Friday, October 15, 2010
\nColumn HR27
\nA Bountiful Buffet of Darts, with “Whine”<\/b><\/p>\n
The recently concluded World Grand Prix was for some a Mickey D\u2019s Happy Meal without the toy. For others \u2013 those addicted to delicious delights from the oche \u2013 it was a bountiful buffet of delectable morsels.<\/p>\n
All are correct, with the ODC opting for a 7-course meal constructed to tempt the palette. Like the gourmet meal when finished, a connoisseur would said \u201cno mas\u201d or, as Irene Maude Reed would say, \u201cMy God the bridge\u201d \u2013 which is the ODC\u2019s Mom-talk for \u201cno mas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cHorse\u2019s ovaries,\u201d the first 4-courses, were delivered Monday-Thursday and teased the taste buds leaving the crowd crying for more. On Friday, the main course came in the form of the \u201cgreatest match ever\u201d (in the eyes of the Sage from SoCal, Bill Specht, and many others) \u2013 when the match between Gary Anderson and Phil Taylor took place.<\/p>\n
There is an old axiom (no new axiom\u2019s have surfaced lately) in Show Biz that you never want to take the stage after a dog act or little kids. The semi-finals on Saturday faced that type of daunting task as the quarters were indeed a tough or maybe an impossible act to follow. In the words of The Sage from SoCal \u201cLewis vs. Taylor\u201d\u2026 well in the words of somebody\u2026 “that wasn’t too Chablis” either!\u201d No it wasn\u2019t too \u201cChablis.\u201d Anyone wanting to get their names in Toeing the Oche should always quote the ODC. The Taylor-Lewis match was like a nice port wine, directly from Portugal, served after the main meal.<\/p>\n
If there were no Friday (Taylor-Anderson) at the World Grand Prix then the Saturday match between Adrian Lewis and Phil Taylor would have grabbed the headlines around the tungsten world. It was noted here and will be recorded for prosperity. Setting the table, James Wade had his way with a disinterested or maybe disengaged Raymond van Barneveld 5-1 (3-2, 3-2, 3-0, 2-3, 3-1, 3-2) in a match that was in never in doubt after the first set. Van Barneveld had the darts, up 2-1 in the first set, but couldn\u2019t start with three in legs 4 and 5. Wade had no trouble getting out of the blocks with starts of T20 and T60. The decider in the first set was a thing of beauty from Wade\u2019s standpoint: T60-T-T to leave 141 which became 40 which then became nothing which became the first set. PDC official and TV commentator, Rod Harrington, called Barneveld\u2019s performance \u201cun professional.\u201d That\u2019s a code phrase. To put it delicately \u201cIt was the meal with a side of fava beans with a nice Chianti, but no meat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following Wade\u2019s final double the two did the man hugs deal and it seemed to go on forever. \u201cWhat did Barney say to you?\u201d asked the TV talk guy whose name didn\u2019t escape ODC because he never knew it. \u201cHe wanted to apologize for the way the crowd treated me,\u201d answered Wade. The drunken Irish louts booed Wade at almost every step for no reason other than Phil Taylor wasn\u2019t on the stage. They did cheer Anderson, van Barneveld and Lewis. They also wanted to cheer good soccer results but the Republic of Ireland lost 3-2 to Russia while Northern Ireland drew with Italy. For Northern Ireland and Italy that was a good result as in their cases a tie is a win. Go figure.<\/p>\n
LEWIS-TAYLOR<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cJackpot\u201d Adrian Lewis eliminated defending champion Phil Taylor 5-4 in a match that may have been less than it seemed. The line score was 3-2, 0-3, 3-2, 0-3, 1-3, 1-3, 3-0, 3-2 \u2013 which if you take time to add up the legs will show that in legs Taylor won 19-17. In addition Taylor outscored Lewis 92.88 to 91.76 which validates the old saying that \u201cYou score for show and finish for dough.\u201d Lewis, who came from 4-2 down to win, scorched the sisal for 16 maximums and with off\u2019s of 102, 106, 120 and 121. Both players wobbled a bit when it came to routine doubles with Taylor paying the most severe penalty: the match. Taylor was up 2-0 in the sudden death leg when he missed double tops, opening the door for Lewis to convert double 2 after missing four previous darts at a double in the leg. Still up 2-1, Taylor missed a bull on the end of a 92-check handing the leg to Lewis. Against the darts Taylor missed with four of the worst looking darts in the history of the sport handing Lewis a 143 point lead. After 15 darts Lewis needed 106 with Taylor way back at 198. Lewis stepped up to the oche with 60-6-double 20. Leg. Set. Match.<\/p>\n
For Taylor there\u2019s just a tad of \u201cD\u00e9j\u00e0 vu\u201d in play here. In 2004, Adrian Lewis became a practice partner of Taylors \u2013 much the way that Taylor was taken in by the then big name Eric Bristow in the late 1980\u2019s. Taylor would repay the favor by defeating Bristow 6-1 in what was then the premier tournament in the world held at the Lakeside. Twenty years later Lewis returned the favor to Taylor. For some time, Lewis has been touted as \u201cthe next best thing\u201d by those who are supposed to know. Now tutored by Keith Deller, this win could be a chance for Lewis to take the next step. His nickname: Jackpot? This comes from an \u201calleged\u201d incident in Las Vegas a few years ago. An underage Lewis \u201callegedly\u201d hit a BIG jackpot at an \u201calleged\u201d casino named after a movie studio. He never collected.<\/p>\n
There was an ugly end to Lewis-Taylor. It\u2019s a given that the psyche of a dart player is as fragile as that of a diva from the opera, a ballet dancer or a wide receiver in the NFL. Taylor for the most part has overcome this condition. During the match Lewis whined about either imagined or real slights or dirty tricks by Taylor. Taylor, always a class act, declined to do a post match interview and ducked the question the next day. He played the entire match before a booing crowd of drunken louts.<\/p>\n
