On Thursday the eyes of the darting world will once again be focused on the Alexandra Palace in London, as the 2011 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship gets underway. It's the one tournament of the year which defines careers, and for me at least, it is the sporting event which defines the Christmas period, especially since the BBC took the World's Strongest Man off our screens.
Of course, there is one darting heavyweight that goes into every tournament the huge favourite to win, and that is Phil Taylor. The Stoke legend is 4/7 with the sponsors to win a 16th world title. The Power begins his campaign on the opening night against the winner of the first Preliminary Round tie, either the little known Filipino Juanito Gionzon or more likely the popular American Gary Mawson, a former UK Open finalist. His possible second round opponent is John Part, the one player in the last ten years or so not afraid of the Power, and with the knowledge of how to beat him. I for one am hoping to see a match that if it comes close to their legendary final of 2003, where the Canadian won his second world title, will be one to savour.
Although Taylor comes to the Ally Pally the huge favourite, he doesn't have the form of a player firing on all cylinders. His failure to win the Grand Prix, Grand Slam and the World Cup with England has planted a seed of doubt in some minds, but we have seen before that a written-off Taylor is as dangerous, if not more so, than a Taylor in his prime and he will be more keen than ever to show the world who rules this sport.
His biggest challenger of late has been James Wade. Until England's shock World Cup defeat to Spain earlier this month, Wade's first round draw against Antonio Alcinas went largely unnoticed, and was perhaps considered to be a glorified bye into the last 32. But the Spaniard certainly won admirers in Sunderland, and at the European Championship, where he was narrowly beaten by Mark Walsh, and Wade will have to play well to win, make no mistake. A tricky second round tie would await the Machine against either Michael van Gerwen or the dangerous Austrian Mensur Suljovic, a player more than capable of producing two upsets to reach the last 16 himself. Top players often talk about wanting a tough test early in the tournament, and Wade's certainly got that, but if he gets into the third round, expect him to get a lot further from a relatively comfortable quarter of the draw.
It is fair to say that Raymond van Barneveld has had a difficult few years, on and off the oche, but one thing that darts fans across the world want to see above all others, is to see the Barney of 2006-07 when he won the UK Open and of course the World Championship in what is considered the greatest match of all time against Phil Taylor. Since then we have seen a van Barneveld who has had as many battles with himself as with his opponents. Since he won his 5th World Championship at Purfleet, his record has been disappointing, with a noticable shortage of major individual televised titles. He is however, returning to the scene of two of his greatest moments, the two magical nine-dart legs in each of the last two years so we know he can turn it on here. After last year's disappointment, after which he claimed 2010 was 'already lost', he will be desperate to make amends. He should comfortably make the quarter-finals, where he is likely to meet Mervyn King or Gary Anderson. Time will tell whether he still has the mental strength or the game to defeat either in a nine-set encounter.
This year was the first year where there were no big-name moves from the BDO, so we are lacking the 'dangerous floaters' seen in previous draws in the shape of Anderson, King, Mark Webster, Simon Whitlock and of course Barney, who was seeded 32 at the time of his Circus Tavern win. That means that we may be short of upsets, or stand-out ties in the first round, but for me, the few of the top 32 that could be under threat from the non-seeds are the aforementioned Michael van Gerwen; Jelle Klaasen, who faces the talented Bristolian Steve Brown, and Alan Tabern, who lacks recent TV form and is against a resurgent Richie Burnett, whose floor form of late got him into the draw. The former Embassy winner will fancy his chances in a first round he nearly didn't reach. Terry Jenkins has a very poor record at the Alexandra Palace, with two first round exits, one of which came against shock finalist Kirk Shepherd three years ago, and a third round departure last year. He come up against Joe Cullen of Bradford, who may fancy his chances of adding to his growing reputation as a rising star of the future.
The tournament get underway on Thursday and you can see every dart live on Sky Sports HD. A fantastic year of darts has been building up to these next two weeks, and I for one cannot wait for it to start.
Let me know your thoughts via the best darts group on Facebook, of which I am a member and officer, or via my Twitter page. Game On!
