I think the system is preety good as it is, yes its a 2 year system.....but its a 1 year system in effect for the 17-32 to qualify for most majors, allowing players to get to majors if they are good enough fairly quickly.

I'm still here fella, though not posted much. It's gone a bit boring now since me and Dave Lister don't argue anymore!





Agree with you in a way that the PDC is getting a bit boring now. There are still some fantastic matches but the tournament always ends with the same result; Taylor blowing everyone away. Yes, he is the greatest player ever, yes he is playing at the top of his game at the moment, but I can't believe there isn't one person that can even bother to attempt to give him a game.

As Chris71 said, Taylor is known for constant practising, striving to make himself better, but could the same be said for some of his challengers? As he said in his post, James Wade has said he should practice a bit more than he should (probably Helen Chamberlain's fault!!

). Wonder if any other players put in the effort that Taylor does? I doubt it.

There are some who put the hours in though, Taylor has been known to mention it when asked about it in interviews. Only at the weekend he mentioned Klaasen being in the practice rooms after being knocked out, and he's said similar of King and Anderson working hard on their game in the past few tournaments. I think the problem with some of them is the attitude that because they're resigned to not being top dog while he's around, they're happy to just be amongst the rest or wonder what the point is. That's certainly what's happened to Barneveld. Others, like Lewis, seem content to rely on their natural ability to just tread water and enjoy the lifestyle IMO.

Fair point it's a case of how those players kick on after getting that far and unfortunatly not many do, some of it is obviously down to talent and ability but I am sure some think they have made it, pocket the £70,000 or so a year the likes of a Robert Thornton, Colin Osbourne or Andy Hamilton can make and do not have the application or desire to take the next step.

I might be totally wrong but there have been times when Wade and Barney especially have gone into tournaments totally ill prepared and disinterested but still gone along way when the players who are perhaps ranked 8-20 should be taking advantage and ruthlessly put them to the sword.

But do they do it enough, all day everyday like Taylor does or just put a little bit extra in before a tournament.

Think your right in regards the attitudes of some players and mentally already being beaten at the thought of Taylor. I remember not that long ago Taylor himself in an interview said when asked why he thought he was so difficult to beat that he felt alot of the players just dont put enough in away from the tournaments.

Bugger, I thought we'd got rid of you for good

I still think that list of players can challenge for the TV majors without a doubt. They are all good enough, we've all seen on tele how good they can be. Painter just keeps meeting Taylor around the quarters and goes out, he showed in 2004? when he should have been World Champion, only for Taylor's ton plus finish. I do think we have a good healthy number of players that can compete for finals and titles.



Taylor's biggest pet hate by the sounds of it, everytime he's interviewed and asked about the younger players he always says how he he feels they can earn a very good living without having to push themselves to success.



The way it's been for many years though isn't it mate, firstly all of the top stars obviously played BDO early days but virtually all of the newer blood (Barney, Klaasen, King, Whitlock) have all recently made the switch, the reason Barry Hearn wanted to buy the BDO, maybe he thinks it's easier than creating his own grassroots for the PDC. BDO still remains the feeder group.



They are changing the entries for the PL now though mate, without looking I'm sure it's top four now qualify automatically and the other four places are now wildcard, unfortunately.

Just looked it up and you are right. It even more diminishes the rankings (and to be fair Top 4 is a different planet to where most of the players currently in and around the Top 20 can aspire to) and it will be a case of your face fits rather than getting anywhere on merit.

Even stranger is 2 of the WildCards are chosen by the PDC but the other two are chosen by Sky Sports which is Bizzare in the extreme and something I can not think of happening in any other sport. It could well be where they want to sell the rights to broadcast it or where they might want to stage Premier League abroad (I think Holland will host one in the not too distant future) that will dictate who gets invited and I guess it's their event and they can do what they like with it but there were lots of empty seats at most nights of the last Premier League (Nottingham in particular had a tiny crowd for the last night of group games) and they are in danger of wrecking one of the most casual fan friendly formats the sport has got.

As long as the Premier League is something like:
Taylor, Wade, Barney, Lewis, Nicholson, Whitlock, Klaasen, Baxter/Anderson it will be fine, Anderson will pull the crowds in for the Scottish nights and will make the arenas very loud, Nicholson to be the token "bad guy".

Well in the case of Klaasen, he was actually saying about the fact he was practicing to get ready for the next tournament, even though the matchplay hadn't even finished yet. It's a tough call how much practice is right though anyway, really. It's the quality that counts. It just strikes me that Taylor has found the routine that works for him and rigidly sticks to it, that's the dedication that counts. As you say, some of the others possibly just focus on when tournaments come around.

