Sunday 28 February 2021

PC 1-4

Just going to throw out a few thoughts, with the UK Open coming just round the corner, it seems to make a lot more sense to build in a lot of thoughts in the preview for that, but for now, here's what I think:

- Clayton showing why it was correct to pick him as the last player in the Premier League. We all know he's been great for a good 2-3 years now, but it's converting into results, two finals and a bink is an absurd haul.

- That said, he's not in the top five of the points per turn over the course of the weekend. There's a few sample size issues here, but Joe Murnan led the way (see how it was worthwhile to pick apart Q-School? Didn't translate into wins, but good scoring), Kim Huybrechts did surprisingly well, then you had Noppert, DvdB, MvG and DvD before you got to Clayton.

- Soutar seems legit. Could this be this year's Jason Lowe? Got through to a quarter, and sneaks into the top 10 (ninth, Ratajski was just above, Heta just below).

- So pleased that Rydz managed to bink. He was delayed getting onto the circuit for way too long, the scoring was there all last season, we started to see glimpses of results as well in the back end, and now he's looking in a real good spot to get into the Matchplay.

- So, oddly is Barney. He binked one, which will have taken all the headlines away from Rydz, but with the relative lack of events last season that will count towards the Matchplay, it doesn't take long at all to catch up. He's less than 3k behind 16th place on the Pro Tour listings as of right now.

- Aaron fucking Beeney beat Gerwyn Price. You love to see it.

- There's a few surprising names at the bottom of the scoring. David Evans is down there, he had some right draws so maybe couldn't do too much if he'd played better, but it's not a great start. West had a bad set of games, McGeeney started poorly and it's not looking great for him to retain a card if he keeps playing like this. Kleermaker got jobbed out of the worlds and hasn't got back up to speed yet. Henderson's improved a little but not a great deal, Price was not himself, Durrant was down at 88 a turn, we'll see what happens in the UK Open and in the next series, which isn't too far away. Annoyingly that's all during a week, and in a week where I can take no time off.

- Quite a few of the call-ups did alright. Rusty's scoring was great, Rowby was also up pushing 91, Martin Thomas got a few good wins, Chas Barstow, Lorenzo Pronk and Luc Peters were competent enough, suppose it was only really Rasztovits that didn't take the chances, although he did at least get a grand in the bank.

New FRH rankings:

1 Gerwyn Price
2 Peter Wright
3 Michael van Gerwen
4 Gary Anderson
5 James Wade (UP 1)
6 Dimitri van den Bergh (DOWN 1)
7 Jose de Sousa (UP 1)
8 Dave Chisnall (DOWN 1)
9 Michael Smith
10 Nathan Aspinall (UP 1)
11 Joe Cullen (UP 3)
12 Glen Durrant
13 Rob Cross (DOWN 3)
14 Krzysztof Ratajski (DOWN 1)
15 Jonny Clayton (UP 4)
16 Daryl Gurney (DOWN 1)
17 Ian White (DOWN 1)
18 Stephen Bunting (DOWN 1)
19 Simon Whitlock (DOWN 1)
20 Dirk van Duijvenbode (NEW)

Dirk's consistent good play throughout the weekend has seen him get above King, who's just one place outside now. Cullen could have got into the top 10 if he'd won his last 16 game today, but remains less than 1000 points above Aspinall. Clayton's results have seen him fly up, the one notable slider is Cross, who didn't have a complete loss (although it could be better), but the time since the last rankings has really seen his back-loaded results decay a lot more than those players around him.

Lower down, Rydz is now safely in the top 50 (although he was only just outside), Barney is up to 70th, Heta is closing in on the top 32 and is within 15k of Ricky Evans who holds the last spot, while Soutar's good results already sees him up to #160.

Back with UK Open stuff when the draw is done.

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