greatest player of all time has gathered momentum before the key Premier League clash between Michael van Gerwen and Phil Taylor. Following the performances of ‘MVG’ in recent weeks has got many people pondering the question, but at the moment who is, as I have a look at many different factors.

Titles:

If this was based on the amount won then Michael van Gerwen would have to run across the world and grab all the trophies he could find and back to even get close to emulating Phil. ‘The Power’ over many years has won the biggest titles on numerous occasion, not least including his 16 World Championships and 15 World Matchplays.

However, people would argue that Michael hasn’t had enough time to have the chance to win the titles, where Phil has been in the game for 26 years, 2016 marks the 10th anniversary that Michael van Gerwen has been on the big stage. Michael in that time has won the World Masters, World Championship, 2 Grand Prix’s, 2 UK Open’s and the World Matchplay.

Performances:

Michael has shown the form over the last few weeks that nobody ever has produced. In that I include Phil Taylor, he is averaging 123.4. 116, 113 and that just on it’s own is staggering, but in these matches if it wasn’t for the one dodgy score or hitting the doubles these averages would have been through the roof. In that game against Michael Smith where he broke the World record he had the chance to make that average 133, which if he did, probably would never have been beaten.

These averages however, have only come over a period of a few weeks, the quality that Taylor had previously imposed, was imposed week in and out for a number of years. I firmly believe that if Taylor didn’t persevere to be better over the periods where he was without a shadow of a doubt number 1, we wouldn’t have got close to the averages that we see today. For the most part of the 2000’s, most players were averaging 93 or 94, nowadays we see these a poor or adequate averages.

Taylor made these changes and made the quality if the game better for 25 years because nobody had an answer for him and to shut him up so to speak, they would have to go and average the 100 average that for years was only ever touched by Phil Taylor.

Quality of opposition:

Michael van Gerwen is playing in an era where he knows that on their day, anyone in the top bracket of the game can beat him. This was not true back in the days of Taylor’s years of dominance. Any player could walk into a room first round and quiver over the sight of Taylor and even the top players were around 5 or 6 points below the average they needed to beat Taylor.

In head to head records, you’d be lucky to see someone to get more than two victories against Phil Taylor. Take Roland Scholten for example, he was at World number 8 for the best part of 6 years. This would mean by seeding, that he was playing Taylor in every big TV quarter final, except from when he went on to lift the UK Open in 2004, he lost every other televised match against the ‘Power’. With Michael van Gerwen, Dave Chisnall who is World number 12 has the game to take Michael van Gerwen to the cleaners when he is at his best and has proven that by beating van Gerwen 6-0 on the pro tour.

Time at the top:

Michael van Gerwen has been World number 1 since January 1st 2014, that is 2 years and 2 months, Taylor has been World number 1 for 18 years. However this is the bracket where ‘MVG’ in people’s eyes will start to be considered the World’s best. What we all forget is that Michael is only 26 years of age and yet has been playing top level Darts for 10 years. When he was only 16 years of age he was a Winmau World Master and in the top 10 of the BDO rankings.

For Phil Taylor, this was much different, he was only playing competitive Darts at the age that Michael van Gerwen is at now. Being mentored by ‘The Crafty Cockney’ Eric Bristow he would only play in the odd tournament and try and break even, as he would give all winnings to Eric. These ten years of difference could be a key factor when deciding the question of ‘Who is the greatest of all time?’.

How do we measure who’s the greatest?:

Even after all this when both players pack the sport up, how would we compare them to see who’s the greatest. Do we judge on world titles, that would be the most fair way, as by any sport you are defined in greatness by the greatest achievements. If we did this by TV major won, the balance would be unfair. We are now use to around 11-12 televised tournaments a year without the World series events and the European tour. Back in Taylor’s day you had the World Championship, World Matchplay and World Pairs/Grand prix from ’98.

