ENGLAND ANNOUNCE THEIR INTERNATIONAL SQUADS FOR 2007

WOMEN:
Trina Gulliver (Captain Warwickshire) - Lisa Ashton (Lancashire) - Nadine Bentley (Cambridgeshire) - Clare Bywaters (Warwickshire) - Apylee Jones (Surrey) - Karen Lawman (Yorkshire) - Tricia Wright (Kent)
 
MEN:
Martin Adams (Captain Cambridgeshire) - Tommy Aldridge (Warwickshire) - Ian Brand (Cambridgeshire) - Roy Brown (Hampshire) - Tony Eccles (Cheshire) - Steve Farmer (Shropshire) - Darryl Fitton (Cheshire) - Shaun Greatbatch (Cambridgeshire) - Phil Nixon (County Durham) - Tony O’Shea (Cheshire) - Davy Richardson (Northumberland)  - Scott Waites (Yorkshire) - John Walton (Yorkshire)

SIX NATIONS CUP 2007:
Martin Adams(Captain) - Tony Eccles - Steve Farmer - Shaun Greatbatch - Tony O'Shea - John Walton

Team Manager: Peter Melton

NEW PREMIER LEAGUE DARTS LAUNCHES IN THE NETHERLANDS

The Dutch Darts Premier League (DDPL) will be launched this spring and the organisers are proud to announce that the following eight players will compete in this years event.  

Gary Anderson ( Scotland)          Niels de Ruiter (Netherlands)
Martin Adams (England)              Ted Hankey (England)
Darryl Fitton (England)                Gary Robson (England)
Co Stompé (Netherlands)            Phill Nixon (England)
 
The Dutch Darts Premier League will be played over five days at four different venues throughout the country. During the first four days of the tournament the participants will compete to reach the Grand Final. The Grand Final, which will be played at The Zenith in Venray, will feature the best four players of the competition. They will play in to Semi-Finals to decide who will play he Final. 

The schedule is as follows:
Saturday 19 May:           De Smelt, Assen
Saturday 26 May:           Vlaanderenhal, Terneuzen
Saturday 9 June:            Bob’s Party Palace, Uitgeest
Saturday 23 June:          The Zenith, Venray

The Grand Final:           
Sunday 24 June:            The Zenith, Venray

The total amount of Prize Money is € 80,000

Ticket sales for the Dutch Darts Premier League starts on February 1st. Tickets can be ordered at the DDPL’s website at  www.ddpl.nl.  Tickets will also be available at the venues and other local selling points. For more information about VIP packages please contact the Organisation.

ECE Consultancy
Peter van Acker
Phone:          +31 (0) 6 309 509 09
E-mail:          ecepromotion@planet.nl
Website:       www.ddpl.nl

Priestley warms up nicely as Chisnall has a day to remember

The Oldham Open. Held at Tara Leisure Centre, Shaw on 28th & 29th January 2007

St Helens player Dave Chisnall had a day he won’t forget in a hurry as he took the Oldham Open title, beating Mark ‘Top Banana’ Holden in the final. He almost capped the win with the ultimate achievement, narrowly missing double twelve for a 9-darter. He did hit it next dart though to win the leg in ten darts and powered on to lift the trophy. He had overcome Mark Wainwright in the semi-final with Holden beating Gary Thompson the other match.

All four semi finalists then went on to contest the Champions against four legends of the game in John Lowe, Bob Anderson, Steve Beaton and Dennis Priestley. Seven world titles between them and countless years of experience.

Reputations count for nothing though and Chisnall continued his fine form, beating Bob Anderson to get through to the semi finals. The three other ‘legends’ had no such trouble and went through safely enough – John Lowe looking most impressive against Mark Holden.

In the semis it was Lowe up against Priestley and Beaton with the tricky challenge of a cock-a-hoop Chisnall. Priestley took care of Lowe fairly comfortably and was starting to find a groove. Beaton looked to be cruising against Chisnall and needed just one more leg for victory. However Chisnall hit back and levelled the game at 3-3 with a great 115 checkout under tense pressure. It wasn’t to be though as Beaton kept his calm to win the deciding leg and set up a final with Priestley.

The final itself was all one-way traffic as Beaton couldn’t hit his finishes. Priestley could and won the match with a 5-0 whitewash. Nice preparation for his debut in the Premier League on Thursday. The winner bagged a trophy and cheque for £750 with the runner up receiving £350. Chisnall added £250 to the £200 he’d already won and can boast about beating an ex-world champion for some time to come.

