ET11 quarters

Ah, that felt good. Hitting on all of Smudger, Asp and the Aubergenius gives us a very solid 3/3 in the last sixteen, and finally reverse the bankroll top up I did prior to the worlds. Keep running closer than this, and we'll be able to pull back all of the initial investment and be playing completely with house money, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, things can change pretty rapidly but nice to hit an arbitrary milestone at least. Four quarters to come, here's what I'm thinking:

van Duijvenbode/Noppert - 59/60/56/58

Smith/Chisnall - 65/68/68/67

van Veen/Anderson - 39/36/45/40

Aspinall/Dobey - 55/52/52/53

Minorly significant implications for Chisnall, if he can extend what's already been a bit of a surprising run he can solidify a Grand Prix spot, he can't overtake anyone with a win but it would put him more than two second round ET appearances ahead of the last man out with just two Euro Tours left, which may be important given he doesn't appear to be in either of them (although, with Bialecki and Huybrechts only seemingly in one of them each, he may be in an unassailable spot as it is). More critical, it seems as if Anderson prior to this weekend didn't have any European ranking money *at all*, which seems incredible but believable, and yeah, on a quick check this is only his third one and he bricked the first two. He'd need a win to get into the spots, but hey, if he can reach the final that'd put a big chunk into the race as it is.

ET11 day 3

That wasn't great, but it wasn't awful. Woodhouse missing match darts was the kicker, the only loser outside of that who was close was Edhouse, who wasn't really close. Still, at least Aspinall didn't shit the bed and Dirk got the job done, so what was lost today ended up less than what was made yesterday. Let's jump straight into the last sixteen before I pass out:

Dirk van Duijvenbode v Rob Cross - 50/56/58/55

Danny Noppert v Ryan Searle - 47/43/45/45

Jonny Clayton v Ross Smith - 45/42/46/44

Keane Barry v Dave Chisnall - 48/51/48/49

Gian van Veen v Jermaine Wattimena - 54/57/66/59

Stephen Bunting v Gary Anderson - 48/32/38/39

Michael van Gerwen v Nathan Aspinall - 37/43/45/42

Josh Rock v Chris Dobey - 33/43/47/41

ET11 day 2

This needs to be very brief as I have a VERY early start for football tomorrow:

Humphries - van Duijvenbode: 61/64/63/63

Woodhouse - Cross: 43/52/51/49

Noppert - Edhouse: 45/46/56/49

Searle - Springer: 54/59/63/59

Clayton - Kadar: Insufficient data on Kadar

Smith - O'Connor: 64/66/64/65

Razma - Barry: 52/46/50/49

Nijman - Chisnall: 67/70/72/70

van Veen - Major: Insufficient data on Major

Wattimena - Gilding: 54/54/55/54

Bunting - Masalin: Insufficient data on Masalin

Anderson - Ratajski: 61/68/71/67

van Gerwen - Hurrell: 81/67/68/72

Aspinall - Joyce: 83/77/78/79

Rock - Cullen: 48/54/62/55

Dobey - Sykes: 63/62/63/63

Wow at some of today's results.

Oh god, we're back already?

For whatever reason, I didn't think we were diving straight back onto the Euro Tour after the down under portion of the World Series. Nice job by Brody Klinge there looking the best he has done, and good work by Jermaine Wattimena and Luke Humphries picking up titles this week, Littler actually showing up and probably earning ten grand less than he thought he would have, but hey, it's a tough circuit. Anyway, we're back and we're at Hungary. Anyway - August 21. James Wade - bizarre interview about how people need to stop whining about the tournament schedule. August 27. James Wade - withdraws from event after draw was made. Binking a World Series got to him I guess.

Anyway, we do have sixteen games to look at, although as we have no data (or limited data) on all the non-TCH qualifiers, it's down to ten. Might have been more if they'd draw each other but the PDC is very much at we can't have nice things stage so we'll just go with these. As always, these run short-medium-long-composite in terms of data sets:

Cross/Greaves - 63/56/54/58

Edhouse/Scutt - 59/57/51/56

Springer/Kuivenhoven - 71/64/61/65

O'Connor/Price - 72/78/77/76

Schindler/Barry - 61/55/56/57

Ratajski/Rydz - 38/49/48/45

Heta/Hurrell - 77/65/61/68

Joyce/Reyes - 43/41/41/42

Cullen/Leek - 75/76/73/75

Menzies/Sykes - 55/50/53/53

Of these, I'm kind of surprised at the Ratajski line, but there is a bit of a significant consistency thing going on there. Hurrell I don't know what happened why he walked from his Pro Tour game this week, but he is at least here, other than that it's kind of where I'd have thought these would all be to some extent. Maybe Springer looking the best in short form given how well Kuivenhoven has been playing is a bit odd but the general numbers overall don't seem crazy.

Second and Third Division Darts results page

I've not actually started this yet, and given that we're more than half way through the Pro Tour season, I probably ought to start. Fortunately, I realised last year that "hmm, wouldn't it be handy if I had a big database of results that I could filter and look at" rather than just go through each event one by one and read through looking for our guys. Then I realised "wait, I have EXACTLY THAT", so I'll just do that and it'll be infinitely quicker. Just need to manually add in the Grand Prix and then we're good.