In conclusion:

I believe that Michael van Gerwen at this present moment in time is playing better than anyone at any point. In my mind, I feel that to have this debate we need to have 3-4 years of this type dominance from ‘MVG’ along with 7-8 World titles.

BY Henry Deacon

16/3/16 19:38

So this is going to be the first in a few posts where I will give you the latest results from the BDO events. Here is what has been happening.

Scottish Open 2016:

Men:

Dean Reynolds 5-1 David Carr

Danny Noppert 5-1 Ted Hankey

Final:

Danny Noppert 6-0 Dean Reynolds

Women:

Loraine Winstanley 4-0 Lisa Ashton

Deta Hedman 4-3 Fallon Sherrock

Final:

Lorraine Winstanley 5-3 Deta Hedman

In other news Jim Widmayer won the Syracuse open by defeating Bob Sinnaeve in the final.

I hope that you feel up to date and I will be posting an report on all the UK open qualifiers from the weekend on here soon.

In recent weeks the BDO has had set back after set back. In qualifying school they lost some big name players, with of most note former World number 3 Jeffrey de Graff. Then came the announcement that the BDO Players Championship couldn’t find a TV broadcast partner, that forced the tournaments cancellation. Then this week the BBC decided to cease broadcasting of the Lakeside to broadcast the new Champions League of Darts.

I would like to know what you think is happening to what is meant to be a ‘new era of Darts’. Please comment below.

DARTS EXTRA: UK OPEN QUALIFIERS

The big names ascended in Wigan for the first three qualifiers for the 2016 Coral UK Open. This is how the weekend went.

Friday:

Adrian Lewis took the crown on Friday, Jackpot has been in fine form lately, with the exception of a small blip at the Unibet Masters. The scintillating form continued as he demolished fellow trotter Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor 6-2 in the final with an outstanding 110 average over 8 legs to scoop the first £10,000 winners cheque of the weekend. En route to the final he defeated Rowby-John Rodriguez 6-1 in the quarter finals and then defeated Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright by the same margin to set-up the all-pottery affair.

The victory against Taylor was Lewis’ first for almost a whole year, which for a player of his magnitude is a long wait. Also on Friday was a ‘Flash’ of briliance by Mark Dudbridge as he hit a 9-darter and defeating World number 6 James Wade. John Henderson was the days’ other stand out performer as he reached the semi-finals.

Saturday:

Day two of qualifying was the day of ‘Mighty Mike’ as Michael van Gerwen cruised to his first Pro Tour title of 2016. The Dutchman lost only two legs in his opening 5 matches, including a 6-1 win over Adrian Lewis.

The semi-finals posed a much harder test for ‘MVG’ as a resurgent Simon ‘The Wizard’ Whitlock was edged out 6-4 in a high quality encounter, before taking on Alan ‘Chuck’ Norris, a former BDO World Championship finalist and even though Norris gave his best, van Gerwen was too good for him as ‘Mighty Mike’ took the title with another 6-4 victory.

One player for the future may have been unearthed as young Berry van Peer from the Netherlands made the quarter finals in only his second tournament as a PDC tour card holder. The other story was not about who was on the oche, it was who wasn’t as Gary Anderson, the reigning 2-time World Champion withdrew due to illness.

Sunday:

The long 9-month power cut period was then switched off as Taylor defeated van Gerwen to win the weekends third qualifier.

This match was a quality affair as Taylor averaged 109 to defeat the World number 1 6-2 to win his first title since May last year. ‘The Power’ defeated Daryl Gurney, Peter Hudson and Mark Webster to name but a few to make the final.

It could have been so much different for van Gerwen if John Henderson took the match darts that were in his hand, ‘Hendo’ was the story of the weekend finally producing the darts that all in the darts world knows he is capable off. Other stories of the day included Peter Hudson’s run to the quarters, he beat Renee Eidams en route to that, the German who famously took Michael van Gerwen to a tiebreak in the worlds beat Stephen Bunting earlier on in Wigan.

