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.