Holsten Premier League of Darts - Week 3

Kingp35

So the Darts Premier League is back on our TV screens again tonight. The fixtures for this round of matches are as follows:

Colin Lloyd v Ronnie Baxter
Peter Manley v Wayne Mardle
Raymond van Barneveld v Roland Scholten
Ronnie Baxter v Phil Taylor
Live on Sky Sports 1, 7.30pm

Its a big night for Ronnie Baxter who has yet to get a point but finds himself playing twice against the worlds tp two players. It will be very tough for him but he has to get at least one win tonight or he may find himself too far behind to get back into the league. Tonight also sees the clash of teh two dutchmen in the competition which should be very interesting because at the moment Scholten is the highest ranked Dutchman in the PDC. Mardle really needs to beat MAnley tonight to get himself off and running. He had a horrible start to last years league before just missing out on qualification. He wont wnat that to happen again and so desperately needs a win to bolster his chances of qualification.

So some good matches in store for us tonight, cant wait

Carrickman

Thursday March 2
AECC Aberdeen
Colin Lloyd 3-8 Ronnie Baxter
Peter Manley 8-5 Wayne Mardle
Raymond van Barneveld 8-3 Roland Scholten
Ronnie Baxter 4-8 Phil Taylor

Looking foward to the 23rd and the meeting of Barney and Taylor!!

Pos Player P W D L Legs +/- PTS
1 Phil Taylor 4 4 0 0 +17 8
2 Raymond van Barneveld 3 3 0 0 +16 6
3 Roland Scholten 4 2 0 2 -1 4
4 Peter Manley 3 1 0 2 -3 2
5 Ronnie Baxter 4 1 0 3 -10 2
6 Colin Lloyd 3 1 0 2 -10 2
7 Wayne Mardle 3 0 0 3 -9 0

Kingp35

Lloyd was awful last night, he couldnt hit a double to save his life. Baxter managed to beat him 3-8 and Baxter only had an 85 average, that tells you how bad Lloyd must have played. Baxter was not scoring well at all whereas Lloyd was but Lloyd kept missing the doubles and Baxter punished him. I havent seen Lloyd play this bad in a while. In danger of not qualifying unless he seriously picks up his game.

Mardle was disappointing again tonight, he just never got started. Manley on the other hand played some nice steady darts to win the match but you could see the anger of Mardle as he left the stage, he knew he played terrible. Just like last year Mardle is at the root of the table with no points, he needs to win a game in 2 weeks or he could be out. Manley on the other hand gets his first 2 points of the league and puts himself into a good position. If truth be told he could have had more as he threw away a win against Lloyd last week.

Scholten Barney was a disappointing game as neither of them were at the races, especially Scholten. Maybe the pressure got to Scholten as he knew there was a massive dutch crowd watching this game. Barney started brilliantly and at one stage in teh 4th leg was averaging 108. That didnt last though as his average plumeted below 90 but Scholten was playing so bad he couldnt capitalise. In the end it was a very below average performance from Barney but Scholten never turned up so an easy win for Barney.

Baxter Taylor was a closer game than I thought. Both played some good darts and Baxter stuck with him for most of the game. In one leg of the match there were 3 180's scored, 2 from Baxter and one from Taylor, so you could see that this game had the highest standard of the night. In the end Taylor won out but Baxter can hold his head high after that performance and he got at least the one win that he desperately needed.

Incidently Barney will not be at Wolves in 2 weeks time for the next round of matches. Does anyone know why and how are they going to work around that?