{"id":5652,"date":"2016-06-01T13:17:53","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T13:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/2016\/06\/column-hr169-pdc-world-cup-predictions\/"},"modified":"2024-02-14T22:23:16","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T22:23:16","slug":"column-hr169-pdc-world-cup-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/2016\/06\/column-hr169-pdc-world-cup-predictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Column #HR169 PDC World Cup Predictions!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, June 1,\u00a02016<\/span><\/span>
\nColumn HR169
\nPDC World Cup Predictions!<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1711, the English poet Alexander Pope wrote, \u201cFools rush in where angels fear to tread.\u201d\u00a0 Lyricist Johnny Mercer stole the words for his 1940 hit, Fools Rush In<\/em>, as recorded by\u00a0The Glenn Miller Band (Ray Eberle on vocals)\u00a0and\u00a0 the\u00a0 Tommy Dorsey Band with Frank Sinatra doing the singing.<\/p>\n

The Old Dart Coach fits the description – so he\u2019s handicapping the Betway 2016 PDC World Cup. The event returns for the third year to the Eissporthalle June 2-5 in Frankfurt. Germany not Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Lost on a dirt road in rural Kentucky on the way to Cincinnati, a group of darters including the ODC and the late Bill Nichol pulled into a small country store. After getting directions, Nichol asked the clerk (obviously from the\u00a0\u201choller\u201d)…<\/p>\n

\u201cSay, how do you pronounce the capital of Kentucky? Is it LOUISville or LOUIEville?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell now, I believe it’s LOUIEville.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWrong. It\u2019s Frankfurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

These predictions are for amusement only and should not be used for gaming purposes unless you can get some sucker to bet. Each of the 32 teams will be made up of two\u00a0players desiring a chunk of the \u00a3250,000 up for grabs. The winners split \u00a350,000 which is \u00a325,000 each (for you that have an American education).<\/p>\n

The PDC World Cup was created for TV with an ever-changing format – evolving for that very reason with a nod towards wagering. Hence, the Betway World Cup. The ODC went to the website to check odds. Being old and feeble, he couldn\u2019t understand it. After some tutoring he found out that for the\u00a0 England-Spain first round match if you wanted England you bet 10 to win 1. He suggested that as it\u2019s a race to 5 it might be better to make it like the NFL. Therefore he made England the Favorite -3. Make too much sense.<\/p>\n

This time, the first round is best of 9 doubles with the second round, quarter and semi-finals being two sets of \u00a0best of 7 singles – and if the score is tied a best of 7 doubles. One point for each match. The final? Three points needed to win the title. Two best of seven legs singles matches, followed by a best of seven doubles match. If necessary, one or two best of seven legs singles reverse order.<\/p>\n

Of the 64 players eighteen will be making their first World Cup appearance which will increase the choke factor.\u00a0 For openers, that eliminates thirteen teams for getting to the round 16.\u00a0There are 8 seeded teams with the remaining twenty-four teams drawn at \u201crandom.\u201d Old Random did a good job setting up a #3 Netherlands (The Van\u2019s – Gerwen and Barneveld) against #1 England (Taylor and Lewis)\u00a0final, unless someone tosses a spanner in the works. Scotland is the #2 seed but got that placing before Jo “Mamma” Wright let her fingers do the talking – forcing her husband to become \u2018unavailable.\u201d\u00a0Gary Anderson-Robert Thornton for Scotland ain\u2019t Anderson-Wright.<\/p>\n

Only twice have the top two seeds met in the finals.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the ODC\u2019s (aka Fearless Forecast) first round picks<\/u>…<\/p>\n

England (#1) -4 v Spain<\/p>\n

Czech Republic -4 v China<\/p>\n

Austria (#8) -3 v Italy<\/p>\n

South Africa -2 v Singapore<\/p>\n

Wales (#5) -3 v Finland<\/p>\n

Canada -3 v Greece<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland (#4) -4 v Japan<\/p>\n

Hong Kong -2 v. Republic of Ireland<\/p>\n

Scotland (#2) -2 v New Zealand<\/p>\n

Gibraltar -1 v.\u00a0Norway<\/p>\n

Belgium (#7) -3 v Poland<\/p>\n

Hungary -3 v Thailand<\/p>\n

Australia (#6) -2 v Germany<\/p>\n

Sweden -1 v\u00a0Denmark<\/p>\n

Netherlands (#3) -4 v Russia<\/p>\n

USA -1 v Philippines<\/p>\n

In the five previous World Cups either England (2012, 2013 and 2015) or Netherlands<\/strong> (2010 and 2014) has won but (there\u2019s always a “but”) only once (2014) has either team finished second.\u00a0The only unseeded team to finish second was the Brother Huybrechts from Belgium.<\/strong> They\u2019re back this year, getting\u00a0a #7 seed. They\u2019ll need an upset of Scotland in the quarters to reach the semis.\u00a0Not a Mission Impossible.<\/p>\n

