An end of an era for many as many some well known names missed out. Adrian Lewis, Simon Whitlock, Mervyn King, Steve Beaton and Vincent van der Voort will not be toeing the oche.
The Nuke will go off as favourite for the title but finds himself in the same half of the draw as defending champion Cool Hand Luke Humphries✋.
Sky will be hoping Fallon Sherlock can win her first round tie to setup a clash with Littler in the 2nd round.
A lot of big names aren’t the forces they once were. The fear factor is gone for many.
Q3 is the weakest of the 4 and the big price Wessel Nijman backers will be happy enough with the draw he has.
I backed Anderson at 12s each way last night and I’m not surprised to now see him as short as 8/1 in places.
I was chatting to a good friend of his and he said Rob enjoyed his trip to Ireland last week for a few exhibitions. He was down near Ballinhassig last weekend. He was getting a lift back to the hotel and Rob gave the driver his set of darts from the night.
Chris Dobey was over the week before, think it was Dublin on Thursday, Douglas on Friday, Mallow on Saturday and Wexford on Sunday.
The fundraiser in Douglas was for an autism charity. He played 20 legs on the night and put on a great show I heard. He left the 170 checkout a few times and hit it once. He went on his knees to hit a few doubles. He hit a winning double through an A4 page and then he beat one lad by taking out 44 with D7 D14 D1.
After paying Dobey his fee of €3.5k and covering his hotel they raised about €8k. He doesn’t drink, all he wanted was a glass of coke.
