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"PDC Year of Darts 2008"

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL (Jan 1)

John Part 7 V 2 Kirk Shepherd

2007 Champion - Raymond Van Barneveld

PREMIER LEAGUE DARTS TABLE - FINAL TABLE

1 Taylor 21pts (+46) - QUALIFIED
2 Wade 20pts (+22) - QUALIFIED
3 Barneveld 18pts (+16) - QUALIFIED
4 Lewis 12pts (-12) - QUALIFIED
5 Mardle 12pts (-14)
6 Manley 11pts (-12)
7 Jenkins 9pts (-18)
8 Part 9pts (-28)

US OPEN (May 18)

Phil Taylor 3 v 0 Colin Lloyd

2007 Champion - Phil Taylor

PREMIER LEAGUE DARTS SEMI FINAL AND FINAL (May 26)

Phil Taylor 11 V 1 Adrian Lewis
Raymond Van Barneveld 8 V 11 James Wade

Phil Taylor 16 V 8 James Wade

2007 Champion - Phil Taylor

UK OPEN (June 8)

James Wade 11 V 7 Gary Mawson

2007 Champion - Raymond Van Barneveld

LAS VEGAS DESERT CLASSIC (July 6)

Phil Taylor 13 V 7 James Wade

2007 Champion - Raymond Van Barneveld

WORLD MATCHPLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

Phil Taylor 18 V 9 James Wade

2007 Champion - James Wade

SOUTH AFRICAN MASTERS

Phil Taylor 5 V 2 John Part

2007 Champion - Phil Taylor

WORLD GRAND PRIX

James Wade 6 V 3 Terry Jenkins

GRAND SLAM OF DARTS

Phil Taylor 18 V 11 Andy Hamilton

Tonights matches:

Roland Scholten v Colin Lloyd
Dennis Priestley v Adrian Lewis
Phil Taylor v Peter Manley
Raymond van Barneveld v Terry Jenkins

I think tonight we will have 4 wins for Scholten, Lewis, Taylor and Van Barneveld. Jenkins will be reeling after his 8-1 defeat last week and if Lewis keeps up his form from last week he should beat Priestley.

Lloyd needs to put last week behind him and I think Taylor will be too strong for Manley, probably an 8-4 / 8-5 victory with the others being around 8-6 / 8-7.

The PDC website has mentioned that the Taylor V Jenkins match is now the last match of the night.

I'm hoping for a Lewis fightback in the few weeks.

Tonights matches are:

Phil Taylor v Terry Jenkins
Peter Manley v Raymond van Barneveld
Colin Lloyd v Adrian Lewis
Roland Scholten v Dennis Priestley

I think Taylor will be too strong for Jenkins and Barney will beat Manley but the other 2 will be close. If Lewis has another bad day Lloyd will beat him but if he performs like he can I think Lewis will take it.

Priestley had a hammering at the hands of Taylor last week and if he can put that out of his mind I think this one will be a draw.

There really aren't that many on the BDO side that could compete on the PDC side. To be honest, the BDO just isn't do enough for the fans, which is why they are the ones losing out. It's very outdated, which is typical BBC I guess. I suppose that's why their World Championships get shown on the BBC.

I liked the April Fools joke of the square dartboard. That was funny but I'd think it would make darts easier to play.

World Champs Venue Moved

Good move in my opinion as there's a much bigger capacity and after the success of ther Premier League in big arenas there's no doubt it'll sell out no probs.

Also prize money going up to £200000 for the winner by 2010 is bound to tempt a few more "defectors".

Barneveld looked a little tired in his match against Lloyd. He was drifting into the 5's a bit and he was missing doubles. His darts weren't going in particularly flat either. Lloyd let him get back level before the break but he got another break of throw after the break and held on for 8-6.

Jenkins V Scholten was a funny game. Jenkins probably should have led 4-2 at the break but Scholten missed doubles and Jenkins punished him. Jenkins had a dip in form after the break and Scholten made it 6-6 only for him to dip and Jenkins took the last 2.

Priestley was apparently suffering with a touch of flu and Taylor seemed pretty good. The 2nd leg of the match was a bit rubbish, especially with Priestley hitting a score of 5 with his first 3 darts.

Lewis is really going through the mill at the moment. It's a shame because he started the league really well. The crowd have totally turned on him now, he's not scoring very well now and missing doubles. The crowd were even supporting Manley! I just hope the experience makes Lewis stronger in the future and not have the other effect.

It was a night of missed opportunities really. Jenkins and Priestley started well but Jenkins took a 2-0 lead. His form then tailed off while Priestley kept steady. Priestley led 5-2 and let Jenkins back at him. Priestley had control of the game but 7-7 ended up being fair.

I thought Barneveld was a little vunerable again. He didn't finish well and if Lewis had scored a little better, he might have caused problems.

The crowd were not helping Lewis. The only thing I can think of that could have caused this crowd reaction is perhaps the Scottish crowd taking to Barneveld, but Lewis has been getting mixed receptions for a while. It could be the walk out in the World Championships a couple of years ago, but I thought that was justified. It's a bit of a mystery to me.

Anyway, I can understand why Sid was questioning the blind shots but to be fair to Lewis, out of the 3 attempts, he technically only missed one. The first one was too accurate as it smacked off the flight of the dart in double top. The second one wasn't good but the third one flew straight into double 18.

I think Lloyd could have had a whitewash if his doubling was better. Manley was struggling and was constantly behind Lloyd in a number of legs, missing doubles and not checking out the 2 or 3 darters that we know he's capable of. Still, Lloyd will be very happy with the big win and quite relieved, as Manley should have punished all those missed doubles. I think Lloyd was 22 darts at doubles, 4 hit at one point.

I haven't seen all of the last event yet but I'll probably have some time later this week.

I did see the Taylor V Scholten match when I got in and Taylor was a bit out of sorts and Scholten was either brilliant or average. He let Taylor off the hook again and 7-7 was probably about fair.

Comprhensive wins all round last night all credit to Priestley for capitalising on Barneys off day and securing a great win.

Lewis also had yet another off day and Jenkins played his game to beat him by a big margin. Good win for Scholten as well I thought it would be a draw or 8-6 but the gap was bigger in the end.

Lloyd continued his poor run of form and was rightly well beaten, Taylor is looking superb no doubt being edged on by losing the World Title.

I think we can say Taylor and Priestley are pretty much through to the semis already with Lloyd out, any 2 of the other 4 could grab the other 2 spots but we're only half way there and there are still 7 more matches to be played each.

I thought I'd watch the late show as my DVD messed up a bit. Lewis was drifting early in the match and Jenkins was performing to his now usual standard. Jenkins has been a big surprise and has to be a contender for titles now. He's brought his non-TV game to the TV stages.

Manley wasn't that good today either. His 180 scoring was okay but his doubles weren't good. Scholten's looking much better now but Taylor next week is the big test.

Barneveld looked lost. He wasn't following the darts into the treble like he has been and his doubling was atrocious to the standard we know it to be. Priestley was just plodding along and making Barney pay. Except for that one leg. I haven't seen a double one shootout for a long while.

After Taylor went 3-1 up, Lloyd seemed resigned to defeat and he was struggling to get in sync. Taylor is looking pretty close to back to his best. If he irons out some of the slack darts and the treble 19's start flying in again, forget it. He'll win everything.