D2:

James Wade 12.06

Ross Smith 11.77

Nathan Aspinall 10.49

Wessel Nijman 9.94

Jermaine Wattimena 9.09

Gary Anderson 8.56

Damon Heta 8.44

Chris Dobey 7.22

Ryan Searle 6.88

Danny Noppert 5.55

D3:

Niko Springer 10.48

Sebastian Bialecki 9.84

Beau Greaves 9.81

Connor Scutt 9.57

Kevin Doets 9.57

Callan Rydz 9.16

Martin Schindler 8.94

Niels Zonneveld 7.59

Bradley Brooks 7.05

Cam Crabtree 7.00

Results:

PC1: Wade 8-6 Aspinall (2), Greaves 6-4 Crabtree (3)

PC2: Nijman 7-2 Searle (2), Schindler 6-4 Crabtree (3)

PC3: Doets 6-5 Scutt (3), Doets 6-3 Springer (3)

PC4: Zonneveld 6-2 Greaves (3), Rydz 6-5 Scutt (3)

PC5: Smith 8-2 Dobey (2), Dobey 6-5 Noppert (2), Bialecki 6-5 Rydz (3), Springer 6-4 Crabtree (3)

PC6: Rydz 6-4 Bialecki (3)

PC7: Anderson 6-2 Dobey (2), Searle 7-3 Anderson (2), Bialecki 6-5 Zonneveld (3)

PC8: No games

PC9: Scutt 6-4 Brooks (3)

PC10: Greaves 6-5 Schindler (3), Zonneveld 6-4 Rydz (3)

PC11: Anderson 6-3 Nijman (2)

PC12: Wattimena 6-3 Dobey (2), Nijman 8-5 Wattimena (2), Nijman 6-3 Searle (2), Brooks 6-5 Scutt (3)

PC13: No games

PC14: Nijman 7-2 Noppert (2)

PC15: Schindler 6-2 Brooks (3)

PC16: Springer 6-2 Doets (3)

PC17: Noppert 6-3 Searle (2), Rydz 6-3 Scutt (3)

PC18: Greaves 6-3 Brooks (3)

PC19: Nijman 6-3 Anderson (2), Rydz 6-5 Bialecki (3)

PC20: No games

PC21: Nijman 8-6 Searle (2)

PC22: Scutt 6-4 Doets (3)

PC23: Searle 6-5 Heta (2), Wade 6-5 Anderson (2)

PC24: Scutt 6-3 Zonneveld (3), Scutt 6-4 Schindler (3)

PC25: Springer 6-3 Greaves (3), Springer 6-4 Crabtree (3)

PC26: Bialecki 6-0 Brooks (3)

PC27: Brooks 6-1 Zonneveld (3)

PC28: No games

PC29: No games

PC30: Zonneveld 6-5 Bialecki (3), Bialecki 6-4 Scutt (3)

PC31: Greaves 6-5 Doets (3), Greaves 6-3 Zonneveld (3)

PC32: No games

PC33: Anderson 6-4 Nijman (2)

PC34: Crabtree 6-1 Bialecki (3)

ET1: Wattimena 6-5 Noppert (2), Nijman 6-2 Anderson (2)

ET2: Doets 6-4 Crabtree (3)

ET3: Noppert 6-5 Searle (2)

ET4: Aspinall 8-5 Noppert (2), Doets 6-5 Zonneveld (3)

ET5: Aspinall 6-3 Wade (2), Smith 6-4 Aspinall (2), Nijman 6-2 Searle (2)

ET6: No games

ET7: Wade 6-5 Nijman (2), Smith 8-3 Searle (2)

ET8: Heta 6-2 Nijman (2), Nijman 6-3 Searle (2)

ET9: Smith 6-4 Dobey (2), Wattimena 6-5 Noppert (2), Aspinall 6-0 Searle (2), Nijman 7-6 Smith (2)

ET10: Wattimena 7-3 Heta (2), Aspinall 6-4 Smith (2), Bialecki 6-4 Doets (3), Doets 6-3 Schindler (3)

ET11: Anderson 7-6 Aspinall (2), Smith 8-2 Anderson (2), Aspinall 6-5 Dobey (2), Smith 7-3 Noppert (2), Noppert 6-4 Searle (2)

ET12: No games

ET13: Heta 6-5 Aspinall (2), Dobey 6-5 Searle (2), Wade 7-4 Heta (2), Wade 6-0 Noppert (2), Noppert 6-4 Nijman (2), Wade 8-4 Smith (2)

ET14: Heta 6-3 Noppert (2), Brooks 6-4 Zonneveld (3)

ET15: Noppert 6-3 Wattimena (2), Searle 6-4 Smith (2)

World Masters: Dobey 6-2 Wattimena (2), Dobey 9-7 Heta (2), Anderson 10-8 Wade (2)

UK Open: Wade 10-9 Dobey (2)

World Matchplay: Wade 10-7 Wattimena (2), Wade 11-8 Searle (2)