 

 

BDO Players Championship cancelled over no TV Rights:

It has not been a good start for the BDO in what they hoped to be the start of ‘a new era’, as what was meant to be a new TV major for the British Darts Organisation was cancelled because there was no TV interest for the weekend of the event.

The event was extensively been given some major attention from all those inside the BDO, with tickets going to County players not qualified, International interest for the competition and a fancy location to suit what was meant to be the next big TV major.

It was widely rumoured that BT Sport would be broadcasting more Darts in 2016, however whether they were or not one of the companies involved we are not certain. In a press release by the BDO they spoke about there extensive TV talks and as we know now nothing came to fruition.

Any person with tickets for the event will be rein burst there receipt and for people who were catching flights and other transport means will be refunded the full amount for that as well. Whether this event will be rearranged or not is still unclear.

What does this mean for the BDO’s ‘new era’? Comment Below.

 

Pic 1;pdc.tv: Michael van Gerwen defeated Raymond van Barneveld in last years final.

Following his World Championship disappointment Michael van Gerwen is willing to kick off the new season with a bang at the Unibet Masters at Arena MK. 16 of the PDC’s finest will return to the big televised stage with an overall £200,000 prize fund. Michael van Gerwen will want to put his World Championship disappointment behind him as he faces a former World Champion Stephen Bunting in the last match of the opening night.

‘The Bullet’ has had a disappointing 2015 by his high standards only rising one place in the rankings and that was only because Simon Whitlock lost in the first round at Ally Pally.  However the St. Helens ace you would feel will want to prove the doubters that he is still the fuss that was attracted by his shock move to the PDC circuit in 2014. He will have it tough, very tough indeed as he faces the World number 1 and defending champion. ‘MVG’ was in red hot form in 2015 and if he can keep his incredibly high standards up this weekend he will be hard to stop to say the least.

Another name that has lately been put in the fray for the big TV majors is Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright. The Livingstone flinger has been in top form in 2015 and nearly beat van Gerwen in the World Series final in Glasgow. Due to the performance of Adrian Lewis at the World Championships he has dropped down to World Number 5 but in the best nick that he has been in. He did in 2015 claim a Players Championship title as well losing in a Euro tour final to Kim Huybrechts and a UK Open final loss to Michael van Gerwen. He will be determined however by the fact that he has beaten all the big names on the televised stage and has the belief that whenever he appears on the stage that he has the game to beat any player.

However what about Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor, I feel that the next 6 months are the most pivotal in Taylor’s career as for the first time in 25 years he is needing to prove himself as good enough. For the first time since 1994, Taylor went for a calendar year without a televised major, missing out on the Premier League play-offs, first round exits in the Players Championship and the World Grand Prix as well as losing in the Grand Slam of Darts final. But if we have learned one thing about ‘the power’ is that he loves to prove the doubters wrong, but one thing on most pundits lips is that could it be one bridge to far for the potter. Taylor will have the chance to avenge the World Championship defeat inflicted on him by Jelle Klaasen in the opening round.

How can I not talk about the new 2-time World Champion Gary Anderson, fresh from his exploits at Ally Pally as he regained the World crown will be the man to beat at Arena MK. However the ‘Flying Scotsman’ did have numerous miscounts throughout the Worlds and did admit that he would get his eyes tested and one thing we will wonder is that whether Gary will or will not wear his glasses.

Adrian Lewis by most people believe that he is getting close to his best and as the ‘most naturally gifted player in the world’ if Lewis is hot, it will take a lot to stop ‘Jackpot’. Following a narrow defeat to Gary Anderson in the final he looked good throughout the duration of the tournament defeating Jan Dekker and Mensur Suljovic to nil and sending Peter Wright to the cleaners as well. He had full command in his match against Raymond van Barneveld being 5-0 up, Barney rallied back, but Lewis prevailed 6-3.

