25/01/10
The second player’s championship finals get underway on Thursday 28th January, the four days of darts now sponsored by totesport.com comes from the spiritual home of the PDC ‘The Circus Tavern’ in Purfleet which held 14 PDC World Championships until it moved to The Alexandra Palace in 2008. This unique event features the top 32 players in the player’s championship merit table after the 31 player’s championship events in 2009.
Heading the table and No 1 seed is current champion Phil Taylor, in last years final he beat Scotland’s Robert Thornton who appeared in his first major TV final 16-9.
As this event is based on players championships and not world rankings, there are some notable absentees; Raymond van-Barnaveld, Simon Whitlock, John Part, Wayne Mardle and Mark Webster to name a few did not qualify for the event.
The lowest ranked player in the event is Coventry’s Steve Hine ‘The Muffin Man’ who is currently 51 in the world rankings but came in at 32, Andy Jenkins came in at 27 but a disciplinary action against him means Peter ‘One Dart’ Manley replaces him as the next player in the merit table.
Last years event saw six averages of over 100:
100.07 Raymond van-Barnaveld (lost) v James Wade
100.51 Colin ‘Jaws’ Lloyd v Andy Hamilton
101.58 Phil Taylor v Ronnie Baxter
101.84 Terry Jenkins v Wayne Jones
108.49 Phil Taylor v Michael van-Gerwen
108.63 Phil Taylor v Vincent van der Voort
There were 126 180s in the event with 13 in the game Wade v Thornton.
Last year also saw one of the great comebacks when Denis Priestley trailed John Part 5-0 at the break, only to win 6 on the trot to win 6-5.
The prize fund has also been boosted this year by a further contribution of £50,000 by The PDPA which increases the event to £250,000
Colin Lloyd will open the proceedings against Denis Ovens, the man he beat 4-3 in the recent World Championships, and Phil Taylor will start his defence against long term rival Peter Manley, no doubt two of the games of the round Gary Anderson v Jelle Klaasen and James Wade v Mervyn King.
Coverage starts at 19.00 with the ITV 4 team Matt Smith, Alan Warriner-Little and Chris Mason
Keep up to date with the proceeding and follow The Players Championship NET ZONE