The Premier League 2009 Thread

Kingp35

The rumours doing the rounds at the moment are that Wayne Mardle has confirmed that it will be himself and Jelle Klaasen as the two wild card picks in this years Premier League.

I'm delighted that Klaasen has been picked and I suppose it was kind of inevitable that Mardle would be in there.

What do you lads think?

rag2gar

Nothing is confirmed yet so I wouldn't take this as fact. I would be disgusted if the above were the two wild cards. Wayne Mardle is picked time and time again purely because of his off the oche antics. He cannot give any of the top 6 a game. He couldn't even give Co Stompe a game who would be number 50 on the list for Prem League.

Similarly Jelle Klassen is being picked purely cause he's an "exciting" player. Wow so he throws fast, this doesnt explain why he's 20 places below Mervyn King in the ranking who switched from the BDO a year after him. They might as well pick Van Der Voort as Klassen as they are 'one tournament' men. Everyone was raving about VVV in Bolton: but would be laughed at if they picked him for the Prem League now. Klassen was just lucky he had his one big tournament perfromance of the year in the last one before Wild Card selection.

Why do the PDC refuse to pick the best 8 players? Its a disgrace if both Adrian Lewis and Andy Hamilton get shunned again. They are thoroughbred darts players and have been consistenly performing over the course of 2008 rather than a "good run" in a tournament here and there.

The Bull

The two pick are prob more to do with revenue that darts, See Mardle is the sort that will puts bums in seats and lets face it it more show and excitment for the drunkin masses to yoddle about and sing along too, the other pick Klassen is prob more to do with keepin the dutch tele fans happy, I think its now shown live in the netherlands so two dutch is alot easier to sell that one, Its all about the ratings and the"MONEY" £££££££££££££

that monney monney, ya ya,
that monney monney, ya ya,
that monney monney, ya ya
that monney monney, ya ya
that monney monney, ya ya :pac:

Kingp35

It has now been confirmed. Mardle and Klaasen are the Wild Card picks.

http://www.planetdarts.tv/page/PremierLeagueDetail/0,,10180~1514711,00.html

rag2gar

Yeah the Premier League is nothing to do with darts. I forgot that for a second!

Bring on Bolton and Blackpool, they cant come soon enough. The only two real darts festivals of the year. Oh and Citywest I guess

Carrickman

I'm not one bit happy that that clown Mardel has been given a wildcard there are much more deserving players than him:mad:

unknown13

Carrickman wrote: »

I'm not one bit happy that that clown Mardel has been given a wildcard there are much more deserving players than him:mad:

Andy Hamiliton deserves Mardle's place

syngindub

Not happy Mardle has been given the spot but i'll certainly be only too happy to watch him getting his ass kicked each week.

unknown13

rag2gar wrote: »

Nothing is confirmed yet so I wouldn't take this as fact. I would be disgusted if the above were the two wild cards. Wayne Mardle is picked time and time again purely because of his off the oche antics. He cannot give any of the top 6 a game. He couldn't even give Co Stompe a game who would be number 50 on the list for Prem League.

Similarly Jelle Klassen is being picked purely cause he's an "exciting" player. Wow so he throws fast, this doesnt explain why he's 20 places below Mervyn King in the ranking who switched from the BDO a year after him. They might as well pick Van Der Voort as Klassen as they are 'one tournament' men. Everyone was raving about VVV in Bolton: but would be laughed at if they picked him for the Prem League now. Klassen was just lucky he had his one big tournament perfromance of the year in the last one before Wild Card selection.

Why do the PDC refuse to pick the best 8 players? Its a disgrace if both Adrian Lewis and Andy Hamilton get shunned again. They are thoroughbred darts players and have been consistenly performing over the course of 2008 rather than a "good run" in a tournament here and there.

I would prefer Mardle than Lewis because Lewis had the flu one of the weeks in the last PL and pulled out of his match which meant Jenkins had to place twice in one night. Think of the amount of players that would have played in that situation. Lewis would pull if there was a slight chance he could lose and I'm glad he is not in it this year because he and Mardle are the PDC's favourites

ratinakeg

I'm happy Klaasen got picked as he will be a good addition to the Premier League.
Not happy about Mardle:(
I honestly think Tabern(:eek: for some of you) should of got through but he's not a money spinner like Mardle!
It just proves it's all about the money!