Raymond van Barneveld is looking back to his best after Grand Slam and World semi-finals he was the story of the World Championships despite not winning it his victory over Michael van Gerwen just showed us why he is a 5-time World Champion. He does however have a tough start against young Michael Smith who has shown some real maturity and real resolve over the last 12 months to make the Premier League selection for the first time.

Kim Huybrechts will want to get over the disappointment of his non-selection for the Premier League, a euro tour winner and a finalist in a few Players Championship events in 2015, he will want to show his best in the new seasons first TV Major and if he plays at his best could be a dark horse for the title. ‘The Hurricane’ is a box office hit with his flamboyant celebrations and passionate play that sees him one of the most popular players in the game.

And finally, I have a look at some other players. Vincent van der Voort will want to avenge the World Championship thrashing inflicted to him by Gary Anderson on the opening night, Terry Jenkins will try again to win that illusive major against James Wade and Dave Chisnall and Robert Thornton will battle it out in the first match of the tournament.

He is the schedule, fixtures and draw:

Saturday afternoon:

 Robert Thornton v Dave Chisnall

James Wade v Terry Jenkins

Peter Wright v Ian White

Michael Smith v Raymond van Barneveld

Saturday evening:

Adrian Lewis v Kim Huybrechts

Phil Taylor v Jelle Klaasen

Gary Anderson v Vincent van der Voort

Michael van Gerwen v Stephen Bunting

Draw:

Lewis/Huybrechts v Wade/Jenkins

Anderson/van der Voort v Thornton/Chisnall

Taylor/Klaasen v Wright/White

van Gerwen/Bunting v Smith/van Barneveld

Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson were forced to share the top award at last nights PDC Awards dinner at the Dorchester. Since the inception of the event in 2007, this is the first time that more than one player has won the award for their achievements over a calendar year.

GARY ANDERSON

PIC 1: COURTESY OF LAWRENCE LUSTIG, GARY ANDERSON LIFTING THE PREMIER LEAGUE IN MAY.

Gary Anderson has won arguably the two biggest event of the year, following his maiden World Championship win in 2015, he followed that up with a semi-final appearance in the Masters, losing out to Raymond van Barneveld. Then he defeated Phil Taylor 7-5 in a re-run of the World final in his first Premier League match.

In the UK Open he missed match dart after match dart before losing to Mervyn King 9-8. He responded to that set back with some fashion in the premier league finishing third and beating Phil Taylor for the second time in the league phase to ensure he would not qualify for the play-offs for the first time. When it came to the play-offs Dave Chisnall was leading at all times and had 3 match darts to win 10-8, Anderson prevailed 10-9 in the decider and faced World Number 1 Michael van Gerwen in the final.

In an eagerly anticipated premier league final clash against MVG didn’t failed to disappoint with both players averaging over 104 in a high quality encounter which Anderson edged 11-7.

He then teamed up with Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright for the World Cup of Darts in Germany, defeating the dutch duo of van Barneveld and van Gerwen, they couldn’t quite beat the English pair of Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis in a high quality affair.

Anderson then suffered an early exits from the next two major tournaments with a second round defeat to Mensur Suljovic in the Matchplay in a midnight magic affair and then to Ian ‘diamond’ White in the double in-double out last 16 exit in Ireland.

Anderson then returned to form big time at the European Darts Championship in Germany by reaching his third major final of 2015 only to be edged out by MVG 11-10 having led 10-7. Then more early exit were to pursue until the end of the year and a return to Alexandra Palace.

ANDERSON RETAINS THE WORLD CROWN.

Gary Anderson admitted that he was full of nerves ahead of his first round encounter at the World Championships against Andy Boulton, if he was nervous he didn’t look like it producing a 99 average in a commanding 3-0 rout.

Daryl Gurney provided a much sterner test for the World Champ and if it weren’t for missed doubles by the Irish man then he could have dethroned Anderson, but Gary punished those crucial errors with another 99 average to make his way into round 3.

