Darts Showdown

Kingp35

Ok who do you think will win between Phil "the power" Taylor and Andy "the Viking" Fordham. I think fordham will win because he comes up against better players every week. what do you think/?

Drag00n79

I think Taylor will win fairly easily. Didn't he play Barneveld a few years back too? Beat him 10-1 or so, I think. I know it's Sky PPV but I'm not sure if there will be adverts or not. If there's ads it will also be to Taylor's advantage as he's used to the stop-start of such live matches on Sky. Fordham would normally just play his match straight off on BBC.

celticfc

Phil Taylor will have a huge advantage in the match as Andy Fordham broke his throwing hand & hasn't been able to play for a couple of months now. I think he was getting the bandages off it this week or last week.

Kingp35

I didnt know fordham broke his hand that will definitely work against him. As far as i now there isnt adds on the pay per view but it could change for this game and that would work against him too but i still think fordah has a rael good chance of an upset. He has a never say die attiude as we say in bbc championship. The bookies arent giving him much of a chance tho with taylor 1-10 on to win.

Does anyone kow how many sets the match is gonne be coz it never said??

m4cker

are you telling me that sky make you pay to watch darts????
how the hell are they justifing (sp?) that one

Kingp35

bBecause they make you pay for everything these days but still its the dart showdown to see who will be the undisputed world champion so I know I will be pay to see it.

Come on darts has got to be one of the most exciting and tense sports. Thats another reason I love christmas because the darts is back on the tv.
Anyway am i the only one who thinks fordham has a chance????

Pherekydes

Kingp35 wrote:

...so I know I will be pay to see it.

Come on darts has got to be one of the most exciting and tense sports.

Anyway am i the only one who thinks fordham has a chance????

Maybe you are the only one who

(i) would pay to see a Darts' match

(ii) thinks that Darts is exciting

(iii) thinks Darts is a sport

Kingp35

really?? so do you reckon sky would offer a 100,000e prize to the winner and put the game on pay per view if no one was gonna watch it?

Well your a clever one arent you haha

ANd yeah if you check the tv listings over christmas the darts is always one of the top watched sports on tv and as matter of curiosity what do you think defines a sport??

Wake man wake up!!

Patrick

Davey Devil

Slow coach wrote:

Maybe you are the only one who

(i) would pay to see a Darts' match

(ii) thinks that Darts is exciting

(iii) thinks Darts is a sport

What a stupid comment. I happen to also like darts although I won't be paying to watch Taylor destroy Andy.

I'm a big fan of Andy's but I just don't think he has a chance. Maybe if he didn't break his arm it would be different. Taylor is untouchable when he is at his best and he sounds really up for this one,

DMC

Interesting comment of Bobby George's on BBC Sport website...

"Taylor is a great darts player, although as a bloke I do not like him.

He is nuts as far as practising is concerned. If you practice five or six hours a day you have to be barmy.

Practising could be made more interesting if they changed the colours of the dart board.

But you have to practise long hours - that is what being a darts player is about.

In my opinion, when he won the Embassy and BDO events he was world champion. No doubt about it.

But I do not think the PDC events are world championships - so in my mind whoever wins those events are not proper world champions. "

Drag00n79

It didn't finish. Just read on BBC's site that it was called off due to Andy's ill-health. I presume this is the hand injury. Phil was 5-2 up in sets.

Drag00n79

Not hand injury. Apparently Andy was having breathing difficulties.

gerire

What a kop off, ok yes he was sweating a hell of a lot under the tv lightsbut that was from the start and he was 3 - 1 down when he walked off: (doh it was 5 -2)
Sky opinion: http://www.skysports.com/skysports/article/0,,1-1160841,00.html

Kingp35

yeah a bit disappointing really but fordham is 27 stone so i wouldnt be too hard on him it and there is no way he would deliberately give up coz the man just isnt like that he keeps on playing.

So taylor wins by default.

By the way i gotta agree with Bobby George the PDC championship isnt the proper one all the best players are in the embassey championship.The PDC is something sky made up coz they couldnt get the rights for the embassey one so the players who moved to the PDC did so only for the money no other reason and all the best players with the exception of a very select few are part of the embassey championship.

Plus anybody can enter the embassey championship even you and me.Qualifying starts the day after tyhe tournament ends its the real world championship.With the PDC only the top players get an invitation. Bobby is right god there is only one real world championship and that is the embassey one.

Drag00n79

Kingp35 wrote:

By the way i gotta agree with Bobby George the PDC championship isnt the proper one all the best players are in the embassey championship.The PDC is something sky made up coz they couldnt get the rights for the embassey one so the players who moved to the PDC did so only for the money no other reason and all the best players with the exception of a very select few are part of the embassey championship.