THE FINAL<\/b><\/p>\n
The final was indeed the desert that finished off a gourmet meal. When someone first starts to play darts they are usually instructed to remember \u201cYou are playing the board not the person.\u201d Good advice but seldom does the advice hold sway in the long run. James Wade, of today\u2019s pros, probably best exemplifies that theory in practice. During his 6-3 win over Adrian Lewis, Wade played the board about as well as a dart player could. Prior to the match the players, in the warm up room, throw for the bull. To state the obvious, to win and go first is an advantage. DUH. Wade won the bull so started with a big advantage in a best of 11 throwing first in legs 1-3-5-7-9 and 11.<\/p>\n
All Wade had to do was hold serve and win 6-5. Wade broke through in the 6th set going up 4-2 when Lewis missed the bull on the end of a 120 finish. Lewis fired back in the 7th leg to narrow the gap to 4-3 with a nifty set, against the darts, winning the first leg in 11 darts and following with a pair of 14-darters. Wade broke right back to move to within one of the win. In what proved to be the final set Lewis actually took the lead 2-1 with a leg against the darts of T60-T-T31 and then out. Lewis started well to win the next leg with a 60 away. Wade though answered with a \u201cdouble-double\u201d maximum T60 which Lewis negated with a T80 that gave him the first shot at a double which he missed. Wade took advantage of his T60-on with T-81-140 to leave 16. At 16, an 8 followed by double 4 leveled the set at 2. In what proved to be the final leg Lewis missed three to start which gave Wade a 9 dart head start. Wade needed 80 with 3 while Lewis was sitting on 178. Wade\u2019s favorite number is double 10 which he reached with triple 20. Leg. Set. Match. Championship.<\/p>\n
CLEARING THE TABLE<\/b><\/p>\n
James Wade would reign as World Grand Prix champion as he did in 2007. This one though was special for the Portsider from Aldershot. \u201cI’ve won five majors now but this means maybe more for me. I was desperate to win tonight because my Nan isn’t too well and I was determined to do something to cheer her up, so this is dedicated to her.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Wade hit the winning dart he laid face first toward the board for a moment of private thanks. As expected Lewis, to some degree whined and made excuses. “I was really up for playing Phil and although I didn’t feel physically tired I did feel mentally tired.\u201d The ODC questions this statement as he\u2019s never heard of a tired vacuum. \u201cIt took a lot out of me in the semis and it did take its toll because I hit 16 180s against Phil and only eight against James, and I missed a few stupid shots.\u201d During the match Lewis had some words with Wade which appeared to be complaints. Asked about this after the match Wade refused to comment. Not Lewis who just had to blame someone other than himself. \u201cHe was moving his feet while I was throwing.\u201d Asked about Lewis\u2019s specific comments Wade said, \u201cLook at the video. My feet did not move.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe professional darts\u2019 Major Domo, Barry Hearn, will next market a wine and call it the \u201cLewis Special\u201d to compliment his bountiful buffet of darts, which is the PDC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The recently concluded World Grand Prix was for some a Mickey D\u2019s Happy Meal without the toy. For others \u2013 those addicted to delicious delights from the oche \u2013 it was a bountiful buffet of delectable morsels.<\/p>\n
All are correct, with the ODC opting for a 7-course meal constructed to tempt the palette. Like the gourmet meal when finished, a connoisseur would said \u201cno mas\u201d or, as Irene Maude Reed would say, \u201cMy God the bridge\u201d \u2013 which is the ODC\u2019s Mom-talk for \u201cno mas.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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Reed","author_link":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/author\/howie-reed\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The recently concluded World Grand Prix was for some a Mickey D\u2019s Happy Meal without the toy. For others \u2013 those addicted to delicious delights from the oche \u2013 it was a bountiful buffet of delectable morsels. All are correct, with the ODC opting for a 7-course meal constructed to tempt the palette. Like the…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":17,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"howie-reed","display_name":"Howie Reed","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/111howie.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/111howie.jpg"},"first_name":"Howie","last_name":"Reed","user_url":"http:\/\/www.dartoidsworld.com","job_title":"","description":"Astute, often controversial, and always humorous, the Old Dart Coach, Howie Reed (a former rodeo cowboy and advertising executive), is heralded as the Dean of Darts Chroniclers - the most prolific and widely followed writer ever about our sport. He goes back decades with the legends and knows where the skeletons are buried (just ask any of the ADO and WDF old-timers!). Here are four well-known facts about the Old Dart Coach: 1) he is a Republican, 2) he loves the ladies, 3) he can drink most anybody under the table, and 4) he throws darts as bad as Dartoid."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5368"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=5368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}