On paper we all felt that Vincent van der Voort would give Anderson a real push, however it was the ‘flying scotsman’ who pushed aside the ‘Dutch Destroyer’ with Vincent winning just 1 leg in a 12-1, 4-0 win.

James Wade was considered as one of the main players for the title and we felt as if again we were in for a humbdinger and yet again we were disappointed as Wade never turned up with an 89 average and Gary smashing him 5-1 to cruise through to the semis.

Jelle Klaasen came though an open quarter to try and win his second World crown, but didn’t get a look in against a red-hot Anderson who hit a 9-darter during the first set of the match. For most parts of the match we felt that Phil Taylor’s World Championship average record would be broken, however couldn’t quite maintain but made his second consecutive World final.

Another clash against Adrian Lewis in the World final and a excellent opportunity to exact revenge on Lewis for the defeat he inflicted on Anderson in the 2011 World Final. Exact revenge he did with high scoring, high checkouts, some miscounts and a 170 finish in the penultimate leg of the final for Anderson who joined the list of Bristow, van Barneveld and Lewis himself in a list of people who retained the World Championship after winning it for the first time.

MICHAEL VAN GERWEN

PIC 2: REUTERS, MVG lifting the Grand Slan of Darts trophy.

Since Anderson took van Gerwen’s World crown he came back in 2015 with a vengance as he won the Unibet Masters with ease, demolishing dutch compatriot Raymond van Barneveld in the final 11-6. Then van Gerwen was untouchable for the first three months of the year winning nearly every tournament that he played in.

Van Gerwen’s second major success of the year came in March when he defeated Paul Nicholson, Paul Hogan, Kim Huybrechts, Devon Petersen, Andrew Gilding and Peter Wright to lift the trophy for the first time in his career.

Following defeat in the premier league final and a World cup semi final exit, he then had his eyes firmly set on the World Matchplay and won that in enthatic style defeating Benito van de Pas, Jamie Lewis, Ian White, Peter Wright and defeating James Wade to lift the crown that he came so close to winning the year before.

At the World Grand Prix in Ireland he looked seemingly untouchable until he ran into a revved up Robert Thornton who bought the crowd onto his side which clearly effected MVG as he missed continuous doubles as ‘The Thorn’ won the third TV major of his career.

After being 10-7 down to Gary Anderson in the European Darts Championship final he then produced a magical spell of form to somehow defeat Gary Anderson in Belgium.

Then to Wolverhampton and for van Gerwen, the final part of the PDC jigsaw to win the Grand Slam drawn in a group with Kim Huybrechts, Steve West and Mark Oousterhuis in the group finishing 1st, then dismantling Steve Beaton and Kim Huybrechts, giving Michael Smith a toweling in the semi finals before beating Phil Taylor in a tight tussle to win the crown.

Then at the World series his biggest test came in a tight final which nobody could predict, as Peter Wright came back from 5-0 down only to be Edged out by van Gerwen to win yet another major in 2015.

Then to round of 2015 he took the final TV major as he swept aside the competition and Adrian Lewis to win the Players Championship finals.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP DISAPPOINTMENT

 Michael van Gerwen was almost on the other end of what would have been the biggest shock in the history of Darts as Renee Eidams gave MVG the fright of his life as he took him to a tiebreak situation in the final set of the match. In the second round he dismantled poor Darren Webster with an 105 average.

The match he will be remembered by at this World championships will be that narrow 4-3 defeat to Raymond van Barneveld in one of the World Championships greatest ever matches which he again averaged 105.

