How oft has it been said that, eventually, the cream always rises to the top. A couple of years ago, Liverpool were so far ahead of the pack in the Premiership the won the title pulling up in a manner commensurate to Honeysuckle’s demolition of the Champion Hurdle field last March.
Go back a bit further and similar parametres can be applied to the Golden State Warriors annexing consecutive NBA titles with consummate ease when the ‘Splash Brothers’ Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were in their pomp causing a stir. Now read on…
Today, as the quarter final action got underway in the World Darts Championship, the outcomes were similar. Albeit the predictable results were arrived at in unusual ways. Simply because, while James Wade would have been expected to defeat Mervyn King, there’s no way anybody would’ve expected it to end up a 5-0 whitewash.
During commentary, it was mentioned that, prior to today, ‘The Machine’ hadn’t hit a 180 in the competition. Right on cue, that statistic was obliterated. But even if it hadn’t been it wouldn’t have made a blind bit of difference. The man from Aldershot has his own unconventional way of doing things and, though some like to hang the fact that he hasn’t yet bagged the big one round his neck. A very harsh appraisal considering the stellar career the southpaw pitcher has already carved out for himself.
And he’s only 38. Look at the longevity of somebody like his opponent today (King, 55) and it only underscores the inclination that the best may be in front of the bespeckled board basher. Perhaps even a couple of days from now. For too long, Wade has carried the unwanted accreditation as the best player never to begin a new year atop the pile. Maybe, just maybe, that may be about to come to an end.
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It would be an understandable assessment that the race for the Sid Waddel Trophy has become considerably more open with the likes of Michael Van Gerwen and Dave Chisnall and Mensur Suljovic and Dimitri Van Den Bergh defenestrated for a variety of reasons. Mind you, such a stance would unjustly underplay the prowess of, for example, defending kingpin Gerwyn Price, or Peter Wright or a newer kid on the block like Callan Rydz.
Then there’s another lad, a character I’ve an auld fondness for myself, Mr Anderson! He says all that and still didn’t avail of the 33/1 available about the two-time, back to back champion of the world before a gram of tungsten was tossed at all. There were a few factors which undersowed a few seeds of doubt in the yield monitor upstairs you see.
It’s fairly common knowledge at this stage that the Hibernian fan has been troubled with back and knee injuries for quite a while now. As a result of which he doesn’t tog out with the regularity of some of his fellow competitors. Meaning he would be entitled to be cut a degree of slack were there an element of rust in his game.
And there has been plenty of it. at times. Both Ian White and Rob Cross could and quite honestly should have defeated him at different stages in the games he had played prior to today. Indeed, even at the third last hurdle on Saturday afternoon, ‘Cool Hand’ Luke Humphries had put himself in an advantageous position early on but almost seemed to run out of diesel as the wily Scot called on all of his experience to dig out a 5-2 win that was no way near as comfortable as that sounds.
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