titusbramble
Footballguy
We've got occasionally bumped threads for lots of non-mainstream (at least in the US) sports in the FFA, so why not one for darts? We're getting into the business end of the season (the majority of big tournaments take place in the winter), so what do we have coming up?
Starting tomorrow we have the Grand Slam of Darts - I'm at the afternoon session tomorrow, but this brings together all the big winners on the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) circuit, along with winners from a lot of their affiliate tours. The big name to watch for most people here is Stowe Buntz, a 44 year old from Virginia who was able to win the CDC (Championship Darts Corporation, the affiliated tour in North America) Continental Cup to get here, also having been able to win three of their tour events this season over the course of one weekend in Ontario to qualify for the world championship. He has a very tough group, facing twice world champion Peter "Snakebite" Wright, winner of multiple European Tour events this season Dave Chisnall, as well as former Lakeside champion Stephen Bunting, but he's shown flashes of quality play, so let's see what happens.
A couple of weeks from now we have the Players Championship - the culmination of a non-televised series of events, which sees the top 64 players face off in one knockout event, which is the final event of the year before the big one. The players to watch for here are Jules van Dongen, an American/Dutch prospect who has been improving rapidly in the last six months and just crept into the field as one of the last players to qualify, but has a tough draw against TV title winner Damon Heta from Australia, while Canada's Matt Campbell will also have a tough draw against former UK Open champion Danny Noppert in the opening round.
Then we get into world championship season. Here there is a cluster - there is a "world championship" hosted by the organisers of, for all intents and purposes, the game below the ultra-elite level in the WDF, here you will see very good players in Danny Lauby (seeded, possibly facing former PDC world semi finalist Jamie Lewis in his first game), Leonard Gates (not seeded, but with a very winnable preliminary game before coming into a first round proper tie against French finalist from last time Thibault Tricole) and veteran Jim Widmayer (who has a tough tie against the Hungarian Patrik Kovacs)
But for all intents and purposes, the big world championship is the PDC event. Taking place at London's Alexandra Palace over Christmas, this has all the top players in the world with a £2.5m (over $3m) prize pool, with 96 players facing off in a knockout event to decide who will be the champion of the world, taking home the title and half a million pounds in prize money. Notable players for North American include the aforementioned Buntz, Campbell and van Dongen, as well as Alex Spellman, probably the strongest American player we've seen since Larry Butler at his peak. Televised last year on DAZN in the US, which I assume to continue this year, this is the ultimate party atmosphere which will see defending champion Michael Smith attempt to retain his title against a raft of challengers, including three times champion Michael van Gerwen, a resurgent twice champion Gary Anderson, and a recent first time major champion Luke Humphries amongst others.
Will post up previews when we get into the PDC worlds season (I run a pretty comprehensive darts blog so will just link to things there probably), but let's see if there's any interest in all things darts first
Starting tomorrow we have the Grand Slam of Darts - I'm at the afternoon session tomorrow, but this brings together all the big winners on the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) circuit, along with winners from a lot of their affiliate tours. The big name to watch for most people here is Stowe Buntz, a 44 year old from Virginia who was able to win the CDC (Championship Darts Corporation, the affiliated tour in North America) Continental Cup to get here, also having been able to win three of their tour events this season over the course of one weekend in Ontario to qualify for the world championship. He has a very tough group, facing twice world champion Peter "Snakebite" Wright, winner of multiple European Tour events this season Dave Chisnall, as well as former Lakeside champion Stephen Bunting, but he's shown flashes of quality play, so let's see what happens.
A couple of weeks from now we have the Players Championship - the culmination of a non-televised series of events, which sees the top 64 players face off in one knockout event, which is the final event of the year before the big one. The players to watch for here are Jules van Dongen, an American/Dutch prospect who has been improving rapidly in the last six months and just crept into the field as one of the last players to qualify, but has a tough draw against TV title winner Damon Heta from Australia, while Canada's Matt Campbell will also have a tough draw against former UK Open champion Danny Noppert in the opening round.
Then we get into world championship season. Here there is a cluster - there is a "world championship" hosted by the organisers of, for all intents and purposes, the game below the ultra-elite level in the WDF, here you will see very good players in Danny Lauby (seeded, possibly facing former PDC world semi finalist Jamie Lewis in his first game), Leonard Gates (not seeded, but with a very winnable preliminary game before coming into a first round proper tie against French finalist from last time Thibault Tricole) and veteran Jim Widmayer (who has a tough tie against the Hungarian Patrik Kovacs)
But for all intents and purposes, the big world championship is the PDC event. Taking place at London's Alexandra Palace over Christmas, this has all the top players in the world with a £2.5m (over $3m) prize pool, with 96 players facing off in a knockout event to decide who will be the champion of the world, taking home the title and half a million pounds in prize money. Notable players for North American include the aforementioned Buntz, Campbell and van Dongen, as well as Alex Spellman, probably the strongest American player we've seen since Larry Butler at his peak. Televised last year on DAZN in the US, which I assume to continue this year, this is the ultimate party atmosphere which will see defending champion Michael Smith attempt to retain his title against a raft of challengers, including three times champion Michael van Gerwen, a resurgent twice champion Gary Anderson, and a recent first time major champion Luke Humphries amongst others.
Will post up previews when we get into the PDC worlds season (I run a pretty comprehensive darts blog so will just link to things there probably), but let's see if there's any interest in all things darts first