Auckland Win For Darts Champion Gary Anderson

gary anderson banana suit

Scotland’s World Champion Gary Anderson roared to victory in New Zealand last weekend to claim his second World Series of Darts title of the season so far in back to back wins.

The Musselburgh born player gave an outstanding performance in Sunday’s final where he defeated reigning champion Adrian Lewis 11-7, having checked out 50 percent of his darts at double in the semi-finals earlier on the same day.

Having won last month’s Dubai Darts Masters title, Anderson followed things up in Auckland to make quite a run of awards for “The Flying Scotsman” over the last two seasons. Crowned world champion both this year and last, he also took home the 2015 Premier League of Darts trophy for the second time as well as finishing as runner up in the same year’s European Championship. On that note, Skybet have the player at 13/2 for the World Match play one month from now, which may well be worth some consideration.

On his route to the final, Anderson, 45, had beaten off challenges from New Zealand’s local lad Bernie Smith and countryman Peter Wright before meeting up with Raymond van Barneveld, whom he excellently saw off 11-7.

Once at the final, he summoned the very best of his ability to stage another performance of top level darts to take down the Englishman Lewis. In front of a thrilled Trusts Arena crowd, it was Anderson who banked eight 180s and took full advantage of Lewis’ dropped doubles ensuring the cup stayed north of Hadrian’s Wall.

Early doors however, it was Lewis that had looked the sharper of the two plan finalists. Indeed, the Stoke born player had the narrow early advantage as the pair shared out the opening six legs before “Jackpot” dropped several checkout doubles, misses that Anderson duly seized upon by finishing with 68 on double ten to break for the first time. Before long, the Flying Scotsman was in full flow, taking out two tops to open up a two-leg lead. Anderson, dug deeper still and clawed back into contention with a 121 on the bull but it couldn’t stop Anderson winning the following two sets to lead 7-4.

Lewis isn’t one to take things lying down and, never shirking responsibility, fought on, responding a third dart double nine wholesale jerseys and a 150 checkout to bring things closer at 7-5. With two magnificent 180s, it took just eleven darts for Anderson to take the next leg and widen the gap further still. Lewis had one more set left in him, wholesale jerseys but at this point was on his way to defeat which was all but confirmed by a miss placed shot at double 12 for a much needed 144 checkout.

Taking his chance superbly, Anderson wrapped things up with 86 on the bull for a 10-7 lead, including an astonishing eighth 180 of the Screen contest, which set up a double ten finish for title victory.

Afterwards Anderson had this to say:

“I’m absolutely delighted and I enjoyed this week. Adrian has played brilliantly too. He was great against Phil Taylor and he’s a very good friend of mine, and up on stage we try to have some battles – and the 180s and 140s and doubles came together tonight. Adrian missed a few of the big checkouts but that’s darts. It’s been absolutely brilliant and the fans have been fantastic. I loved it in New Zealand last year and again this time.”

In an unwanted record for Lewis, it was his second successive defeat in a World Series of Darts final but can be pleased with his efforts all the same which had, earlier on the tourney, allowed him to see off James Wade wholesale nba jerseys in the semi, with a high scoring 11-9 win that included Taylor a blazing dozen maximums before coming from 7-6 down to claim five of the final seven legs.

Such was the standard of play at the event that, in all, a aus ridiculous total of 108 maximums landed across the fifteen matches. Anderson himself posted eight of these, while his average of 111.37 is the Tips second best in World Series history. Darts Dutch legend Raymond Van Barneveld also played well before elimination in the last four, landing six 180s and achieving a 104.85 average in his match up with Gary Anderson.

Shanghai Darts Masters

The players now pick up their darts and head over to China for the Shanghai Masters, part of the same World Series and where Gary Anderson, having won the previous two events, will be shooting for three in a row. He will be competing against seven of the qualifying eight (himself being the eighth) who are made cheap nba jerseys up of all the usual names; Michael van Gerwen, Adrian Lewis, Phil Taylor, Peter Wright, James Wade, Raymond van Barneveld and Dave Chisnall.