Don't forget Bobby has an axe to grind here too. He earns a crust doing analysis for the BBC who have exclusive live Embassy rights. He's hardly going to lend any support to the PDC. In fairness, he's hardly an impartial judge.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Pherekydes

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

I have watched darts, and in my opinion it isn't a sport.

What is your definition of sport?

I'll go with the dictionary definition:

sport noun
1 an individual or group activity pursued for exercise, often involving the testing of physical capabilities...

celticfc

Slow coach wrote:

an individual or group activity pursued for exercise, often involving the testing of physical capabilities...

And your trying to say there's no testing of physical capabilities in Darts?

It takes huge amount of physical & mental skill to consistantly play the game of darts well.

The Rooster

Kingp35 wrote:

By the way i gotta agree with Bobby George the PDC championship isnt the proper one all the best players are in the embassey championship.The PDC is something sky made up coz they couldnt get the rights for the embassey one so the players who moved to the PDC did so only for the money no other reason and all the best players with the exception of a very select few are part of the embassey championship.

While I love Bobby George, his opinions on this are irrelevant as he plays on the BDO tour. To say all the best players are with the BDO, or even most of the best, is just nonsense. You'd certainly have a far better argument if you argued the exact opposite, though probably somewhere in the middle is right. Personally if I was picking the top 12 players, 8 would come from PDC and 4 from BDO. No question that Taylor is out on his own at 1. But I'm with Bobby in disliking him.

The reason the breakaway group was formed in 1993 was because of bad management of the BDO. Television coverage was dying away with the exception of the Embassy, therefore prizemoney was very poor on the circuit and it was near impossible for players to be full time professionals. It made perfect sense to move to a new tour, and nearly all the best players agreed.

Only Mike Gregory of the top 10 players stayed with the BDO after the breakway. Of the 8 seeds for the 1994 BDO championship, only 3 had even qualified for the last 32 of the 1993 tournament!

And its also nonsense to say that the PDC World Championship is invitation only. Its very similar to the BDO, although 40 play rather than 32, so it might actually be easier to get into. The PDC run a ranking system for all tournaments played in the year, and the top 32 qualify for the world championship. 4 qualify from special qualifiers held in England, and another 4 from around the world.

The BDO are now getting their act together, and quality players have come around again. But there is still more money on the PDC tour, so you will still get defections like that of Wayne Mardle a couple of years ago. But unfortunately its too late, and I dont think we'll ever see a combined tour again.

Pherekydes

celticfc wrote:

It takes huge amount of physical & mental skill to ...

...drive a bus.

...or make a nice dinner.

If you're 27 stone, and you get out of breath standing up, you're not a sportsman.

Kingp35

ok slow coach in your opinion is snooker a sport?? you could be 27 stone and still play that.

Of course darts is a sport.Physical capabilities doesnt only mean the ability to run around a pitch it means any amount of physical skill such as being able to aim a dart.thats a physical capability. Of course darts is a sport why the hell isnt it?? You havent given any argument so far that could prove it isnt. if anything the dictionary definition proved that is a sport minus the excercise part of course but sport can be passed on physical skill more so than excercise.

Rooster i agree that we probably wont see a combined tour again and this is solely down to money and tv rights and yeah it is true that only the embassey is shown on tv these days whereas sky show a number of tournaments but I watch alot of darts i love the sport in my opinion the standard at the embassey is better than the standard at the PDC. Granted im only 20 and wasnt watching darts back in 93 but i have for the last few years and the standard at the embassey is better.

I guess some players are changing over because of the money and yeah if thats what you play darts for i guess thats fine but i think its because the bbc has the rights to the embassey that it cant offer as much money.Sky obviously has alot more revenue to offer.

Anyway I think we both would agree that it would be better for darts if the two could join back together again.Think of all the quality players that would be out there then but until one of the tv companies decides to give up their rights or wins the rights off the other I dont see it happening but you never know.

The Rooster

Just for the craic

1. Taylor
2. Part
3. Barney
4. Manley
5. King
6. Lloyd
7. Fordham
8. Mardle
9. Scholten
10. Painter
11. Hankey
12. Baxter
13. Warriner
14. West
15. Adams
16. Jenkins

Kingp35

i guess it all comes down to a matter of opinion tho rooster since they are not playing each other i would agree with some you have there but others i wouldnt.I would have the likes of Mervin King in there but thats my opinion.

Lets start a get darts back together petition see if they take any notice

Pherekydes

Kingp35 wrote:

ok slow coach in your opinion is snooker a sport?? you could be 27 stone and still play that.

No, of course snooker isn't a sport. And it isn't the 27 stone per se that doesn't make him a sportsman. Put these guys into a competition like the superstars and compare them directly to athletes, field games' players and combat sports' participants.

And of course you can't have proof either way. At the end of the day, it's just one's opinion.

Kingp35

as i said before all sports dont have to be field related snooker and darts are just a much physically and mentally draining as other sports you just dont run around a field thats all