Few quick random thoughts on tonight's matches:
- Asada, first set in the prelim aside, looked really quite solid and you can see why he was able to come through the BDO system the last few years. It's pretty difficult given the travel for anyone from there to be able to even attempt to play the UK circuit other than the odd couple of weeks where there's events clustered together, but as he's still only in his 30's we should hopefully see him back in the future.
- Dobey, after a weak first couple of sets, looked to be somewhat back to form, just a pity that he let Taylor break in the fourth leg of the fourth set in sixteen darts. In fairness, even in the first two sets, he had left himself on a double after fifteen darts when he lost the leg on three occasions, so against someone a bit weaker, he could easily have nicked those.
- Taylor looked a bit edgy, but there's somewhat of whether he upped his game when he needed two. It's entirely possible that he had more in the tank if needed, slamming in the twelve darter to break in the last leg of the opening set was nice, and there weren't many legs where he wasn't close even when Dobey was taking them.
- Dimitri looked legit and had possibly his best performance on TV - three legs in twelve, every other leg in fifteen, over a 93 average in the legs Bunting won, and you have to think he's a big threat to either Klaasen or Dekker, whoever comes through. Bunting didn't play badly at all, but was really gifted the set he won and gifted the chance he had to hold out the opening set, apart from what van den Bergh gave him, he couldn't do much of his own at all.
- Cross looked legit there. Perhaps a touch nervy early, but powering through with four 180's in the last two legs of the match was impressive.
Double header tomorrow - while I won't be able to watch the afternoon session as football takes priority, I'm primarily interested to see which van de Pas shows up, whether it'll be the one that was looking good in the Grand Prix, or the one that has done little all year. Similar for West, if he brings his Matchplay game then we could be in for a treat. The remaining matches of that session look a bit dull, the evening seems better to see how Smith does in his PDC debut appearance, how Luke Humphries looks and adapts to a big stage environment, how Anderson is playing, and the two games in between those should be tasty enough affairs.
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