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Mardle: won last week

It's very hard to explain the appeal of dressing up and going to the darts, but it's the equivalent of those people who put on daft hats and daft dresses and go to the races. Darts is the working classes' Ascot.

Sid Waddell
Quotes of the week

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Whyte & Mackay Premier League Darts hits Brighton this week with the competition really hotting up.

Sky Sports commentator Sid Waddell will be here every week of the season in 2008 to share his thoughts on skysports.com. This week he previews Thursday night's even in Brighton, tells us about his latest photoshoot and reflects on the British Sport Book Awards.

Sid on Jenkins v Lewis
Sid on Mardle v Van Barneveld
Sid on Part v Manley
Sid on Wade v Taylor

Cover story

Last week in Sheffield we had the biggest darts crowd since the 1970s with 5,700 loonies in the arena.

I spotted 10 young lads dressed in Dennis the Menace costumes, even though Dennis Priestley wasn't playing. He was in the venue and when he was introduced to the crowd, those lads went ballistic.

It's very hard to explain the appeal of dressing up and going to the darts, but it's the equivalent of those people who put on daft hats and daft dresses and go to the races. Darts is the working classes' Ascot.

Tuesday was a very busy day for me. I started off in Battersea at a place called the Lemonade Factory where I was having photos taken for the cover of my book when it is released on paperback in August.

By an amazing coincidence it's being published on the same day as my son Dan's book. He's written his first ever thriller called the Blood Detective, so look out for that in the first week of August.

Anyway, the cover of my book will see me portrayed in the style of Morecambe and Wise. It will have a sensible version of me with a critical grin doubled up with me going mad with a microphone, as though Ernie Wise is looking on at one of Eric's madder flights of fancy.

I was dancing around like Morecambe and Wise for two-and-a-half hours and I was knackered by the time I got to the Sport Book Awards at Café Royal.

The first person I saw when I got there was Bobby Charlton, who put his arm round me and said: "We love watching you on the darts, keep it up."

I was very touched and I didn't mind at all that he won the award. In fact, I led the applause.

We're both from Ashington in the north-east and I remember seeing him play as a 13-year-old and he was incredible.

The first time I met him properly was in the early 1970s when I did a documentary about the Charlton brothers. I've known Jack longer than I've known Bobby as I used to play dominoes in the same working men's club as him, but it was brilliant to see Bobby get the award.

Sir Jackie Stewart came second and I don't mind losing out to two knights of the realm!

We had a lively time at the ceremony and then I got on the train and started analysing the latest stats ahead of the Whyte & Mackay Premier league matches in Brighton....

Terry Jenkins v Adrian Lewis

The top of the table is tighter than we've ever known it and if Adrian could get a win against Jenkins he'd leapfrog him into fourth.

These two are like chalk and cheese. Jenkins threw away a 4-2 lead and lost last week, but he won't let that bother him one bit.

If that had happened to Adrian he'd be coming into this match extremely worried and wiping the sweat of his face with oatcakes.

He's the Paul Gascoigne of darts right now. He's as daft as a brush, but he's capable of some brilliant moments.

I could see him going 3-1 up in this match and then throwing it away, so I'm predicting 8-6 to Jenkins in this one.

Wayne Mardle v Raymond van Barneveld

If Mardle can get at least a draw from this match, he'll come off the bottom of the league for a short time at least.

He got his first win last week, beating Jenkins 8-5, but what was more significant was that he came back from 4-2 down.

Mardle always starts the Premier League season badly - in 2006 he didn't win until week nine - but the manner of the victory last week will have restored his confidence.

The statistics show he is a stronger 140-plus scorer than Barney, so I think he is capable of getting a draw.

The other thing about Barney is he has only produced four shutouts better than 100 in the Premier League, while Taylor has done nine. That tells me Barney isn't really on his best form.

Mardle has got plenty of muscle and plenty of confidence so I can see this being a draw.

John Part v Peter Manley

Manley tends to go off balance when he goes at doubles and that area of his game is letting him down.

It's not surprising to see a big guy with a lot of weight above the hips go slightly off balance from time to time.

But looking at the statistics for shots over 100, he's scored 229 to Part's 146. That shows he's a much heavier scorer than the world champion.

If Manley gets his doubles right then he'll win the match.

When he beat Taylor 8-3 in Coventry, he hit 73 per cent of his checkouts and if he can produce that again he's a match for anyone.

Part is not the sort of guy to get particularly worried about his 8-3 hammering against Taylor last week, but I'm still tipping him to lose this one.

I've got a gut hunch that Manley will be the better man and he'll beat Part 8-5.

James Wade v Phil Taylor

Phil Taylor was fantastic in Wigan at the weekend. He beat Adrian Lewis in the final of the UK Open North-West Regionals and we all saw that coming because in the previous round he'd beaten Colin Osborne 7-0 with another 111 average.

In the last 23 days he's gone from zero to hero. After three defeats in four weeks in the Premier League he modified his new darts and he hasn't looked back.

He was averaging about 94 in the Premier League 24 days ago, but since then he beat Jelle Klaasen and Vincent van der Voort with a 107 average in Holland, he beat Mardle 8-0 in Bournemouth, he beat Barney 8-3 with a 111 average in Nottingham and then he beat Part 8-3 last week.

Once again Nostradamus Sid predicted that score, although I "only" predicted a 105 average and he ended up with 107.4!

However, Wade has more 180s than anyone else in the Premier League and will not be a pushover.

Taylor is a predator and he will be thinking about Wade's weaknesses. What's wrong with the snake - his tongue's too big. What's wrong with the bear - it sleeps all the time. What's wrong with the lion - he's got a big head.

Taylor will have spotted Wade's weakness, which is that he gets frustrated with himself if he misses an easy shot.

Wade dared to inflict Taylor's first ever defeat in the Premier League in Glasgow and Taylor will be keen to get his own back. He sees Wade in the same light as somebody like Barney - James is a future world champion - and Taylor will want to jump on him and beat him as impressively as he can.

James' average for the season so far is only 93 and he'll need to average more than 100 to beat Taylor - and he'll need to go over 105 in the first six legs.

As for Taylor, his only weakness is that he doesn't look comfortable on the double 16 - but he'll probably have been practising that for 10 hours a day all week.

His first shot down the left-hand corner will be decisive and if he hits a double with confidence early doors then we could see an average near 115, which would be a record.

I'm predicting another 8-3 with an average a "mere" 105, but it wouldn't surprise me if at 11pm on Thursday night I'm sitting in a sweaty commentary box saying: "I don't believe my Geordie eyes."