There was a time in the mid 1990s when Clare, Leitrim and to a certain extent Mayo, delivered shock results which threatened to upset the world order in Gaelic football, but eventually those possibilities faded away as Dublin took care of the first two in 1992 and 1994 while both Cork and Meath took care of the green and red ambitions on a couple of separate occasions.
It’s been partially a similar story at the current incarnation of the PDC World Darts Championship with players like Callan Rydz and Chris Dobey still in the line up as the competitors turn towards the third last hurdle in the race for the Sid Waddell Trophy. If the aforementioned duo and, in this instance, Peter Wright, represent the surprise packets, at the minute Luke Littler, Michael Van Gerwen and Nathan Aspinall are very much the usual suspects at this stage.
Mind you, the surprise packets have by no means been quiet about making their presence felt. With Wright easing past a surprisingly off colour defending champion Luke Humphries and Chris Dobey eventually negotiating a way past the typically slippery Iceman, Gerwyn Price. Though it has to be said that the tempestuous Welshman did his own causes no good at all by missing almost literally a half tonne of darts at double as the man they call Hollywood marked himself out as the star of the show and just two steps away from getting his place on the darts walk of fame.
Van Gerwen’s berth thereon has been gold plated for some time now, but, there were those, myself included, who had the temerity to wonder had the Green Machine lost some of its bearings.
But, whether he had to take the socket set to the nuts and bolts to recalibrate or not, slowly but surely he has worked his way into the contest and is at worst a length or two down on the people’s champion – Littler – with two hurdles to jump.
That said, MVG has been around the block long enough to know not to take the gifted and gutsy Dobey for granted. The Newcastle native having played himself into being a regular at this stage of major competitions.
On the biggest of days, sometimes it’s the simplest of things, the basics, the fundamentals, that can make the biggest of differences. In this case, the simple fact Dobey took a greater percentage of his shooting chances than Price.
To a certain extent, the exact same scenario prevailed in the second of the afternoon quarter finals when, for a period, it appeared the burgeoning, battling Callan Rydz was going to bust the Green Machine’s gearbox before the Dutchman dug in and donned the dual wheels to get hlm through the sticky patches before advancing to tackle Dobey at the second last.
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With absolutely no disrespect intended to either Stephen Bunting or Peter Wright, general wisdom would be that whomever triumphs out of Van Gerwen and Dobey would be best placed to give Littler a run for his money. That, however, outlandishly discounts Bunting.
Think what you want about what was once the British Darts Organisaton (BDO) but the fact is Bunting was a World Champion under their banner before crossing over. I love watching The Bullet play.
Yes, the fact that he is the real life incarnation of Peter Griffin from Family Guy – including using Bird Is The Word as his walk-on song for a period – but, my fondness for his style of play only accentuated admiration for the bespeckled battler.
However, he now has the dubious ‘pleasure’ of taking on Littler on Thursday night after the darting phenom – still not legal to drink a pint until the end of the month – overcame Aspinall 5-2. But the scoreline was extremely flattering for the tungsten thrower who has made the sport a global hit. Where once there were those who would seek to protest that it wasn’t a sport at all!
Such bull. The really disappointing thing is that there are only two night’s action left in the Alexandra Palace. Thereafter, the crutch which has kept yours truly afloat for the better part of the last month will be put aside for another year.
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