Degag

unknown13 wrote: »

I would prefer Mardle than Lewis because Lewis had the flu one of the weeks in the last PL and pulled out of his match which meant Jenkins had to place twice in one night. Think of the amount of players that would have played in that situation.

In the first year of the Premier League, one player every night had to play two matches so i don't think it had that much of an effect.

RichieLawlor

ratinakeg wrote: »

I'm happy Klaasen got picked as he will be a good addition to the Premier League.
Not happy about Mardle:(
I honestly think Tabern(:eek: for some of you) should of got through but he's not a money spinner like Mardle!
It just proves it's all about the money!

Lmao, He has the personality of an alley cat, might aswell bring in Dennis Smith

Degag

RichieLawlor wrote: »

Lmao, He has the personality of an alley cat, might aswell bring in Dennis Smith

In fairness though, he is a good thrower. Much improved over the last 2 years.

ratinakeg

RichieLawlor wrote: »

Lmao, He has the personality of an alley cat, might aswell bring in Dennis Smith

Not Dennis Smith please, rather jump off a cliff than watch him play. Tabern is not a slow player, he scores high averages quite often!

Evolution Enter

Well, when you have dead last in a tournament named after you in the Mardle Cup, probably tells you exactly what he brings to the Premier League

From an entertainment point of view, I much prefer Lewis and lets face it, he has a much brighter future than Hawaii '5-oh I can't get out of the fives'. World No 7 and as far as the World Championships goes, had some great matches, but Lewis loses out to a wally in a stupid shirt and inflatable palm trees

The Premier league is a brilliant showcase for darts and gets more fans interested in the big tournaments, I just don't see what Mardle brings to it anymore. And as far as bums on seats go, when you've Phil taylor on the bill, Mardle doesn't justify himself on that count either

Manley's ranking pretty much ruled him out, but he's a much bigger loss to the league than Mardle.

leggo

Hawaii '5-oh I can't get out of the fives'. World No 7

Re-read that one quote and see how little sense it makes.

The likes of Mardle and Manley are just as key in bringing darts to the heights that it is today as Taylor and Barney. Like them or not, if you enjoy the Premier League, you need to have one of the two in it to keep it as popular as it currently is and for darts to grow as a sport.

mdwexford

People are being way too harsh on Mardle, he may be inconsistent but when hes on form hes better than pretty much anyone and hes obviously a huge crowd puller which is what the Premier League is about.

Lets not forget hes also been in 5 World Championship Semi Finals, Lewis has never been in a major final either even though it is just a matter of time. Klassen's inclusion is far worse than Mardle's imo.

jwshooter

mardle is one player i enjoy watching ,

Evolution Enter

What's wrong with the quote, there was a full stop before World number 7 indicating I had started a new sentence? This a darts forum or a grammer exam??

Lewis is World number 7. What's your point? Mardle is World no8, with good runs in one high paying tournament in the last two years keeping him that high. Lewis consistently performs during tournaments all year.

Maybe the thought of Waddell yacking on about the Mardle drift for 14 weeks has me dreading him there.

At least Klassen is a former World Champion, despite his ranking of 25

If the premier league is the pantomime of darts, shouldn't the villain come before the jester in Manley??

Degag

leggo wrote: »

Re-read that one quote and see how little sense it makes.

The likes of Mardle and Manley are just as key in bringing darts to the heights that it is today as Taylor and Barney. Like them or not, if you enjoy the Premier League, you need to have one of the two in it to keep it as popular as it currently is and for darts to grow as a sport.

I'm sorry, i cannot agree with you at all there. Taylor and Barney have 19 World Championships between themselves, Mardle and Manley have none. The impact of the latter two doesn't even register compared to taylor and barnevald... Do you honestly think that in 50 years time that those 4 players will be mentioned in the same breath?

The premier league would be just as popular without mardle and manley... Real dart fans appreciate the ton plus averages and 180s, not inflatable palm trees, bananas and hawaii shirts.

