The standard of darts here at the Winter Gardens? Amazing, amazing and amazing.
It's been rock and roll all the way and it's inspired some of my daftest commentary lines ever. On Tuesday night I said Ronnie Baxter was "fretting like a ferret in a frying pan".
What was the ferret doing in a frying pan? Well what was the leopard doing in the snow of Mount Kilimanjaro?
Taylor: technical issues
Even I don't know exactly what I meant by that...
A friend of mine used to run a chicken dancing stall in Scarborough. He could make chickens dance, but what the public didn't know was that they were all on a hot plate.
Well, I expect dancing chicken syndrome to hit Blackpool for the rest of the tournament because this is getting very lively now.
Ronnie Baxter was fretting like a ferret in a frying pan. What was the ferret doing in a frying pan? Well what was the leopard doing in the snow of Mount Kilimanjaro?
Sid Waddell
Quotes of the week
World Matchplay Darts
7pm, Wed, Sky Sports 1 & HD1
Adrian Lewis impressed me with a 10-7 win over Co Stompe and I thought Gary Anderson was on fire against Andy Hamilton.
Ronnie Baxter rolled back the years on Tuesday night. He was brilliant when he lost to Rod Harrington in 1998 and he looked in good shape in his win over Jelle Klaasen here.
I liked the look of Wayne Mardle against Tony Eccles and it was good to see the real Mardle turn up. His fans will be rockin' when he plays Vinvent van der Voort on Thursday.
Mervyn King continues to be the moodiest kid on the block and I think he'll take Steve Beaton apart in the second round too.
Wednesday's games
Wednesday night sees Raymond van Barneveld kick off his campaign against Michael van Gerwen, who has lost a lot of weight recently.
Van Gerwen tends to go off balance and the weight loss could accentuate those problems.
Barney has overcome his mental problems, but there are arguments within his camp over the flights he is using. Some of his team thinks he need to use a different shape.
Next up is Lewis against Colin Lloyd, who tends to pick the wrong shot at the dart - resulting in bounce-outs. He doesn't use the whole of the 60 bed either, so I expect to see the more consistent Lewis win that one.
But the match of the night will come when Phil Taylor plays Kevin Painter.
There are big questions over Taylor. He won his match against Robert Thornton but there were problems with his technique.
His first dart is landing too high in the 60 and he can't get the next two underneath. Against Thornton, 12 darts landed in the top half of the treble 20 and that knocks his scoring out of sync.
I think he's a little bit too anxious and is giving the dart a quarter of an inch extra lift. That could really open the door for Painter.
Painter looked brilliant against Wes Newton in round one, averaging 101 compared to The Power's 97. I've never seen him play better.
That match starts at about 9.20pm and believe me, it's wide open. If you don't tune in to Sky Sports 1 from 7.00pm you must be nuts!
Comments (3)
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Keith Fallon says...
Big questions over Taylor, problems with his technique. Come on Sid, he cant be firing on all cylinders all the time. But he certainly was last night. Absolutely class. The best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be. Taylor v Lewis is going to be some match. Cant wait.
Posted 09:49 23rd July 2009
Craig Moore says...
I think the power will overcome Painter no match there. My bet for the whole tournament is Gary Anderson there is only the Power that has a chance of stopping him but at the Powers stupid odds you can never back him.
Posted 15:06 22nd July 2009
Danny Oakes says...
Painter may have averaged 101, but Newton is no Phil Taylor.
Posted 15:05 22nd July 2009
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