Same as last week, the sixteen player event, this being the inaugural Shanghai hosting, will see the rest of the field made up from locally sourced and invited quartet of members which in this case are Singapore’s Paul Lim, China’s Yunfei Jiang and Hong Claim Kong pair Scott Mackenzie and Ting Chi Royden Lam, with the final four places to be won in Friday’s qualifier in Shanghai, after which the tournament’s draw will be made.

Then, on Saturday June 25th things get underway at the Pullman Hotel Shanghai South with the semi-final and final to be played on the Sunday.

For anyone interested in watching the event, coverage in the UK will be shown on ITV4 from 6.30pm BST.

PDC Darts World Series’ events schedule

For future reference, the original PDC World Series was launched in 2013. At the time, this was little more than the PDC’s top eight players sent to play in Dubai and Sydney in order to make the game more accessible for a global audience.

As darts has grown in popularity, the following three years has seen the participating nations swelling into six with the fixtures laid out as follows:

26-27/05: Dubai Darts Masters (winner Gary Anderson, SCO)

17-19/06: Auckland Darts Masters (winner Gary Anderson, SCO)

25-26/06: Shanghai Darts Masters

06-07/07: Tokyo Darts Masters

18-19/08: Sydney Darts Masters

25-26/08: Perth Darts Masters

05-06/11: World Series of Darts Finals

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Phil Taylor Claims Fourth European Tour Title In Vienna + Auckland Darts Masters Preview

phil taylor

Last week we told you all about young Englishman Michael ‘Bully Boy’ Smith and he duly delivered good each way value, although ultimately he fell just short against 9/2 second favourite Phil “The Power” Taylor.

26-year-old Merseysider Smith, who was appearing in his fifth European Tour final, came within two legs of victory in Vienna but ultimately went down 6-4 in Sunday’s final.

For the 16-time World Champion Taylor, it was a winning return to the European Tour on his first appearance in the event for two years as he came out on top of a field of 48 darts professionals. In the final, he saw off the challenge of our pick of the outsiders in a thrilling match at the Multiversum in Schwechat in Vienna to win his fourth European cheap nba jerseys Tour title and the £25,000 top prize.

The Final

In total, The Power used his wealth of experience to fire off a very decent seven maximums, breaking the throw three times to come out two legs on top of his younger rival. All this after Smith had taken the in opening leg, before Taylor hit D10 for his first break cheap nba jerseys of the match.

Smith rallied again and, incredibly, broke back before Taylor broke for the second time to give himself the 3-2 advantage. A determined Smith then capitalised on an uncharacteristic miss by Phil Taylor after he dropped five darts and pulled the final back to 3-3.

Shortly afterwards Smith amazingly pulled ahead 4-3 following a sublime 130 finish on the bull leaving the youngster within two legs of his first senior win. The Power, as he has done time and Wholesale Nike Washington Redskins Jerseys time again when facing defeat, dug deeper than ever to summon up his best darts, scoring an 11 and 12 finish respectively to move 5-4 in front before closing out the match with a 32 checkout to mark a successful return to European Tour Design action.

Austrian Open 2016

Elsewhere, world number one and tournament favourite Michael van Gerwen surprisingly exited at the Quarter-Final stage at the hands of Australian Kyle Anderson, clearing the way for the rest of the remaining field. No one seized on the opportunity fiercer than Smith who sailed past Nigel Heydon 6-5 and Terry Jenkins World 6-4.

For Heydon, this run to the Quarter-Finals was a personal best on the European Tour, while Terry Jenkins had already taken care of Scottish second seed Peter Wright before Smith proved a match too far in the Semi-Finals.

Earlier on in the tournament, Anderson, looking for his first PDC title, had seen off the challenge of local favourite Mensur Suljovic and Jelle Klaasen before eliminating MVG.

The victory represents Taylor’s first in the European Tour having fought hard to reach the final and being tested along the way. The victory comes after he had seen off Steve West 6-1 in the first round before being pushed all the way in the third round by Belgium’s Kim Huybrechts who ultimately lost 6-3. Stephen Bunting was the next to fall victim to Taylor’s arrows at the quarter final stage, losing 6-2 before moving onto Kyle Anderson, vanquisher of Van Gerwen, For in the semi-finals.