Both North American<\/strong> teams should advance past the first round. The veteran U.S. Team of Darrin Young and Larry Butler <\/strong>get a pair of newcomers from the Philippines<\/strong>. They should prevail if they don\u2019t become somnolent as sometimes happens. A win\u00a0sets up a second round match with favorites Netherlands<\/strong> who should tell Russia<\/strong> \u201cNEYT\u201d in round one.<\/p>\n

Canadian\u2019s John Part and Ken MacNeil<\/strong> should slide through Greece<\/strong> with ease. That would set up a meeting with a #5 Welsh\u00a0team – the country not the grape juice – comprised of\u00a0 Mark Webster and Gerwyn Price<\/strong>. Price is a former Rugby Union Premier League Player which means nothing but is interesting. Here\u2019s the first \u201cupset alert.\u201d\u00a0Should John Part go retro and play like the champ he is and MacNeil play like MacNeil they could win. If you\u2019re in a place where betting is legal take Canada to make it close.<\/p>\n

The Singapore team<\/strong> of \u201cwe\u2019re not brothers\u201d Paul and Harith Lim<\/strong> got no break as they face a veteran South Africa<\/strong> duo with Devon Peterson and Graham Filby<\/strong>. Take South Africa to win, then upset #6 seed Austria<\/strong> (Mensur Suljovi\u0107 and Rowby-John Rodriguez<\/strong>) before losing in the quarters to England<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Hong Kong<\/strong> duo of \u00a0soft point players (Royden Lam and Scott MacKenzie<\/strong>) raised a little cane last year at the World Cup when they defeated Wales<\/strong> to reach the quarter-finals, losing to Scotland<\/strong>.\u00a0This year they didn\u2019t draw well, getting #<\/strong>8 Northern Ireland<\/strong> after they get past Ireland<\/strong> in the first round.<\/p>\n

Taking Belgium<\/strong> to upset Scotland<\/strong> in the quarters\u00a0but losing to Netherlands,<\/strong> the betting favorites, in the semi-finals. In 2010, Spain<\/strong> pulled a major upset when they beat England<\/strong> to reach the semi-finals, where they lost to Wales<\/strong> 4-0.\u00a0This time around the same two Spaniards (Carlos Rodr\u00edguez and Antonio Alcinas<\/strong>) are back but they get England<\/strong> in round one. Cinderella only got one shot at making the shoe fit.\u00a0 Adios.<\/p>\n

The quarter finals sets up as England vs. Wales and Netherlands vs. Belgium<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Taking Wales<\/strong> (Webster-Price<\/strong>)\u00a0for the upset\u00a0by splitting the singles, then taking the doubles to advance.\u00a0England\u2019s<\/strong> Achilles heel(s) – no pun intended –\u00a0are in the fact that Taylor is not perceived to be unbeatable now, plus he and Lewis don\u2019t play well as a team.\u00a0Big win for Wales<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Van\u2019s (Gerwen and Barneveld<\/strong>) are a good bet to win their third World Cup for Netherlands<\/strong>. With the best players on the planet – \u201cMarvelous\u201d Marvin leading the way\u00a0– the Netherland should dispose of Belgium<\/strong> even with a \u201cno-longer dominate\u201d Barney.<\/p>\n

The final, against Wales, will be over quickly as\u00a0 the \u201cMarvelous One\u201d and Barney lay a synder (3-0) on Wales for the title<\/u>.<\/p>\n

There are those Doubting Thomas\u2019s out there that think that the ODC doesn\u2019t know Jack Schitt. Okay, he had Carolina in the Super Bowl but anyone can bet stupid…<\/p>\n

The ODC does<\/em> know Jack Schitt.<\/p>\n

The fact of the matter is, not only does he know Jack but also his father,\u00a0Awe, his wife, Noe, and their children Holie, Giva, Fulla and Bull.<\/p>\n

So there.<\/p>\n

Stay thirsty my friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These predictions are for amusement only and should not be used for gaming purposes – unless you can get some sucker to bet! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4137,"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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predictions are for amusement only and should not be used for gaming purposes - unless you can get some sucker to bet!","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\/5652","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6355,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5652\/revisions\/6355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5652"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=5652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}