Didn't sound like the greatest of finals, but he got it in the bag, which after missing out on the first two big events of the year he'll be quite happy about doing. New FRH rankings:
1 Michael van Gerwen
2 Rob Cross
3 Peter Wright
4 Gary Anderson
5 Daryl Gurney
6 Mensur Suljovic
7 Phil Taylor
8 Ian White
9 Simon Whitlock
10 Michael Smith
11 Gerwyn Price
12 Darren Webster
13 Dave Chisnall
14 Jonny Clayton
15 Joe Cullen (UP 1)
16 James Wade (DOWN 1)
17 Adrian Lewis
18 Mervyn King
19 Stephen Bunting
20 Steve West
So only the one change, and that's between two players who went out in the first round, odd how that can happen, then again with the tournament not having any large prize money differential round by round until the quarter finals, and five of the quarter finalists being in the top 6 in the rankings, nobody's done much to shake it up. Wilson's risen to #24, Meulenkamp's into the top 45 and de Zwaan is now in the top 30 (above Alan Norris).
The World Masters goes on, and we've got a Durrant/Mitchell semi final, while right now Jim Williams is hanging around but with work to do against Scott Waites, while Wayne Warren faces surprise package Adam Smith-Neale for the last spot. I've put all the stats from the last 32 and 16 into the master computer, and it's interesting reading. Bear in mind that you've got the top 16 in the BDO, and then sixteen players which, while you're going to have some wildcards you've never heard of, they've all come through multiple rounds of qualifying, so there shouldn't be any complete eggs - so it's disappointing to see that more than one in five legs took more than six visits to complete, and only 42% of legs are completed in "par" of fifteen darts or better.
As far as individual players go, I'm yet to be convinced that McGeeney is legitimately decent, he's gone out early here and didn't put up great numbers. Unterbuchner might have a claim to be the best German on the planet right now, and was unfortunate to run into Warren in decent form. Durrant and Waites put up the best numbers of those who won through to the quarters with overall 94 points per turn, while Warren was also in the nineties. On the other hand, Copley and Robson got there despite points per turn of 81 and 82! Luck of the draw I guess.
Briefly back to the PDC, the finalists already being in the Slam looks to have locked up Clayton and the highest ranked finisher from the European Tour - which at the moment is White, but Gurney could always win the last one next weekend (advance warning that there'll be limited coverage here as I'm at the NFL game at Wembley, but I should be able to crank out round 1 and 2 previews) and nick it. It's just the European Championship and World Series finals to go, so unless there's a right wildcard winning it, White, Hopp and Price should all be safe as houses, while King and de Zwaan are the last men in right now.
A bit more on the World Masters later probably, as Jim Williams completes the come from behind victory to make the semis. A repeat of him against Durrant in the final, if it's half as good as their Lakeside game last year, would be very welcome.
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