The weekend was run with immaculate organisation once again by John Gwynne and company, and everybody looked to have a great time. There were 180 signs being waved about, walk on music for the players and good quality darts – the 9-darter would have capped it all. The familiar face of one Alan Glazier in the crowd was nice to see and a quick chat revealed that he’s recently been recovering from a broken arm but is still throwing and still enjoying it after all these years.

If you haven’t been to this event before, mark it in your diary for next year and get yourself along to a great afternoon of darts in Oldham.

Superstars of Darts Fun Day

The Forum for the players and the fans is to provide a fun day in April 2007 for its members. There will be a members darts competition at Gilberts Bar in the midlands. All members and guests are welcome to come along to enjoy a fun relaxing day with hopefully some class darts to watch as well.

Please visit the Superstars of Darts forum for more details and enjoy the Forum.

Wishing you all happy Darting
The EyeFinisher.

TV darts hit by advertising ban

Plans by the Eurosport TV channel to cover a number of darts tournaments in the UK and Europe have collapsed. Extremely strict laws on TV advertising in Norway and Sweden prohibit the advertising of any form of betting or gaming unless the advertising company is state-owned.

This has meant that Unibet, who are the main sponsors for the current series of darts tournaments, cannot display their advertising and therefore are unable to fund these events.

The Norway Open was due to be covered on August 4/6 and the Sweden Open on November 25/26. The Belgian Open, which was also part of the package, was not televised on July 21/23.

Plans by Eurosport to cover the British Open on September 15/17 and the WDF Europe Cup in Ireland on September 20/23 are uncertain. A World Darts Federation spokesman told Darts World: “We are still negotiating with Eurosport about the televising of these events.” 

Story provided by Darts World.

REVISED WDF WORLD RANKING SYSTEM
Tuesday 23rd January 2007

The revision of the WDF World Ranking Systems is now completed, and the system has been implemented as of 1st January 2007. Events will now be placed into one of five categories, these categories are based on several criteria such as number of entries, prize money offered, and strategic importance of the event.

    * Points for Jt. 17th are awarded only in the Winmau World Masters and to Men only.
  ** Points for Jt. 33rd are awarded only if entries exceed 512 Men and 256 Women.
 *** Points for Jt. 17th are awarded only if entries exceed 256 Men and 128 Women.

In 2007 the WDF World Rankings will be used for the selection of WDF players for the World Darts Trophy. In 2008 the WDF Rankings will be used for the selection of WDF players for both the Topic International Darts League and the World Darts Trophy.

The revised WDF Calendar now shows which events are ranked, and the category they have been placed in. All tournaments will be monitored, and will be revised on the same principle as "league tables" in other sports. Tournaments which offer increased prize money or achieve a significantly higher number of entries will be upgraded the following year, on the other hand tournaments which do not live up to expectations will be downgraded. This will ensure that the quality of WDF Ranked events will improve, and that players will be better able to plan their efforts to obtain ranking points. In the revised system all points earned by players will count in the ranking tables. It is expected that several new events will be added to the list of ranked events in the near future.

The revised WDF Ranking Tables are now under final scrutiny, and will be published shortly.

Masters of Darts Spot For Manley

PETER MANLEY has been announced as the Wildcard selection for the 2007 Masters of Darts, which takes place in Hengelo next month.

The world number four will complete the five-man England team for the tournament, which will see them take on their Dutch counterparts.

Manley, a three-time World Championship finalist and former Las Vegas Desert Classic winner, joins Phil Taylor, Colin Lloyd, Wayne Mardle and Mervyn King in the England team.

The Dutch team will be captained by World Champion Raymond van Barneveld and also features Roland Scholten, Michael van Gerwen, Jelle Klaasen and Vincent van der Voort.

"I'm delighted to have been selected," said Manley.

"I am looking forward to teaming up with the English players - I'm used to playing against people like Phil and Colin, but it will be good fun playing with them."

The tournament begins at the Expocenter, Hengelo on Saturday 10 February, with five days of round-robin games being played between the countries.

The semi-finals, featuring the top two players from each country, will be played on Saturday 17 February, with the final on Sunday 18 February.

Click here for the Masters of Darts fixtures

Click here for further event information