Auckland

I don't usually comment on exhibitions, but given the results from the other side of the world, I thought I'd quickly look at Cadby's stats, given that for those that aren't already properly in the PDC system these can still be quite meaningful. He won 37 legs across the weekend, of which:

- Only one was a twelve darter (the very first leg of the final) - this is surprisingly low, given that in the worlds he managed four out of eighteen.
- Twenty-six were fifteen darters, putting him at a very respectable 73% of legs won in fifteen darts or less, which is elite throwing if he can do this continually over a good sample size. To put this in perspective, only van Gerwen, Gary Anderson and Adrian Lewis are above 70% given a reasonable sample.

But, you might ask, what about when Cadby was losing? How often did he not end up hitting a six visit kill because his opponent finished in five visits? It's a fair question given the quality of opponents he was facing, namely three of the FRH top ten and an opponent who won a tour title last weekend. He lost 28 legs this weekend, of which:

- In 11 legs he was only allowed four visits to the board. From these, he was left on a single dart finish on five occasions, single to double on another, and under 80 on a further two legs - so in quite a large number of these situations he clocks in a further fifteen dart leg. On balance, on two occasions he wasn't on a finish at all, so there is that
- In 11 more legs he was only allowed five visits to the board. On five of these again he was waiting on a single darter, and a further three he was needing just a single to leave a double. So, in fairness, he could have hit a few more six visits legs very easily if given the chance, and he was putting on the pressure to force the other guy to go out.
- The remaining visits he didn't finish in six visits, which is not an enviable situation to be in and is something he'll ideally want to cut out of his game. None of them were complete busts - on each occasion he was left on a double, but at the highest level he'll need to be getting these legs in the win column. These drag down his overall losing average to 92.79 - if he'd checked these out instead, his losing average would be over 97.

He's in an interesting spot now - he's over for the Grand Slam, and I would assume that he will stick around for the world youth, but then what? If he doesn't retain, he's not going to Alexandra Palace unless he claims the Oceanic Masters (perfectly possible) given he didn't top the DPA rankings. Can he sign on as a PDPA member and try the last chance PDPA qualifier? Is he eligible to play the BDO qualifier a couple of days after that? Will the PDC make their mind up what's happening with the qualification given they removed the four European ranking places? It'll be an interesting November for him whatever he does.