PDC World Draw

The Rooster

The draw for the PDC World Champs is on live on Sky Sports News at 5.30pm today.

A qualifiying competition on Saturday decided the last 16 qualifiers for the PDC world championships. Among those qualifying were Geoff Wylie of Norn Iron and old-timers Dave Whitcombe (beaten finalist of the Embassy twice in the 80s and past winner of many major titles) and Kevin Spiolek (one of the very few men to have beaten Taylor in a world championship - back in 1993).

The qualifiers are:

Andy Smith, Steve Hine, Steve Alker, David Platt, Jimmy Mann, Geoff Wylie, Wayne Jones, Dave Whitcombe, Gary Welding, Jason Clark, Alan Tabern, Dale Newton, Kevin Spiolek, Mark Salmon, Dave Honey, Andrew Hamilton.

They are joined by the 16 international qualifiers:
USA: Ray Carver, Darin Young, John Kuczynski
Canada: Gerry Convery, Ken Woods
Germany: Tomas Seyler, Andree Welge
Nerherlands: Erwin Extercatte, Jan van der Rassel
Ireland: John Magowan
Australia: Brian Roach
New Zealand: Warren Parry
Belgium: Patrick Bulen
China: Lui ChenAn
Japan: Yasuhiko Matsunaga
Barbados: Winston Cadogan

The above 32 will be drawn against 32 seeds, as follows:

1. Colin LLOYD
32. Darren WEBSTER
17. Steve BEATON
16. Lionel SAMS
24. Alan CAVES
9. Denis OVENS
25. James WADE
8. Andy JENKINS
5. Peter MANLEY
28. Steve MAISH
12. Mark WALSH
21. Dennis SMITH
20. Adrian LEWIS
13. Dennis PRIESTLEY
4. Roland SCHOLTEN
29. Jamie HARVEY

2. Phil TAYLOR
31. Matt CLARK
18. Bob ANDERSON
15. Terry JENKINS
23. Alex ROY
10. Mark DUDBRIDGE
7. Kevin PAINTER
26. Wes NEWTON
6. Wayne MARDLE
27. Erik CLARYS
22. Chris MASON
11. John PART
19. Dave ASKEW
14. Alan WARRINER-LITTLE
3. Ronnie BAXTER
30. Colin MONK

Kingp35

Im a little disappointed none of the other Irish guys managed to get through the qualifiers. I though Keith Rooney might put in a better show than getting beaten 5-1 in his first qualifying game because he had a good game the World Grand Prix. Tom Kirby also missed out. I guess all our support now lies with John Magowan who, unless he gets a very favourable draw, I suspect could be gone in the first round.

Im also a little disappointed that the the the true greats of teh sport in teh past, John Lowe and Eric Bristowe both failed to make it true the qualifiers as well as Cliff Lazarenko. It would have been nice to see them at the tournament, especially Bristowe who really was the first darts "star". Im sure the three of them will give it another shot next year.

Ill be watching the draw closely as I have already bought my tickets for the semi-finals and finals so im hoping that the the top players can make it through. Should be a great tournament.

The Rooster

Rooney and Kirby were probably in the most difficult of all the 16 groups. Rooney is undoubtedly a great talent, but doesnt give darts the attention it needs. I hear (but I stress its only an unsubstantiated rumour, I dont know the facts) that Taylor identified him a number of years ago as someone with high potential and took him under his wing for a while. But he dropped him because he was concentrating too much on his job! Probably the sensibile thing to do given its very difficult to make a full time career out of darts, but not great for us Irish fans who'd love one of our own to cheer on.

The person I'm most happy to see qualify was Dave Whitcombe. Taking the 80s as a whole, which is when I got into darts, he was probably the 4th best player of the decade after Bristow, Lowe and Jocky. He had some memorable battles with all 3, he could beat Lowe and Wilson, but he could never make an impact against Bristow. Still 2 runners-up positions, another semi-final appearance (all defeats to Bristow!) and a couple of quarters was an impressive record. He's been out of darts for a long time, but made a comeback recently, and it'll be great to see him in the big time again.