Anderson, had taken a Claim dramatic lead but, as the final later would prove, Taylor’s powers of recovery are up there with the best of all time and the potter fought back hard to take the next three straight legs leveling the match at 4-4 before ultimately things boiled down to just one dart which cost the Aussie and set up an all-English final.

Darts betting tips

For Michael Smith, the future looks good. The current world number eight will look to improve upon an impressive first half of 2016 and a first major honour cannot be very far away. Betway have the player at 28/1 for the Champions League of Darts and are paying a 1/3 of the odds for the top two. Something to keep in mind, if your bankroll needs testing.  While, on a similar note, Bet365 are offering 33/1 on Smith in the World Matchplay, at ½ the price for a top two finish.

Auckland Darts Masters preview and betting tips

World Series Darts returns to New Zealand this weekend as the second, now annual, three day long Auckland Darts Masters is held at The Trusts Arena. The event brings together eight of the world’s top stars and PDC representatives including the likes of Michael van Gerwen, Phil Taylor, Gary Anderson and reigning champion Adrian “Jackpot” Lewis who will joined by eight Oceanic qualifiers for the first round making a 16 player event.

The second of six international events in the World Series of Darts, The Auckland Darts Masters follows on from May’s Dubai Darts Masters, and precedes upcoming events that will be staged in Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney and Perth.

Things get underway on Friday June 17 with the first round where the eight PDC stars take on the eight Oceanic qualifiers. On the following Saturday, the quarter-finals take place before things finish up on the Sunday with the semi-finals and final.

As for the betting, Adrian Lewis is returning to the southern hemisphere and both Betway and Bet365 are offering 12/1 for “Jackpot” to successfully defend his crown, although the latter of the two, Bet365, offer better darts betting each way odds at ½ price for a top two finish.

Standing in his way will be “Mighty” Michael van Gerwen who is a best price of 11/10 at both Bet365 and Skybet and Phil “The Power” Taylor, available at 4/1. Beyond these two, there’s value to be found cheap mlb jerseys in backing Gary “The Flying Scotsman” Anderson at 9/2, Peter “Snakebite” Wright at 14/1 and Raymond van Barneveld who can be backed at 25/1 across the board.

However, if you’re looking for a more interesting bet, we recommend looking into cheap nba jerseys both or either of James “The Machine” Wade, 25/1, and Dave Chisnall, 20/1.

Of the eight qualifiers drawn from Oceania, New Zealander Cody Harris is favourite in the betting but prices range wildly from 66/1 (Skybet), 100/1 (Betway) to 200/1 with Bet365 so make Kolik of that what you will. Other Oceanic competitors making up the numbers are Warren Parry, Damon Heta, Rob Szabo, Ken Moir, Clinton Bridge, Bernie Smith and Stuart Leach who qualified this week by winning the the final DPNZ Qualifier.

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England Beats The Netherlands To Claim Darts World Cup In Fiery Final

Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis

As our darts betting tips lodach recommended last week, England pair Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis retained the World Cup of Darts, beating the Netherlands’ Michael van Gerwen and Raymond van Barneveld in Sunday’s final in Frankfurt.

In what was a repeat of the 2014 final, Taylor and Lewis, two of the game’s greats who have amassed 18 world titles between them, claimed victory in the £250,000, 32-nation tournament.

After the win, tempers flared between winners England and tipped finalists The Netherlands, as Adrian Lewis and Michael van Gerwen shared a heated exchange following Lewis’ celebrations cheap NFL jerseys after sealing a dramatic win for England.

Tensions initially began to rise after Lewis hit 180 and celebrated boisterously in front of his Dutch counterpart but things soon reached boiling point when the Englishman, requiring 16 to take the championship, missed the double eight and consequently offered MVG a chance to get back into the match. It was chance missed by the narrowest of margins as Van Gerwen’s dart fell just wide of the D18 stroking the outside of the wire. Up stepped Adrian Lewis who with his next dart, landed it sweetly into the D8 to give England their second consecutive, and fourth in all, World Cup win.

