I was pleased to see Gary Anderson win a major title when he won the Premier League Darts final tonight, it’s time Anderson won the big event his talent suggests he should.
Anderson gained a revenge of sorts tonight, I felt he didn’t do himself justice in the World Championship final at the start of the year when he lost to Adrian Lewis.
Anderson’s scoring was at it’s usual relentless best, he is almost impossible to live with when he gets his eye in around the treble 20 like tonight. Then if he’s not affected by his ‘Doubles’ problem and his game all comes together – as it did tonight – he is virtually unbeatable.
The final was in stark contrast to the lethargic looking 3rd place play-off between Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld, are we finally starting to witness the changing of the guard?
Write off Phil Taylor? Not me.
Barney should have beaten Phil tonight, again he couldn’t overcome his mental fragility against Taylor when in sight of the winning line.
Of the 8 players contesting the league this year, Terry Jenkins and Mark Webster struggled the most. Webster in particular looked like a man who could have quite gladly quit the league about 5 to 6 weeks back, he should come back stronger for his experiences though.
Simon Whitlock and James Wade endured an up and down competition, Whitlock seemed to be up and down from one week to the next, while Wade started poorly but came back strongly in the latter weeks but had far too much ground to make up.
I feel Wade’s career has stalled a bit over the last 18-24 months. 2 years back he looked like a real contender for Phil’s No.1 crown, but he seems to have fallen off the pace somewhat lately.
As for Whitlock, he doesn’t score too heavily, but if you ever wanted someone to hit a double for your life, you would surely have to pick the Aussie.
