So the 2016 Premier League Darts kicked off on Thursday night with week 1 coming live from the First Direct Arena in Leeds.
The big news before the event even started was that Gary Anderson, the reigning Premier League Darts Champion and current back to back World Champion would be absent due to illness. This meant that one of the players would have to play twice. As Gary Anderson was due to be last match on, it made perfect sense that one of the players from the very first match would play twice and have to face Adrian Lewis. A toss of a coin would decide the fate of Peter Wright and Michael Smith and it would be Premier League debutant Smith who would have to play again later on the night.
Peter Wright 7 - 2 Michael Smith
Wright entered the arena in his usual manner. Dressed horrifically and dancing along the stage to some dreadful music by the woefully dreadful Pitbull. To be fair to Wright, he can work the crowd and I think he's good for the game mostly because he backs it up with his darts play.
Young Smith looks nervous to me, as you would expect on debut. It must have been in the back of his head that he could potentially open up with 2 defeats on the same night......not a good way to start.
The nervousness of Smith was there throughout the match. His fluency and high scoring was never really there and ended up with a lowish 3 dart average of around 86....hardly helped by a 29% successful checkout stat.
Wright on the other hand looked well at home, hitting 5 180's and hitting a 3 darts average of just over 99 and ran out a deserved winner.
Michael Van Gerwen 4 - 7 James Wade
Wade's music is still playing and he's waving to the crowd but already they are chanting MVG's name. Clearly he's a crowd favorite and his style of play makes him easy to watch I guess.
In typical Van Gerwen style, he storms into a 3 nil lead which includes a stunning blink and you'll miss it 167 on the Bullseye. He then misses tops to go 4 nil up and in typical James Wade style, he lands that familiar double 10 to get his first leg on the board.
Amazingly Wade takes the next 4 legs. Although MVG isn't in blistering form, he's still playing well but is being outscored by the Machine, something you never ever see. Van Gerwen puls a leg back but then Wade reels off the next 2 legs for victory. Both players averaging about 97 but the surprising statistic from this match is that Wade, not normally a prolific maximum scorer, hit more 180's than Van Gerwen who as you know, usually hits the big score for fun......First shock of the night.
Phil Taylor 2 - 7 Raymond Van Barneveld
I was sat on the fence with this one. I predicted a draw simply because Taylor's form has been all over the shop lately and you never know which Barney will turn up.
Both players enter the arena to their familiar walk on music and are welcomed on stage, Barney getting his typical warm and enthusiastic welcome from an English crowd. He's a very popular player on these shores.
As the match starts, the first thing I notice is
Phil Taylors New Darts. He used these last week at the Masters where he reached the semi's before blowing 7 match darts and losing to MVG. I wasn't sure whether Taylor would stick with them as he does like to tinker a lot these days. He wins the first leg with them and seems happy enough.......that's about to change.
Barney storms back and wins the next 5 legs in a row without missing a single dart at a double. Taylor looks gobsmacked and is chewing his flights....a well known sign that he's feeling the pressure.
Taylor gets another leg on the board with a clean 113 checkout but thats as good as it gets for the legend. Barney piles in another leg with yet again, only 1 dart needed at the double to secure at least a draw.
Van Barneveld is one leg away from victory and incredibly is 100% on the checkout stats but misses 2 darts at 32 to let Taylor in but once again the Power's doubling is letting him down and 2 missed darts at tops allows the big Dutchman in to claim victory with a very impressive 103+ average. Taylor's average was a lowly 92.......when was the last time you said that?
Robert Thornton 0 - 7 Dave Chisnall
These 2 players met last weekend in the first round of the Masters. I picked Chizzy for then win then as Thornton has been so out of form since he won the World Grand Prix back in October. You may remember that Thornton was 8 nil up or something then 9 - 3 up in a race to 10. You may also remember that Chizzy somehow managed to come back and win that game in a last leg decider.
Well, it appeared that Thornton was still suffering some sort of a hangover from last weekend and his opening 3 darts score of just 11.....yes, ELEVEN, was a clear sign of things to come.
Thornton simply wasn't at the races and only had 1 dart at a double the entire match as he suffered only the 6th whitewash in Premier League history. Maybe the statto's out there will prove me wrong but I'm sure Thorntons 3 dart average of just 75 is the lowest in the history of the tournament.
Chizzy, did what he had to do and had an impressive 64% on the doubles and ended with a 101 3 darts average......I bet he would have took that before the match started.
Adrian Lewis 7 - 1 Michael Smith
AS I mentioned earlier, Michael Smith must have been dreading the news that he was to play twice on his debut night. 2 defeats would be the nightmare start. In case you didn't know, Gary Anderson, who as I already mentioned had to pull out of the opening night, is not only very very good friends with Michael Smith, but he also sponsored Smith and helped him financially get his start on the PDC circuit. Some say he's Smith's manager, I'm not entirely sure thats true as I don't know when Anderson would have any time to manage another player while playing the circuit full time himself. Either way, Anderson pulling out has done his mate and himself, no favours but if you're ill it can't be helped.
Not too much to say about this match. Smith, who will have been bitterly disappointed with his earlier performance will have been mortified with what he turned in against Jackpot. He looked eve more nervous and uncomfortable than he did earlier and the usual fluency you associate with Smith, simply wasn't there.
Lewis was workmanlike and did exactly what he had to do and turned in an impressive 100 3 darts average, helped somewhat by his 64% checkout stats.
Smith, averaging just 80 after his earlier 85 will need some serious words of encouragement from Anderson etc if he's to make any sort of recovery in this tournament. I know it was only the first week but he's already played one more game than everybody else and has a history of simply giving in once he falls behind.....I wish him well.
Next week the Premier League Darts 2016 rolls into Newcastle (my hometown) and is live from the Metro Radio Arena. Bit of a strange one this as Newcastle usually stage the penultimate week, not the second week.
Regardless, looking forward to a party atmosphere and one or two pitchers of lager.
