Sky Sports panel of darts experts cast their World Matchplay verdicts
Thursday 14 July 2016 20:26, UK
Ahead of the World Matchplay we asked the Sky Sports experts what we can expect from the Winter Gardens extravaganza...
All the action gets underway on Sky Sports 2 on Saturday at 7pm, so for the lowdown we turned to those best placed to call the action.
Rod Studd, Wayne Mardle, John Part and Dave Clark deliver their verdicts on who could win the tournament, who could exit early as well as looking back at some of their favourite Matchplay memories.
Possible Winner
WM: Michael van Gerwen. He's going to love his draw to the quarter-finals, then he might have to deal with Chizzy. I just think over the format, Van Gerwen is going to be really tough to beat. Those that can beat him, you're looking at Gary Anderson and Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis. But I don't believe Michael will get beat at Blackpool. He won it last year and he won it well. I think he will do that same again.
JP: I'm going to have to say the Scotsman Gary Anderson. He's been playing well lately in the World Series and seems to turn it on when he wants. He's got a reasonably good first round draw. It's going to get him going because Alan Norris is a good player, but he should still feel comfortable that he's going to win.
I'm going to go with the guy who seems to be the hottest at the moment, which is Gary.
RS: Asked the most likely winner, you're going to say Michael van Gerwen, and I certainly won't be writing off Phil Taylor, that's for sure.
Van Gerwen goes off favourite, but he went off favourite in the World Championship, and we know what happened then. There are no guarantees in sport and there are no guarantees in darts, with so many players so closely matched and being capable of averaging 100-105.
I think it will be an absolutely terrific tournament and predicting the competition with any accuracy is not easy, but I just like the way Wade is going about his business at the moment and I like the way he plays in Blackpool, so I will nail my colours to the mast of 'The Machine'.
DC: Michael van Gerwen. If anyone is going to stop him, Gary Anderson is hitting form at just the right time. But I think Van Gerwen is just too good for everybody at the moment. I think Van Gerwen's name is written on the trophy.
Taylor's time again?
JP: Truthfully, it looks very difficult for Phil. To say he can't though, is ridiculous. He's always capable and he is always the sort to take one match at a time and have the right attitude.
Robbie Green is a handful and will be looking for a good result on TV. There is no one better than Phil to play if you want to make a name for yourself. It's going to be hard for Phil right from the start.
DC: He'll have a go, and could reach the final. Taylor has won it 15 times and the Matchplay format really suits him, but I don't think he's the player that he was. Van Gerwen has the edge on him.
RS: He definitely can. His World Matchplay record just beggars belief, he's won it 15 times. Taylor has played 97 games on the Winter Gardens stage since the tournament first started there in 1994 and he's won 90.
Anyone who says that Phil Taylor cannot win this tournament is a fool. This is the format he likes, there are long matches he can get his teeth into, and he's been pretty close to unbeatable in this venue. In 2014 he dismantled Michael van Gerwen, the world No 1, and left him in tears.
Phil Taylor is still playing at a very high standard, averaging over 100 regularly. It's just that other players like Van Gerwen and Gary Anderson have gone past him. That's not to say he couldn't beat those two players on any given day. Phil Taylor is still playing well enough to win this tournament.
WM: Phil Taylor has a tough draw, but this is the format that favours Phil Taylor the most. In a legs format, you've got to be better than him time-after-time. During the world final of 2015 that Gary Anderson won, Phil Taylor actually won more legs in that final than Gary Anderson. Even though Gary beat him.
Leg-on-leg, Phil is still a formidable opponent. If he's going to win another major, I think it's going to be the Matchplay or the Grand Slam, because they are drawn out formats.
Surprise Package
JP: I'm thinking Gerwyn Price perhaps. He's in a tough little section of the draw, but it's tough for everybody. Gerwyn seems steady and you need to be steady to win this long format in the Matchplay.
He had a good introduction to the tournament last year, he's made his mark, and will be looking forward to it.
This is probably the worst year so far for activity and travel for the top seeds, so this is the time for someone who has stayed at home to take full advantage of that.
WM: Not a surprise name, but a surprise package for me, would be Simon Whitlock. He's got Michael Smith first game, which is a real tough one, but I'm of the opinion that Simon is better than his odds suggest. He's 125-1 and he shouldn't be. Yes he's in the same section as Gary Anderson. Gary sometimes, just sometimes, lets himself down on that stage. He's never really performed that well at the Matchplay, which I found quite odd, because he plays well everywhere.