Evolution Enter

True, I'm not saying Manley should be there either by the way! Just that the justifications used for Mardle's inclusion apply better to other players

Why include John Part in the tournament just because of his ranking when he clearly seems to dislike the event! The €20000 guarantee seems to be the only reason he shows up.

Lewis. Hamilton and maybe, dare I say it, a BDO entrant like Gary Anderson would generate interest and add to the league

RichieLawlor

Evolution Enter wrote: »

True, I'm not saying Manley should be there either by the way! Just that the justifications used for Mardle's inclusion apply better to other players

Why include John Part in the tournament just because of his ranking when he clearly seems to dislike the event! The €20000 guarantee seems to be the only reason he shows up.

Lewis. Hamilton and maybe, dare I say it, a BDO entrant like Gary Anderson would generate interest and add to the league

Anderson is a bottler on the stage, thats very clear, he will never join the pdc imo also i think Lewis Hamilton would draw plenty of interest :P:P:P

Kingp35

Evolution Enter wrote: »

Lewis consistently performs during tournaments all year.

I disagree with that. Lewis is one of the least consistent players in the PDC. he can be fantastic one week and awful the next, sure he can even be fantastic one set and awful the next! He has done no more in tournaments than Mardle has and doesn't really deserve the place anymore than Mardle does. Neither of them qualified by right. Lewis has never come close to winning a major because he doesn't have the mental strength to do it, he is a bottler and gets wound up way too easy. The same could be said of Mardle who is also inconsistent and abit of a bottler but has reached the World Championships Semi-Final 4 times, the Matchplay final once, the Desert Classic final twice. There is no way you can have stats like that if you are a bad player.

Mardle has done much more and proved much more in his career than Lewis. Personally I think both of them should be included, it should be the worlds top 8 and not this Wild Card thing, but to say Lewis deserves it much more than Mardle is rubbish.

Degag

Evolution Enter wrote: »

Why include John Part in the tournament just because of his ranking when he clearly seems to dislike the event! The €20000 guarantee seems to be the only reason he shows up.

I don't think he dislikes it, he just doesn't perform well in it. There is a fine line. The format doesn't suit his style imo.

I think they should have waited until the BDO championship was over before naming the wildcards to see if anyone did jump ship... when Barney jumped and got a wildcard it really did generate a lot of excitement.

dionsiseire

Nothing to do with format, if he'd stop travelling from canada every week he'd be fine

RichieLawlor

Degag wrote: »

I don't think he dislikes it, he just doesn't perform well in it. There is a fine line. The format doesn't suit his style imo.

I think they should have waited until the BDO championship was over before naming the wildcards to see if anyone did jump ship... when Barney jumped and got a wildcard it really did generate a lot of excitement.

Barney created interest because he was Barney not because he left the BDO, there is no one out there capable of making the same impact

Degag

RichieLawlor wrote: »

Barney created interest because he was Barney not because he left the BDO, there is no one out there capable of making the same impact

I disagree, at this stage we've seen the top boys in the PDC play eachother multiple times, at this stage even Barney v. Taylor is getting rather stale largely due to how much Sky overhype it.

If someone like Hankey, O'Shea, Fitton, Anderson or even Adams etc were to join the PDC and given a PL spot it would create one new unique match every week and give the PL some more vibrancy and freshness.

As good as the PL is, it gets rather monotonous when you see the same players and same matches every year.

Evolution Enter

A straight top 8 would be better, Klassen is an excellent thrower, former world champion, but at 25 in the rankings, it makes a joke of the race to the top 6 to qualify.

Anyone know who the lowest ranking wildcard was up to this??

Kingp35

Evolution Enter wrote: »

A straight top 8 would be better, Klassen is an excellent thrower, former world champion, but at 25 in the rankings, it makes a joke of the race to the top 6 to qualify.

Anyone know who the lowest ranking wildcard was up to this??

Well it would have been Barney because he hadn't played in any PDC tournaments yet

Other than that I don't know to be honest.

