Monday 26 March 2018

Leverkusen aftermath

Congrats to Michael van Gerwen, let's throw out some thoughts:

- van Gerwen obviously took the title, but Wright was probably the best player statistically speaking. It wouldn't be until the final where his average visits to win his legs went over five, it's a pity he couldn't nail that bull for the title, and that he seemed to miscount (at least according to dartsdata) in the deciding leg to not leave a shot - and then throw two trebles.
- Wade is looking really quite good. Even in his loss to Wright he still managed three twelve dart legs, the only other player to do that in a match this weekend being Michael Smith - which was also in defeat. If he keeps going like this he'll be back among the seeds before too long.
- Good run for Richard North, while he didn't produce astounding darts, he should at least get a bit more confidence from a good stage run, six grand in the the bank to go with the money made from a couple of floor quarters should set himself up nicely for the majors and really start to move up the rankings.

In other news we had the next weekend of the Challenge Tour, the big thing being Michael Barnard picking up a title to put him well clear at the top of that ranking having made two finals in the first weekend. He'll be dangerous in Austria next month, and if he keeps playing like this he'll be able to do some damage on the Pro Tour as well. Ratajski had a good weekend there as well, I don't know if it's quite enough for him to be in consideration for upcoming Pro Tour events, but if not he should hopefully be able to pick up some more next time around and get a bit higher up. It's also kind of odd that the other three winners this weekend only picked up £250 between them in their other seven events (admittedly Nilsson was playing Euro Tour qualifiers on the first weekend).

Updated FRH rankings:

1 Michael van Gerwen
2 Rob Cross
3 Peter Wright
4 Phil Taylor
5 Gary Anderson
6 Daryl Gurney
7 Mensur Suljovic
8 Simon Whitlock
9 Michael Smith
10 Dave Chisnall
11 Gerwyn Price
12 Ian White (UP 1)
13 Raymond van Barneveld (DOWN 1)
14 James Wade (UP 1)
15 Darren Webster (DOWN 1)
16 Alan Norris
17 Kim Huybrechts
18 Jelle Klaasen (UP 1)
19 Benito van de Pas (DOWN 1)
20 Joe Cullen

White takes advantage of Barney not qualifying to move up a spot, the same with Wade and Klaasen. Cullen's less than a grand behind Benito, but van de Pas seems safe for a while with around a seven grand cushion back to Mervyn King, John Henderson and Jamie Lewis who are just outside the top 20. Lower down, Richard North's semi final sees him move to one spot outside the top 40, Ron Meulenkamp is up inside the top 50, while Danny Noppert is finally inside the top 100 with Gabriel Clemens just a few spots outside there.

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