World Grand Prix: Anderson 7-5 Heta (2), Wattimena 6-3 Dobey (2)

European Championship: Heta 6-5 Wade (2), Smith 10-7 Heta (2)

Grand Slam of Darts: Greaves-Zonneveld (3)

Players Championship Finals:

World Championship:

Secondary tour roundup

Had a mad catch up this weekend with not having the time last time out, and we've had Dev Tour, Asian Tour, Nordic/Baltic, ADA, it's been hectic, and then we've had Henry Coates come from nowhere and win a Pro Tour, and of course the Matchplay finished, so here's the latest FRH rankings (Leighton Bennett dropped off the table just now. What a waste)

1 Luke Littler

2 Gian van Veen

3 Luke Humphries

4 Gerwyn Price (UP 3)

5 Wessel Nijman (UP 1)

6 James Wade (UP 2)

7 Jonny Clayton (DOWN 3)

8 Ryan Searle (DOWN 3)

9 Josh Rock

10 Danny Noppert

11 Gary Anderson

12 Ross Smith (UP 3)

13 Chris Dobey (DOWN 1)

14 Stephen Bunting (DOWN 1)

15 Nathan Aspinall (DOWN 1)

16 Luke Woodhouse (UP 1)

17 Krzysztof Ratajski (UP 2)

18 Michael van Gerwen (DOWN 2)

19 Jermaine Wattimena (DOWN 1)

20 Rob Cross

The big moves are obviously down to Price making a final, and Wade/Smith doing pretty well compared to those around them. Heta's got fairly close to getting back into the top 20 following a Pro Tour final, Bialecki after another bink is just outside the top 40 which, if he can close out a Grand Prix run, will jump a fair chunk, Vandenbogaerde after a final from nowhere is back into the top 70 while Coates is just shy of the top 100, but should make that leap pretty quickly.

One thing I want to do is look at the respective secondary/regional tours and see which ones are doing the best. Most are fairly close to finished for the year, the Dev Tour, Asian Tour, ADA and Nordic circuits all have one weekend left, while the Challenge Tour will have one left after next weekend. The CDC is lagging behind a bit but always does so with how it's scheduled. I don't track any of the other secondary tours as the quality just isn't there yet to warrant tracking and throwing the data. Maybe I ought to shove in the Japan events as they do have the quality there, but I'm not sure adding a single country series when there is a more regional event makes sense, as it in effect becomes a third tier of event. I do track the WDF (when I can get the data), but that's not a series so to speak, and I don't track the ADC as their structure really doesn't make sense to me in terms of what levels their events should track at, and a review of their website really doesn't help matters. Maybe I should add the global championship, but probably not, anyone worth tracking is likely playing the Challenge Tour as well. So which are the best?

ADA - Scoring at 84.21. That's a whole bunch of meh which equates to lower end of tour card holder quality. Raymond Smith is leading the pack with an 88 and Brody Klinge's about a point behind, but only Joe Comito and Tim Pusey have over 100 legs won (note for all of these, I only track from the quarter final stages onwards) and neither's actually breaking the tour average by more than a third of a point (heck, Comito is below the average).

Asian Tour - Actually worse at 84.03. There's some talent here, Ryuta Arihara who's had a great weekend just now is leading the way up with an 88 and Motomu Sakai and Man Lok Leung aren't too far behind, but nobody else is really tracking much better than the average, there's several names (which you'd probably guess) who are maybe a point or so above, but yeah, it's not quite as impressive as it might be.

CDC - We're only at six events (they've played seven but one was double in so no bueno), and this is the worst so far at 82.80. Maybe if Jim Long had have played a bit more this might be better but he's doing well on the main circuit so let's not stop him from doing that. Sevada's doing fine with an 87 and plenty of the usual suspects (Smith, Buntz, Cameron) are doing alright but worse than Sevada who's the only player with any sort of decent sample size. Maybe things pick up later in the season.

Challenge Tour - At 86.18. That's kind of what you would expect. The data is HUGELY spread out across so many players that it's hard to get a decent gauge on who's doing well with only Coulson, Hunt, Lishman, Kirk and Morris cracking 50 legs played. All these names are doing just fine (Coulson in particular is breaking 89) but yeah, hard to judge.

Development Tour - 85.65. That's pretty solid. Here you've got a bit more grouping, which is standard given you've got quite a lot of card holders playing these, Bates is doing the best with those over 50 legs, but Self, Gawlas, Bialecki (obviously), Drayton and Weber are all well outperforming the tour average and deserve credit.

Nordic/Baltic - 83.55. Yikes. Now here is where I would expect a bit more. Yes Razma is ranking blocked from playing in these, but Dekker is a card holder and he's only at 85. Labanauskas is the same, but at 84. Haavisto is having a nice resurgence, but again, 84. Larsson is 84. Tingstrom and Lukasiak aren't beating 83 between them. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was very bullish about the region's (and, in particular, Sweden's) darts, but now? Man it's regressed.

So that's the post. The regions are not really developing quite how I think many are hoping these tours would do, and with the worlds set up as is where everyone is fed to a top 64 player, it's pretty hard to see how any progress is really going to be made. We shall see, but I'm not optimistic.