Wednesday, February 13, 2024
Column HR446
LUKES RULE!
‘Twas an interesting week in the world of darts – a week during which the two Lukes ruled the PDC at the oche. It all started with the Premier League where World Champion Luke Humphries had himself a night to remember as he achieved his first Premier league win. It would be an understatement to say he was en fuego.
Humphries had averages of 105, 113 and 113 during a night where he fell behind only once, one-nil to Gerwyn Price. From that point on he then never trailed again, although twice he faced a non-threatening level. His wins came over Gerwyn Price (6-2), Rob Cross (6-3) and Michael Smith (6-3). Those “W’s” vaulted him into second place in the Premier League standings, replacing Luke Littler who fell to Michael Smith (6-3) in the semis. Littler had earlier stopped the resurgence of Nathan Aspinall with a 6-3 win. The Premier League woes of Peter Wright continued as he fell to Miachael Smith 6-5 in a match where Wright had two darts from 24 for the win. He resides in the cellar.
The first European Tour event was the Blåkläder Belgian Darts Open. For a time, it looked like Luke Humpries would continue his roll from the Premier League. He kicked off his Belgium Open with a 110.65 whipping of James Wade 6-1. Humphries surge ended when he fell 6-3 to Ryan Searle.
At that point, the Old Dart Coach switched his attention to Luke Litter in his initial Euro Tour appearance. Littler took out Jose’ de Sousa 6-5 with a serve break for the win. Krzysztof Ratajski then fell 6-3, after which Littler took care of Australian Damon Heta (6-3) and Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena (6-2).
Just last year, Ricardo Pietreczko from Germany was the “next young star.” He’s been replaced by Littler. Pietreczko made the semi-finals where Littler turned the lights out on him with an easy 7-3 win, hardly breaking a sweat. It’s hard to believe the match would provide controversy, but it did.
Littler was upset as Pietreczko went to the wrong table to sip water trying to upset him. Really? Pietreczko apparently got upset by something. What that was is a mystery. Best guess is he’s a baby that needs a good spanking. He cried: “I have a lot of respect for (Littler) being able to be so good at such a young age, but I hope his arrogance is punished.” The special are often arrogant.
Littler’s final match against Rob Cross was quality with a large “Q”. Going the distance of 15 legs, only one leg went over 15 darts. Rob Cross himself had two 11-darters, a 12-darter and two 13-darters in a losing cause! Little had a ton of 15-darters, a 13- and 9-darter (that had Rob Cross applauding along with the crowd).
Besides being pure quality, the match was a “ding-dong-doozie” where no one had a two-leg advantage, although Cross led 5-4, 6-5 and 7-6. Up 5-4 with a chance to go ahead by two, Cross missed 3 from 8 allowing Littler to draw even at 5 as Cross pointed to his head as if saying “Think!”.
After that gift Little lowered the boom, a nine-darter being boom, giving him his first lead 6-5. As Napoleon observed, “the greatest danger occurs at the moment of victory.” A 9-darter would qualify…
There was a letdown combined with a Cross 11-darter to draw level, then a 12-darter moving him one leg from victory.
Littler leveled at 7…
The decider, with Cross throwing first, had Cross scoring early with 130 and a Ton. Littler used a T80, T05 and Ton to leave him with 20 remaining as Cross was struggling at T35. Littler took out the 20 to win in his first Euro Tour.
A PDC Tour event, for card holders, had a little pro wrestling bend. Adam Smith-Neale according to one publication “…did not show his best side during a local tournament in Nuneaton, England, over the last weekend.” He lost and when his opponent turned to shake hands, Smith-Neale punched him. Simply unacceptable. November Sierra. Bye-bye tour card.
The ADO Follies continue unabated. There was some question whether the Camillia Classic (February 23-25) had been sanctioned by the ADO. It was. Someone forgot to put the ADO seal on the flyer, and someone forgot to put it on the ADO website schedule. This was reported in this space last week. Seemingly no big deal…
Wrong, Bucko!
ADO President Jim Widmayer was not happy, posting in part on March 6 or 7: “Once again, you guys know nothing. No paperwork was handed in to get it sanctioned, therefore the ADO didn’t take the player’s money, the tournament organizers did.”
On February 15 at 12:56 p.m. Widmayer reached out to Area Manager Ron Peppers in a text. Peppers answered right away at 1:05 p.m. “Yes, it’s sanctioned. I messaged Steve Brown to find out why it’s not on the calendar.”
Just the facts, Jack.
The ADO President is acting like Joe Biden. The new self-appointed ADO “spokesman” from Canada and superb dart player, Jeff Smith, wrote “This guy’s a tool.” How rude to talk about the ADO President that way – although he may have a point.
The Old Dart Coach was taken to the woodshed by Mr. Stefan Lord known as the Lord of Pattaya. The ODC stated that Darts in Paradise event had been moved from Costa Rica to Cancun, Mexico. Mr. Lord questioned if either of these places were “Paradise.”
“Dear Old Dart Coach: Happy to see that you are back writing your column, but Paradise, Cancun or Costa Rica? We both know where Paradise is located. Here (in Pattaya), of course, where the most beautiful ladies have a voice like Barry White.”
Stay thirsty my friends.
