The Winmau Loses A Little More Magic
Posted on September 12th, 2009
The 36th staging of the Winmau World Masters at The Spa in Bridlington saw ‘Wolfie’ Martin Adams become only the third player ever to defend his title with a stunning final comeback. Trailing 3-6, Adams reeled off the last four sets to see off a shell-shocked Robbie ‘Kong’ Green and retain the title he won in 2008. Adams joins Bob Anderson and Eric Bristow as the only men to defend the trophy and next year he has the chance to equal Anderson’s unique hat-trick of titles.
These facts put Adams’ achievement into sharp perspective. Some of the greats of the game failed to get their hand on this trophy and only five other players have won it more than once. Adams has joined a select band. But for all that, the darts forums were a buzz of discontent over the weekend with many questioning Adams’ success, laying into the BDO’s organisation and slating the BBC’s sub-standard coverage. It seems that the World Masters may be losing its magic.
Hollow Man
It is difficult to criticise a player who has just accomplished a feat few other players in the history of the game have achieved. The BDO is where Adams chooses to ply his trade and so he can only beat the players in front of him. However , there is no doubt that the overall quality of the field was weaker this year; the recent BDO to PDC defections of several top players has left a yawning gap in quality and a lack of familiar names. This in turn has left the organisers terrified of having no familiar faces in the latter stages.
Which has led to gripe number two – recent format changes introduced a couple of years ago now see the top eight seeds ushered straight through to the Last 16. It certainly addresses the issue above but is hardly fair for the other couple of hundred entrants. Although seeding isn’t anything new, seeding players through to the Last 16 of a tournament with hundreds of starters is pushing it a little. The dishing out of wildcards muddies the water even further and contributes to a befuddled format that has taken the event backwards in the last couple of years.
With the weakened field and helping hand of the seeding rules, the accusation is that the 2009 World Masters was arguably the easiest to win in comparison to years gone by. It seems a fair point. Adams has been a, if not the, top BDO player for several years and will retire with an enviable record. Should he be taking on the very best in the world over the great divide? I think he should personally and until he does, his achievements will ultimately be tagged as hollow.
The seeding rules are weighted too much towards the top seeds and the BDO needs to be braver in having a firm re-think about the format of a tournament that has developed a few holes. How are the unfamiliar faces ever to become familiar if the cards are stacked against them? A constant criticism of the BDO is their resistance to change and it would seem that with the current format they are hoping for a Martin Adams versus Ted Hankey final every year.
Just Average?
The decline in overall quality may be subjective and ultimately boil down to opinion. There are certainly fewer well known players than ever in the BDO, due in part to defections and reduced TV coverage. Household names in darts are a thing of the eighties, with the possible exception of Taylor, Barney and The Legends, and none of these play in the BDO (although Peter Evison is currently giving it a go).
A look at the averages from this year’s latter stages show an average three dart average of 89.35 across 23 matches. In 2008 the same stage saw an average of 92.43 and in 2007 it was 90.88. A PDC comparison shows the tournament average of the 2009 World Matchplay was 93.67 across 31 matches. This certainly indicates a drop in standards at the World Masters.
Any player will tell you that it’s not all about the averages but a good one helps and across enough matches it is a fair indicator of quality. High averages don’t always mean exciting games either and there were some great tussles in this year’s World Masters without the high quality scoring. But the nagging feeling is that the event has become weak and stale and lives in the shadow of the PDC’s own major tournaments.
Anti Auntie Beeb
And it would appear that this is the reason for the BBC’s declining enthusiasm for putting on a good show. In spite of renewing the contract for a further three years, they appear to be losing interest, delivering a rather slipshod presentation in 2009. There was very little razzle and dazzle, airtime was reduced from previous years, and there was some shoddy presenting from interviewers and commentators. In mitigation, Ray Stubbs departure was unfortunate and the BBC will need time to find an adequate replacement. It was also disappointing that no airtime was given to the ladies or youth competitions (unless we all blinked and missed it). Much of the action was put behind the red button but no thought was given to providing entertainment between matches and during breaks.
There are fans who simply want to watch a game of darts, but darts fandom (and TV for that matter) has changed in recent times and people want to be entertained with an all round package – good darts AND a bit of razzmatazz. This is what Sky and the PDC do so well and they will always be the barometer for televised darts. Every station that ventures into covering the sport, be it Setanta, ITV, Challenge TV, Nuts TV or the BeeB, is ultimately compared to Sky’s established and polished coverage. And rightly so as they have set the standard.
It’s a chicken and egg situation – the BDO are reluctant to change so the event gets stale and the BBC lose interest. One of them has to be brave and find a way to inject some life back into what is a prestigious tournament that should be covered to a higher standard. It seems that the BDO bowed to BBC pressure to move the event forward from late November to early September, and agreed to the match timings that saw the semi finals brought forward two hours and ditched from the main coverage. It is unfortunate that elements of this tournament along with the BDO’s own qualifying criteria have been compromised by TV demands. Is it another indication of the relationship waning?
Last year BBC1 had Saturday coverage from 1pm to 4:30pm; this year remained the same. However Sunday coverage last year had BBC2 showing the semis and final from 1:30pm to 5:30pm, an hour and a half more than this year which only showed the final live on BBC2 between 3:30 and 6:00pm. The action was behind the red button and on the internet but that isn’t an entertaining package and is more evidence of the BBC demoting the importance of the BDO’s second most prestigious tournament.
Now And Then
In winning his three back to back titles, Bob Anderson had to beat John Lowe in the final twice. Lowe is a true legend of the game, who was then at the top of his game and won the World Masters twice himself. On the way to his five titles, Eric Bristow left legends such as Leighton Rees, Keith Deller, Dave Whitcombe, Bobby George, Mike Gregory and John Lowe trailing in his wake. The winner of today’s Winmau World Masters will undoubtedly breathe a sigh of relief that a field of that quality need not be overcome; the current day equivalents all ply their trade over at the PDC.
Tags: BBC, BDO, Winmau World Masters
Filed under General, Winmau World Masters |