I think the biggest thing Taylor now has going for him isn't the practice, it's how relaxed and confident he is on the big stage. He's so at ease with it all he's able to play his best darts where others buckle under the pressure.

Anderson should be in on playing merit anyway. If he could get his doubles up to around 30-40% consistently, he'd be in the Barneveld/Wade/Whitlock class IMO.

I'm still yet to be impressed by Nicholson. It was a very good result to beat Taylor and understandably got a lot of attention, but IMO he doesn't string enough performances together. If he was to get a Premier League place in a lineup similar to what you mention, I'd fancy him to finish bottom fairly easily. Acting like a dick shouldn't be enough for him to be included.

You say that because John Part is out of the reckoning.


I like him as a player b.t.w.

I had a go on the PDC darts FB page but it was actually too busy for my liking and too many idiots

I agree with all you say this time too. However, Chamberlain has binned Wade off

I'm of a similar opinion. I watched most of the Matchplay as its my favourite tournament, but can't be bothered with any others. I do like Whitlock though, and hope he can bring more consistency to his game.

Damn..found out haha

He'll be at the worlds at back better than ever...maybe

Not a chance la, not a chance!

I'd say he has been pretty consistent recently TBH. Last 16 of the Grand Slam last year losing to the eventual runner-up, finalist in the World Championships, 2nd in the Premier League table, 5th round of the UK Open when he met Taylor, now the last 4 of the Matchplay. So since the World Championships he's been knocked out of 3 of the 4 major tournaments by Taylor. That's about as good a record as you can realistically get now, probably the most consistent man except Taylor himself. He was also suffering with flu during the Matchplay, apparently.

Interesting the comment about grass roots and players developing through the BDO.

Do the PDC have anything behind the televised and floor events that replicates the county setup through which players emerge in the BDO?

Quote ="Andy Gilder"Interesting the comment about grass roots and players developing through the BDO. Do the PDC have anything behind the televised and floor events that replicates the county setup through which players emerge in the BDO?'" Not that I'm aware of, I don't think they have any sort of grass roots set up to bring their own set of players through. I guess that's why Hearn tried to buy BDO so he simply takes over the grass roots level, which the BDO is. PDC do now have a new under 21 championship that will run, the final will be played at Ally Pally during the World Championships and the two finalists will be invited to play in the Grand Slam and also be given PDC Pro Tour Cards for 2011. At least the U21 WC shows a sign of of some youth development but it's not like the BDO. Info: www.pdc.tv/page/NewsdeskDetail/0 ... 01,00.html

Quote ="Andy Gilder"Interesting the comment about grass roots and players developing through the BDO. Do the PDC have anything behind the televised and floor events that replicates the county setup through which players emerge in the BDO?'" Not that I'm aware of, I don't think they have any sort of grass roots set up to bring their own set of players through. I guess that's why Hearn tried to buy BDO so he simply takes over the grass roots level, which the BDO is. PDC do now have a new under 21 championship that will run, the final will be played at Ally Pally during the World Championships and the two finalists will be invited to play in the Grand Slam and also be given PDC Pro Tour Cards for 2011. At least the U21 WC shows a sign of of some youth development but it's not like the BDO. Info: www.pdc.tv/page/NewsdeskDetail/0 ... 01,00.html

Well, from 5-0 up, it was squeeky bum time then - looked like King was going to snaffle it but Barrie managed to crawl over the line!

Opening night of the European Championships in Germany, some good games tonight. Not sure about Bravo's coverage but it's not too bad, anyway opening night's results:

Paul Nicholson 3-6 Andy Smith
Mark Walsh 6-3 Antonio Alcinas
Terry Jenkins 6-4 Andree Welge
Simon Whitlock 6-3 Dennis Priestley
Gary Anderson 2-6 Jamie Caven
Phil Taylor 6-2 Co Stompe
Jelle Klaasen 6-4 Vincent Van Der Voort
Mervyn King 3-6 Barrie Bates

King's gone out in round one in the last two tournaments, worst time of the year to start going out of form. Run of tournaments now where need to kick on otherwise start tumbling down the order of merit.

Thought it was shocking from what I saw, TBH. Commentary was pretty poor, the spotting missed plenty of darts (as well as missing plenty more by trying to show a close-up of the player for too long and changing shot too late), and the on-screen scoreboard hardly worked.

the power wins again. jenkins ran him close though.