How much were the tickets for Purfleet? And where is Purfleet?!

Kingp35

Yeah I have read a bit about Rooney and it does seem that he lacks the dedication towards the sport but he does have undoubted talent.

The tickets cost £25 for the semi-finals (that includes both) and £30 for the final. They are well sold out at this stage and according to www.planetdarts.co.uk there are only first round tickets and one second round still available. Purfleet is in essex about half an hour outside London City. Its handy enough to get too as there is a train station right beside the place. I have never been before so im really looking forward to it.

mchurl

Does anyone know if the seed are kept apart as well i.e. will taylor be in a different half of the draw to lloyd?

The Rooster

The way I have them listed above (Post 1) is the way it should work out. Lloyd is in the top half and Taylor in the bottom. If Lloyd (no.1) and Webster (no.32) both win their first round match, they will meet in the 2nd round. Beaton will be due to meet Sams in the 2nd round, and the winner of that will meet the winner of Lloyd/Webster in the 3rd round, and so on.

Kingp35

The draw for the first round of the PDC World Championships have been made.

The full line up can be seen here

A very tricky draw for the Irish representative John Magowan who has been drawn against former World Champion and this years World Grand Prix semi-finalist Dennis "the menace" Priestly. Should be a good game.

Other stand out matches include
Peter Manley v Kevin Spiolek
Colin Lloyd v Gary Welding

Phil Taylor has been drawn against David Platt (wonder did he ever play football)

EKRIUQ

Kingp35 wrote:

Tom Kirby also missed out. I guess all our support now lies with John Magowan who, unless he gets a very favourable draw, I suspect could be gone in the first round.

Chris Mason now lives in Kilkenny and plays with a localish darts team so we can count him being half Irish for the event.


Chris Mason

Name: Chris Mason
Nickname: The Ace
Date of Birth: 17/12/1969
Place of Birth: Bristol, Avon
Current Home Town: Kilkenny, Ireland
Darts Used: 24g B&W
TV Debut: -
Height: 5' 11"

If he gets through the first round he'll have a hard game against John Part.

Great to have a darts forum at last.:D

Kingp35

Thats true about Mason all right. He is another player that has great talent and was earmarked for a good career but so far he has yet to really deliver on that. Every tournament I look out for Mason but he always seems to go out too early for me. I hope he does well though now that he is an adopted irishman. John Part has had a very indifferent time of lately so Mason could really give him a good game provided he gets through

BingoBongo wrote:

Great to have a darts forum at last.

I couldnt agree more!!!

The Rooster

Mason is going to have a reall good run in a big tournament soon IMO. His year out when he was "unavoidable detained" certainly didnt help his career, and he's had a battle to get back up the rankings. But things have started to happen for him lately. He's up against a tricky enough competitor in Steve Hine in the first round. If he can get into stride and beat Hine, I could well see him upsetting Part in Round 2.

Another very interesting tie is Kevin Painter v Dale Newton. Painter will be a strong favourite, but if Newton can surprise him, he'd meet his brother Wes (who will surely beat his Japanese opponent in R1) in the 2nd round.

But I can't see too many seeds being beaten in R1 (though of course there'll always be one or two shocks), maybe Lionel Sams will find it tough against US No1 John Kucysinki

Kingp35

Yeah I agree with Rooster that Sams has a very tough match. I watched some of the American guys play in the Las Vegas open and they surprised me a little. The soft tip game is alot more popular in the states than the steel tip game but I think the steel tip game is slowly becoming more popular although the crowds in Las Vegas were quite disappointing and mostly consistent of UK people on holidays in Las Vegas.

John Kucysinki is a decent player and if he plays well on the day can cause an upset. By the way I do like the way that this year there are 16 international qualifiers from around the world. It really does give it more of a World Championship feel to the tournament

mchurl

wouldnt mind seeing newton v newton in the 2nd round. That would be interseting enough:p

Kingp35

The order of play has been announced for the tournament and this will also be how the games are shown on Sky TV

PDC World Championships Order of Play