My late father had a saying “You never see a bookie on a bicycle”. He was speaking from experience, having helped out a local bookie, Willie Maguire, who “Ran a book” at most tracks – horse and dog – around the country.
Inference being that no matter how much knowledge you might think you have on a given subject area, in the end the turf accounttants generslly always win the war even if you pick a battle here and there along the way.
Another little nugget of wisdom garnered from him along the way – employing a bit of horse racing parlance, “They’re top weight for a reason”. Slightly adapted to fit other sports, it translates as the favourites in the betting for something, anything, being there on merit.
That guarantees nothing though. Think of Leicester City winning the Premier League title having been originally chalked up at 5000/1 to do so. Or, of more relevance to this production, Rob Cross winning the World Darts Championship in his first season taking part therein.
Sometimes, though, the formbook tells its own story. Before an arrow was aimed at the Alexandra Palace on December 15th last, Peter Wright was close to if not at the top of the betting while Michael Smith and Jonny Clayton were undoubtedly the two form players coming into the event. The latter having accumulated four top titles during the season. So it was nearly fate that the pair would collide somewhere along the way.
And when they did what a contest they engaged in. Mind you, it was only one of a litany of brilliant battles which were merit retention on the Sky box for as long as you like. None more so than the two semi finals last night.
James Wade must be the biggest enigma in darts. Or perhaps any sport at present. Often possessed of similar arrogant ignorance to Gerwyn Price, it is beyond dispute that he is also one of the premier exponents of his profession. Which has actually led to him being the holder of that most unfortunate of titles – the best player never to have garnered the big one.
Comment was often passed here previously on how difficult the tungsten throwing activity often seems to be for left handed gladiators. Be that as it may however, the former mechanic has managed to construct a highly commendable career for himself. Often by playing functional rather than spectacular darts.
Knowing how to win rather than flamboyantly going about doing so. Yet again the methodology served him well in the last couple of weeks with him rocking up at the penultimate hurdle once again. Nobody in a hurry to dismiss his chances thereat either. There’s something different about Smith this season however.
Thus far, he has been able to mix the perfunctory with the powerhouse. There could scarcely be a greater tribute to Wade’s nous and alacrity on the oche than the fact that he made it as far as the semi final without hitting a 180. It went without saying that chances were he wouldn’t get past an opponent of ‘Bully Boy’s acum without hammering the treble 20 bed on at least a few occasions.
He duly did, but such was the regularity and accuracy with which the younger bearded one pulverised the treble top (16-5 over the course of the nonstop nine setter) that no matter what the Aldershot arrowsmith fired back in riposte he could never close the chasm between the two as the 2019 finalist earned himself another tilt at the top title on a 6-3 scoreline.
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Gary Anderson reminds me of Quevega. Willie Mullins’ wonder mare only got the rug pulled off her at specific times of the year. She would, however, be primed and programmed to explode into action seemingly at the flick of a switch. The Scottish legend does ‘tog out’ more often than the red and blue silks made their two annual appearances at Cheltenham and Punchestown but there’s no doubt that he does save his best displays for his sport’s showpiece event.
Not that you’d think it to observe him early on. In any of his matches. Remember, the man in the tartan sleeves lost the first set in his opening round encounter with Adrian Lewis and then ended up going 3-0 down against both Ian White and Wright again last night and worked his way into the game.
It hardly represents the best business policy though. Because by the time he had caught up to ‘Snakebite’ he had obviously tired. What kept him in it and enabled the greatest darts match the one seeing eye has possibly ever witnessed to become exactly that was the prowess of both players at hitting the maximum out shot.
Not only did they post astonishing figures for 180s during the ten-set thriller, Wright broke the record for individual strikes at the biggest shot the sport has – ironically set by his opponent here – with 24, between them they managed to achieve something many would have felt impossible – they made referee Russ Bray lose his voice at one stage!