The 2012 Ladbrokes World Darts Championship gets underway this Thursday, as 72 players prepare to battle it out for a winners cheque of £200,000, the biggest prize in the sport, and a place among the all time greats. Can Adrian Lewis defend the title he won for the first time in 2011? Will another new face lift the famous trophy? Or will Phil Taylor win his 16th World title on the 2nd January?
The Power is obviously the man to beat despite last week's failure to win the Players Championship finals. His loss to Mervyn King and earlier wobble against Terry Jenkins suggests that he isn't unbeatable, but this is the Worlds, where the long format really plays into his hands. The Stoke ace faces what looks like a comfortable passage into the 2nd round with a game against either Haruki Muramatsu or Dennis Nilsson, but Taylor has been around long enough to know that no game is a gimme, and if it is to be the Swede, he will give Dennis Nilsson the respect he would give Dennis Priestley. The vast majority of fans, pundits and indeed players, would fancy him to reach the quarter-final, where he is seeded to meet his old rival, the 8th seeded Raymond van Barneveld.
A televised tournament win has eluded Barney for four years now, and apart from perhaps the Premier League, where he lost a tight semi-final to eventual winner Gary Anderson, he hasn't looked like ending his run. If he is indeed to challenge in the later stages, he will most likely have to defeat Paul Nicholson in the 3rd Round before the Taylor quarter-final. There is no doubt that an in-form and a happy van Barneveld is capable of winning both of those ties, indeed the whole event, but the man we usually see is far removed from that. If only we could get the Barney of 2007 back to give Taylor a game we remember like that final five years ago. Time will tell which turns up.
I expect the seeding to take its course, which means a 3rd round encounter between van Barneveld and Nicholson, but the Geordie-Aussie, who now lives in Chorley, will have to be at his very best against Mensur Suljovic in Round 1. The Austrian may rarely feature in the big tournaments, but when he does, he gives the big boys real tests. In my preview for last year's Worlds, I said it would not surprise me if he reached the 3rd Round by defeating James Wade. He did just that, so Nicholson will be on his toes. Win or lose however, The Asset will surely be one of the most talked about players at the Alexandra Palace, as his Marmite image and personality continues to divide the fans.
The likely semi-final opponent for Taylor, van Barneveld or Nicholson (in fact I would be shocked if anyone else won the second quarter of the draw) is Gary Anderson. Last year's runner up and the 2011 Premier League champion has had a kind draw in the first round, against Jyhan Artut of Germany. Colin Lloyd or an improving Scott Rand could await in the 3rd Round, but an in-form Scot should have enough over a long format for those, and he has been helped by the fact that Simon Whitlock, who he would play in the last 8 if it goes according to seeding, is struggling with an ankle injury that has kept him out of the Grand Slam and the Players Championship finals. The Aussie will be desperate to not only compete, but to at least reach a clash with Anderson. Some may say he has to get that far, if not further. He is defending runners-up money from 2010 and a slip down the rankings awaits should Anderson, or Steve Beaton or Mervyn King (his seeded 2nd and 3rd Round opponents) put him out. He has been given the longest possible recovery time by the organisers; his tie with the veteran Dennis Smith is on the final day of first round play.
As for the bottom half of the draw, Adrian Lewis is 5/2 favourite with the sponsors to reach the final. If he shows anywhere near the blistering form of last year, he should easily make his way into a last 16 encounter with probably Wayne Jones, who has had a couple of iffy tournaments of late since his terrific rise up the rankings in the last 12-18 months. After that it ought to be Wes Newton, whose brilliant year, including a UK Open final, has put him in the reckoning for a Premier League place in the new year. Jackpot gave us the highlight of the event in the final, with a magical 9-darter in just the third leg against Anderson, and no doubt he will fancy his chances of at least one more during the event. His tournament win featured a record 60 180s in total, and he could go close to that landmark as well.
If Lewis does reach the semi-finals, and I think he will, Mark Webster or James Wade will provide a very tough test. They are scheduled to meet in the last 8, and have already had some very tense games this year, notably the UK Open semi-final, where Wade edged the Welshman out in a deciding leg. Webster has arguably the best record in the Sky majors in 2011 - although without a win, he is the only player to reach at least the quarter-finals in all of them, and in addition, was runner-up to Kevin Painter last week in Doncaster. He is nothing if not tenacious and difficult to beat, yet perhaps lacks the killer instinct that Wade has when it comes to key, game-changing doubles.
The Machine added the UK Open to his trophy cabinet this year, although he is continually targeted by those who insist that somehow they aren't 'real' victories because he hasn't knocked out Phil Taylor to win any. He is desperate to put that right and defeat The Power in the final, yet he would take beating whoever it takes I'm sure. He is however sometimes prone to losing games he should win (see Suljovic last year, Scott Waites in the Grand Slam final). If he gets his head for the game right, he is as dangerous in every form of the game as is necessary to win his first World title.
As always, the quality of the field gets higher and higher, and the number of players knocking on the door of the top 32 is growing. Some seeds, in my opinion, are in big danger of pre-Christmas exits. They include former finalist Mark Dudbridge, who faces rising star and former Lakeside finalist Dave Chisnall. Vincent van der Voort will have to be at his best to beat Mark Hylton. Andy Hamilton could have had easier ties than Antonio Alcinas, and Colin Osborne, a player who has had a difficult year, faces Michael van Gerwen, who will surely prove why he has been lauded as a wonderkid for so many years now.
All the action is on Sky Sports HD, and I can't wait for it to start!