Evolution Enter

I'd love to know who else was in line for a wild card. Few of the pro's that I spoke with were convinced Manley would get it. Don't think any of them gave King a chance?

leggo

What's wrong with the quote, there was a full stop before World number 7 indicating I had started a new sentence? This a darts forum or a grammer exam??

No, the point was that Mardle wouldn't BE the world number 8 (corrected, my mistake) if he consistently threw 5's. It's based off money earnings, which is made through hitting consistently stellar darts and to be the 8th best player in the PDC easily answers the question about whether he can play or not.

If you like ONE player who is lower than 8th in the world, then your own argument is defeated because they must hit the 5's more than Mardle.

I'm sorry, i cannot agree with you at all there. Taylor and Barney have 19 World Championships between themselves, Mardle and Manley have none. The impact of the latter two doesn't even register compared to taylor and barnevald... Do you honestly think that in 50 years time that those 4 players will be mentioned in the same breath?

No, but then again I doubt we'll hear much about Barry Hearn, Sid Waddell, Planet Funk or anyone else who's been instrumental in creating the darts that we ALL know and love today. It doesn't make them any less relevant. For example, without Manley to play villain to Taylor in 06 then Taylor's 13th World Championship would've been "Oh...he's done it again. Fair play..."

A blockbuster movie is made up of an entire cast and crew, not just one or two big-name actors.

The premier league would be just as popular without mardle and manley... Real dart fans appreciate the ton plus averages and 180s, not inflatable palm trees, bananas and hawaii shirts.

Unfortunately, the 'real' darts fans don't pay the bills. It's the fans who buy the bananas, palm trees and hawaii shirts that give darts a big enough platform for 'real' fans like you to enjoy. Simple business.

Evolution Enter

I rarely see Mardle a players championship event on the PDC, Lloyd, Jenkins, Priestly etc yes, but rarely Mardle. It's good runs in the World Championship the past two years that have kept him up the rankings, really there is sweet fa between the players from 6-10.

I dunno what way the Premier League is gonna shape up this year. Wade is way off the boil despite being No2, Barney seems to be back in form, Jenkins is solid so will probably finish 3rd or 4th. Maybe King will be the surprise package.

Don't see Part or Mardle getting close. All depends what James Wade shows up during the league I guess

Declan30

Looking forward to seeing Klaasen and Taylor matches .Jelle has really inproved his game and will be a big threat to the top 4 in the premier league

RichieLawlor

Declan30 wrote: »

Looking forward to seeing Klaasen and Taylor matches .Jelle has really inproved his game and will be a big threat to the top 4 in the premier league

No he wont, Klassen is the most undeserving of a place in the PL, Won nothing since the BDO final ans will win nothing probably ever, no personality either

RichieLawlor

Evolution Enter wrote: »

I'd love to know who else was in line for a wild card. Few of the pro's that I spoke with were convinced Manley would get it. Don't think any of them gave King a chance?

King qualified by right, 6th in the order of merit

Declan30

Klassen performance in the World Championship was good and he Deserved his place.
He will make good this year and be Challenging for Titles with the rest of them.
Mardle should not be there. I would have put in Hamilton.

RichieLawlor

Declan30 wrote: »

Klassen performance in the World Championship was good and he Deserved his place.
He will make good this year and be Challenging for Titles with the rest of them.
Mardle should not be there. I would have put in Hamilton.

World Championship quarter final is good enough to deserve a place in the PL, surely Co Stompe should be in then, also QF in WC and beat Taylor in the final in Germany

Declan30

I take it your not a Klaasen Fan so .Lets give him a Chance and see how he goes.

Evolution Enter

RichieLawlor wrote: »

King qualified by right, 6th in the order of merit

Yeah, that's not what I was getting at. I mean noone of them saw him as the one to crash the top six. From what I've been told, King is pretty unpopular among his fellow pros

Hey...we have our new pantomime villain

Whiskey Devil

Hamilton is probably my least favourite player to watch so I'm delighted he didn't make it. Not pushed either way with Mardle but I'm delighted Jelle Klaasen got a chance.

:cool:

Declan30

Have heard that King is not Popular with the Players. Himself and Taylor did not have much love for eachother in the worlds semi Final.
He could trouble a few though in the Premier League .