CONCLUSION

These two players were by far the best players of the year but the other awards of the night was as follows:

Best ProTour Player: Michael van Gerwen

Televised Performance of the Year: Robert Thornton (partypoker.com World Grand Prix final v Michael van Gerwen)
Nominated
James Wade (BetVictor World Matchplay semi-final v Phil Taylor)
Michael van Gerwen (Unibet European Championship final v Gary Anderson)
Gary Anderson (William Hill World Darts Championship semi-finals v Jelle Klaasen)

Best Newcomer: Alan Norris
Nominated
Dimitri Van den Bergh
Andy Boulton
Jeffrey De Zwaan

PDC Fans’ Player of the Year: Gary Anderson

PDPA Players’ Player of the Year: Michael van Gerwen

PDC Young Player of the Year: Michael Smith
Nominated
Benito van de Pas
Jamie Lewis
Max Hopp

PDC Player of the Year: Michael van Gerwen & Gary Anderson
Nominated
Phil Taylor
Adrian Lewis

Nine-Dart Club
Gold Pin Badges (Televised Nine-Darter): Phil Taylor, Dave Chisnall, Gary Anderson
Silver Pin Badges (Non-Televised Nine-Darter): Alan Norris (x2), Dyson Parody, Andrew Gilding, Simon Whitlock, Ian White (x2), Kyle Anderson, Nathan Derry, Jeffrey De Zwaan, Cristo Reyes (x2), Darren Johnson, Benito van de Pas, Matt Dicken, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Devon Petersen, James Wade, Peter Wright, Ian White, Max Hopp, Magnus Caris, Simon Preston, Kim Huybrechts, Jamie Lewis, Michael van Gerwen, Phil Taylor

As always you can have your say by commenting below.

PIC 1: GETTY IMAGES, Wade worry after missed doubles.

Hopes of the play-offs

James Wade wants to turn the disappointment that he had to enjour during the World Championships into success at the upcoming Premier League due to start in 3 weeks. The 8-time major champion spoke to the blogging website darts.tv and spoke about the 5-1 thrashing to Anderson and the recent new deal that ‘The Machine’ has recently signed with Unicorn Darts.

He said “Losing badly to Gary Anderson in the World Championship was a huge disappointment, because I simply didn’t turn up for the biggest match of the year,”

“But that defeat will spur me on. I have the Premier League in my sights.

“I know it will be tough because it is arguably the most competitive field ever assembled with the top 10 in the world taking part, but I am good enough to reach the play-offs.

“Unicorn has provided me with superb darts to do my job. Now it is up to me to repay them with more big TV titles.

“The dream of being World Champion drives me on. I have a big year coming up.”

Bristow Influence

The Aldershot ace has been having mentoring by non other than the five times World Champion Eric Bristow. ‘The crafty cockney’ according to Wade has been boosting his mentality both on and off the oche.

The Machine added:

“Eric is great, He doesn’t muck about. He tells it how it is and the partnership works for me. 

“My scoring power is appreciably better and the words of wisdom mean a great deal. I now have to put it all into practice consistently in tournament play.”

“Eric is great,” added Wade. “He doesn’t muck about. He tells it how it is and the partnership works for me. 

“My scoring power is appreciably better and the words of wisdom mean a great deal. I now have to put it all into practice consistently in tournament play.”

Pre prem TV Darts.

If you can’t quite wait for the Premier League then the Unibet Masters will wet your appetite from Arena MK live on ITV 4 where the top 16 in the world battle it out in a tournament Wade won in 2014 defeating Mervyn 11-10 from 9-2 down.

As always you can comment below in the comments section.

BDO Superstar Jeffrey de Graff has left the BDO system and moving over to the other side of the Darts divide. De Graff who was knocked out in the first round of the Lakeside World Darts Championship to Richard Veenstra last week, was ranked number 3 in the tournament.

With this loss, it means that yet another BDO star has succumbed to the money and television exposure that the PDC receives. However in a period where the BDO is gaining more TV events, more sponsors and improved prize funds, you would think that some of the super stars of the BDO would stay and see the year of events then switch if they want to move.

Have your say on De Graff’s BDO departure by commenting below.