2012 PDC Players Championship Finals DartsMad Preview

Posted on November 30th, 2012

The PDC show rolls into Minehead this week to add a bit of glamour to Butlins! The £250,000 tournament is the reward for the 32 top performing players from the low key PDC Pro Tour events, with £60k going to the eventual winner.

The change of venue to a holiday camp atmosphere may be a welcome departure from the doldrums of Doncaster and its under-patronised Dome, however, before the stage has been erected or a dart thrown in anger we have one very unhappy camper; Phil Taylor.

Hi de hi1 300x234 2012 PDC Players Championship Finals DartsMad Preview

Morning Campers!

Why? Well since reclaiming the Premier League Darts title back in May The Power has only managed to add the World Matchplay and the (internet streamed) Championship League Darts trophies to his cabinet.

A nice haul by anyone else’s standard, but who would have bet on the Grand Slam, European Championship, World Grand Prix and UK Open all eluding the face of PDC darts in 2012?

As a habitual winner, Taylor more than most just does not like losing. Is he a bad loser? Probably, but certainly not the worst. What ever you think about him you can lump on him at 10/3 if you think there is life in the old dog yet.

The fact is the standard of the chasing pack has improved, and there are a handful of players with a genuine belief that they can overcome Taylor under pressure in a match situation and chuck a 100+ average back at him.

Leading the charge is Michael van Gerwen, having already eliminated Taylor from this years Grand Slam at the last 16 stage and edged a close contest 6-5 at Barnsley in the Players Championship 20 final, he also features in Taylor’s half of the draw at Minehead.

A quarter final meeting of the pair would be subject to Phil first getting past Mark Webster, then a potential second round game with Adrian Lewis, whilst van Gerwen has to negotiate defending champion Kevin Painter in the first round in a match which he understandably starts as favourite.

The 23 year old Dutchman is the golden boy of PDC darts right now; animated, aggressive and fast becoming a fans favourite. He and the likes of Dave Chisnall, Simon Whitlock and a rejuvenated Raymond van Barneveld are ones to watch in this event and between them make up the top 4 seeding.

Chisnall enters the fray as first seed which affords him the relative luxury of facing the No. 32 seed Wayne Jones. The Wanderer has had a torid couple of years with many a first round exit from floor events.

That said he is no mug and has earned (scraped?) his Finals place, the race to 6 legs suits his game so Chisnall must not take his eye off the ball. A close head to head record suggests an on song Jones could upset the top seed’s plan for glory in what is arguably the desirable half of a bottom heavy draw.

Whitlock (2) and van Barneveld (4) take on Jamie Caven and Steve Beaton respectively, Jabba hit some form during the Championship League darts but hasn’t demonstrated any real consistency so far this year and Beaton has failed to topple Barney on all but one occasion in 8 attempts. Therefore it’s difficult to see these matches going against the form guide.

A stand out first round fixture is Wes Newton versus Gary Anderson, the Scotsman was seeded second behind Justin pipe in last years competition and whitewashed the then 31st seed van Gerwen in the first round! The fact he turns up to Butlins 24 places lower this year is indicative of recent turbulant times both on and off the oche for the Scotsman.

The Players Championship Order of Merit though does not reveal the whole story; Anderson has won 5 of their last 7 meetings over the last 18 months. Matches between this pair are generally close so don’t be suprised to see this one go to a last leg shootout with 2011s semi-finalist Wes just nicking it.

Casting an eye over the other first round games; Ian White has as good a chance of any of his fellow top half counterparts, assuming of course he gets past youngster Michael Smith in the opening game of the tournament on Friday afternoon.

When Justin Pipe takes on Colin Osborne the short format could well feel more like a half marathon. The head to head battles between these slower throwers reveals Osborne has a superior record, with 4 wins from 6. Although you would have to fancy Pipe here.

James Wade will have to dig deep to get past Brendan Dolan, on paper it looks straightforward for the man with 7 major titles to his name, but recently he has gone off the boil as a consequence of his well documented health issues.

Ronnie Baxter takes on the self styled ‘Bad Boy’ of darts Paul Nicholson, as a previous winner The Asset knows what he should be doing, Baxter though features in our all time Top 10 ratings and has won two thirds of their previous games.

The Rocket is wily old fox and won’t be phased by Nicholson’s darts or whatever other nonsense he may or may not bring to the Butlins stage, therefore we fancy him to put the Aussie Geordie to bed.

Colin Lloyd and Peter Wright take to the stage as sixteenth and seventeenth seeds respectively and we fully expect this to be mirrored by a close match scoreline. Snakebite has had little success against Jaws in the past having lost their last 6 encounters, but you just sense he might reverse that fortune here.

Looking past the usual suspects we can’t call a winner for this event, one would suspect there is each way value in the top half of the draw so you might fancy a punt on the likes of Ian White (40/1) or Kim Huybrechts (25/1). What is good to see is a wide open tournament with big names certain to go out early doors, who do you think will will prevail? Use the comment feature below and let us now!

The tournament sees a welcome return to PDC darts on terrestrial television with Alan Warriner-Little and Chris Mason providing punditry on the ITV-4 broadcasts. The action will also be streamed live on LIVEPDC.TV to all regions except UK, Ire & Netherlands where fans may still access on-demand highlights.