Degag

King talks himself up far too much. In any interview i heard all he said was how "if" he played his best game, he'd beat anyone including Taylor, even Taylor at his best.... thing is, he has never thrown a game like this and i don't believe that he can for the simple reason he'd need a 110 average and he's too far behind that.

Evolution Enter

Funny thing is, the game needs someone up there to ruffle feathers. Nicholson nailed it when he said the sport needs some bad guys. The characters in darts make watching it so compelling, 14 weeks on the trot of crowd favourites gets monotonous.

I'm sure the guys in Sky will be encouraging King to get in peoples faces, and the more he does I'm sure his demand on the exhibition circuit will go up too, where the real money is outside of what the top 3 are making.

When Manley toned it down on stage I didn't find him anywhere near as good to watch

ratinakeg

Premier League 2009 - Outright

Outright Betting
All Quoted. Winner settled on whichever player lifts the trophy after knock out stage of competition.

Phil Taylor [URL="javascript:void(0)"]4 - 9 [/URL]Raymond van Barneveld [URL="javascript:void(0)"]4 - 1 [/URL]James Wade [URL="javascript:void(0)"]8 - 1 [/URL]Mervyn King [URL="javascript:void(0)"]16 - 1 [/URL]Jelle Klaasen [URL="javascript:void(0)"]20 - 1 [/URL]Terry Jenkins [URL="javascript:void(0)"]25 - 1 [/URL]John Part [URL="javascript:void(0)"]33 - 1 [/URL]Wayne Mardle [URL="javascript:void(0)"]33 - 1 [/URL]
Each Way Odds 1/3 places 1,2

Anyone see any value for money?
I might put a fiver each way on Jenkins!

Evolution Enter

Mervyn King each way at 16-1 looks good

If he finishes third and avoids Taylor, I fancy him to take Barney in a semi over the short format

Jenkins is my favourite so I kinda like your bet too

I'd back Taylor to go undefeated this year, odds are bad on that.

Kingp35

Evolution Enter wrote: »

I'm sure the guys in Sky will be encouraging King to get in peoples faces, and the more he does I'm sure his demand on the exhibition circuit will go up too, where the real money is outside of what the top 3 are making.

King has never been liked by fans or players. I remember one time when he was playing in the BDO, it was probably the Worlds, that he kept on complaining that the board wasn't straight even though his opponent said it was. He was blaming the board because he was playing bad and he was trying to put his opponent off. The crowd booed him all the time after that. Supposedly he is a bit of an asshole and doesn't get on with any of the players.

That said, I like him purely because of the above! I agree with you lads, Darts needs a bad bay and King fits the bill.

Evolution Enter

Was it King that whinged about the air conditioning at a tournament messing up his darts too??

World class bullshi**er, didn't he claim to hit 3 nine darters in practice during the worlds this year, and yet when he was on stage he couldn't get into the mid 90's with his average

Kingp35

Evolution Enter wrote: »

Was it King that whinged about the air conditioning at a tournament messing up his darts too??

Yeah pretty sure it was. The man does love a good moan. I wonder how he will take to the Premier League crowds because they tend to be fairly loud! Don't know if his ear plugs will block all that out.

Evolution Enter

Barney tried that for a while and threw them away. I wouldn't be able to throw with ear plugs, surely them must effect you. Imagine practicing in them and having wax build up all the time from them

I'm kinda glad he's in the league though, Barney, Jenkins, Taylor, Wade, Part, and Klassen are all too polite for such a character based sport

MrDos1

Evolution Enter wrote: »

Was it King that whinged about the air conditioning at a tournament messing up his darts too??

World class bullshi**er, didn't he claim to hit 3 nine darters in practice during the worlds this year, and yet when he was on stage he couldn't get into the mid 90's with his average

It was Ted Hanky not Mervyn King that moaned about the air conditioning. Hankey is a whinging b**tard. Moaned throughout the first few sets of this years BDO WC's as well cos the crowd were too loud!! He'd never survive in the PDC if he cant deal with a bit of atmosphere!

jwshooter

a big vamp bixxh origh ,he is to ugly for the PDC anyway