With both players as moody as each other, Van Gerwen, who lost both of his matches in the final, took exception to Lewis’ antics while Lewis couldn’t let the matter lie either, having been upset at some of the noises emanating Внимание! from the Dutch camp during the game. After the last dart had been thrown, the Englishman reached out to MVG to make his angry point, which brought about some minor arguments and shoving from both sides. In the after match interview, Lewis said “MVG got the hump with me because I gave it large but I told him he does that every week, so he has to expect some back.”

See-Saw Darts

In truth, it was an exciting finale to a great tournament that was always likely to boil over given the see-saw nature of the match which looked at one point to be heading in favour of The Netherlands.

The opening contest, a singles tie between Taylor and Van Gerwen, provided a victory for Taylor who had a 103 average and closed with a 149 checkout, giving England the advantage by 4 sets to 1, before things swung back in Dutch favour as Lewis lost 4-3 to Van Barneveld in an 11-darter. From there, the Dutch won the pairs even after Taylor’s 103 finish had England looking good before Van Barneveld responded with a 104 finish securing the doubles round for The Netherlands, to put them ahead 2-1. England didn’t take things lying down and made things level again soon after when Taylor saw off the challenge from Van Barneveld by 4 sets to 1, which bought about the decider, where Lewis beat Van Gerwen, again 4-1, before the goading the Dutchman into the dramatic finish.

Tournament Progress

Earlier in the day, Taylor and Lewis, had seen off Northern Ireland’s semi-finals challenge, led by duo Brendan Dolan and Daryl Gurney. Surprisingly, England’s hardest game had come in Thursday’s first round match against Spain who took “The Power” and “Jackpot” to a cheap jerseys tense finish. From there, the English pair gained momentum and steamrolled China and Austria before reaching Sunday’s ties with Northern Ireland in the semis and The Netherlands later on at the event’s climax.

For The Netherlands, they didn’t really hit a bump on their way to Sunday’s showdown either, as they cruised past Russia, the Philippines, Australia and Belgium, who had themselves beaten Scotland, represented by world champion Gary Anderson and Robert Thornton, in the quarter-finals.

As for the other home nations, Northern Ireland defeated Japan, neighbours the Republic of Ireland and Canada on the way to meet England. Wales, on the other hand, bust out in round two at the hands of the Canada, having sailed past Finland 5-1 in the opening round.

Austrian Open 2016 Preview

While European eyes are currently fixed on the European Football Championships, it’s worth remembering that the small matter of the Austrian leg of the European tour darts begins on June 10.

Featuring the usual roll-call of big hitters, 48 players will compete in the PDC Austrian Open which runs for two days until June 12 at the Multiversum Schwechat in Vienna, with a £115,000 prize fund and is the fifth leg from the ten European events on the Architektur PDC de Pro Tour.

For those that don’t know, the tournament is structured as a straight forward knockout and progress format.

Darts tips wise, once more Michael van Gerwen leads the betting and is evens at both Bet365 and Betway but the two are split on Phil “The Power” Taylor’s Of chances with the latter offering a half point higher at 9/2 on the Stoke born player getting the better of the Dutchman for the second time in a week.

The smart money might well be on Dave Chisnall who lost in the final of the Hamburg leg in May and is available at around 16/1, while Scotland’s Peter Wright can be backed at 10/1 and is more than capable of squeezing his way to victory.

Elsewhere the prices do start to drift along with the likelihood of a victory for the outsiders with perhaps Michael Smith being the highest placed among the also rans.

If you are looking for a distance bet or even a good value each way wager, then popular local thrower Mensur Suljovic is a best price 40/1 and, despite being in his forties, is Way currently in the process of proving that he deserves a place at the oche at the world’s top darting events. The 44 year old Bosnian born world number 19 has enjoyed wholesale jerseys upsetting the big guns while representing his adopted Austria.

Last year he scalped both James Wade and Simon Whitlock, and is disproving the theory that Darts is young man’s game as, including his results in 2015, he is currently enjoying his best career form and is at last looking like a world-class professional darts player.

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