Simon Whitlock isn't as finished as people think he is. Because he's not in the top 10 anymore, people think he's on the decline. I just think he's playing well and not getting those wins. This week might change something for him.
RS: I just find it utterly bemusing and bewildering that James Wade is still being dismissed as a 25-1 underdog and outsider, considering his record at the World Matchplay. Five players are rated more likely to win the tournament by the bookmakers, which I find very surprising.
There is only one man in this field that has a better World Matchplay record and that's Phil Taylor. Wade has won the tournament once in 2007, but has been in the final five other times and three of the last five finals. He's won 35 games in 44 attempts on the Winter Garden stage. He loves the format, he loves the stage, and for James Wade to be dismissed in this tournament, I find absolutely astonishing.
DC: It's the top 32 players in the world so everyone's in with a major chance, but I think Jelle Klaasen is a good outside bet.
He's playing really well on the circuit, and he's a solid player who's used to winning, having won the Lakeside title. He's used to being in the latter stages of tournaments. I like how he plays the game - a decent pace, he looks the part, he plays entertaining darts with big check-outs and lots of 180s.
Favourite Matchplay moment
DC: In 2002 when Taylor got the nine-darter. Jeff Stelling and I used to share the Matchplay - he did the first half, I did the second. I was driving down the motorway and stopped at a service station to order some Kentucky Fried Chicken when my mobile phone went. It was one of the guys on the team telling me Taylor got a nine-darter! I was scrambling around for change in my pocket and he was swinging a briefcase with a hundred grand in it, so that stands out in my memory very clearly.
WM: The biggest moment for me and the best was when Colin Lloyd took out the 170 against John Part.
That was just magnificent. He was world No 1 and he had a few doubters, but Colin proved how good he was that week. That was excellent and the 170 rounded off what was a great tournament for him.
RS: Dean Winstanley 13-11 Gary Anderson, first round in 2012. Dean, who was making his debut in the tournament, fell 5-0 down to Gary Anderson and looked to be heading for a whitewash.
But he stages a brilliant rally, battling back to 8-9 down, and Anderson needs eight for the match. Winstanley, needing 82 to level it up, hits 20 then 12 to leave the bull, but the flight from the first dart is obscuring the bull. You cannot see anything.
Live World Matchplay Darts
I remember Wayne Mardle on commentary saying: 'He cannot see it, he cannot see it.' Then Winstanley bangs it right in the bull and Wayne says: 'He cannot see it, what on earth?'
It was an amazing shot and Winstanley would go on to win the match 13-11 in extra legs.
JP: Hitting my nine-darter was pretty fun, I can't really improve on that. As far as other people's stuff goes, I have enjoyed lots over the years, but it's pretty hard to forget actually hitting a nine-darter on TV, because I never did it anywhere else.
I was getting pummelled by Mark Webster in the first round and I didn't quite come back to win the match but it got me going - I ended up losing 10-8.
Hearing the audience react to every dart, the drawing of breath, it was just fun. Nobody wants to miss once they get the last dart to do it. It's almost like winning a tournament and was my biggest memory there.
Possible first-round shocks
RS: Gary Anderson's record in the World Matchplay is appalling. He has only got past the second round once in the World Matchplay.
Despite winning a few World Series events and coming in as world champion, I'm not sure the Winter Gardens is Anderson's favourite stage - as that record would indicate.
Alan Norris is on his debut, so you can only guess how he will react, but he made a brilliant run on his debut in the World Championships until Jelle Klaasen produced an amazing burst of finishing to knock him out. If Alan Norris can play anything like that, then Anderson might have a problem.
JP: I think Dave Chisnall has got to have his plate full with Benito van de Pas. I don't think he's going to be that big of an underdog. Chizzy is a pretty high seed, he's slipped down to nine, but we all think of him as around the top eight.
There are other guys I haven't mentioned that are playing well, like Daryl Gurney. But unfortunately he has a dreadful record against Ian White and I think Ian can handle that. I don't see that becoming an upset.
DC: Simon Whitlock has come back into form. He's a massive price and, if you look at his draw, he could do some real damage. He's a good shout.
WM: I fancy Vincent van der Voort to beat Kyle Anderson. I don't think Kyle Anderson, under pressure, is very good on doubles at all. Don't get me wrong, Vincent is no machine on the doubles but I just think he's a better player than Kyle Anderson full stop.
Josh Payne I like, purely because I think he's a good player anyway. But Robert Thornton absolutely hates the Matchplay, he's been whitewashed there twice. His record - it stinks. For someone as good as Robert Thornton, it doesn't make sense. The Blackpool air doesn't agree with big RT.
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