Mervyn King and James Wade, please kindly fook off. Taylor v Barneveld II is going to be the sporting event of the year. Bit pissed off though at how Dave Clark keeps insulting the viewers intelligence by saying it’s the first time a nine-darter has been done in a World championship. Anyone who knows anything about Darts knows it’s not. Paul Lim anyone?
I was thinking that. Played some Irish bloke as well.
Yep, I was discussing that with my brother there. We both remembered Paul Lim but couldn’t remember what year he did it. It was obviously in the old BDO event in the early 1990s but it’s weird the way they sometimes mention past BDO achievements of players and then simultaneously airbrush certain other BDO happenings from the history books.
1990 Embassy (last 16 I think) v Jack McKenna. Have to say Tony Green’s commentary on it was better than my namesake’s there tonight too.
John Gwynne does tend to mention BDO stuff a good bit. The real Sid actually commentated on the first post-split Lakeside in 1994and didn’t move to Sky until later that year.
Found Paul Lim’s on You Tube there:
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Edit: Class commentary by Tony Green alright.
The really strange thing about Lim’s nine darter is that he got 52 grand for it (way more than the winner of the tournament got)while Barney is only getting 20. That’s amazing as the general prize money for darts has gone way up in recent years and the perceived lack of money in the game was one of the reasons that caused the split. It just doesn’t make sense.
Ah now it was pointed out that it was the first 9 darter in “these” World Championships.
Wade v Barney is going to be seriously interesting after that dire performance tonight.
King with all his blabber about not being beaten if he “shows up” is a load of bollox. Taylor at his best would beat that mug with only 2 darts on his hand.
Nope, it wasn’t. They were going on about it being the first one ever. It’s actually only the second ever, with Lim’s from 1990 the first.
As soon as he hit it Lanning (I think) said it was the first one at “these” world championships.
Dave Clark the presenter lad with the mad face kept repeating it though.
When you say guy in commentary said ‘these’ championships, I suppose you could take it he meant the PDC version alright. But Dave Clark in studio was going on about a ‘9 darter never being done before in a world championships’. It’s going back to my point about them picking bits of BDO history and ignoring others.
Ah but Clark doesn’t know what the BDO is. He’s a total mong. Never mind what he says, he’s like the lepers in the crowd.
Clarke has a certain jauntiness about him that makes him a great presenter though, IMO. I don’t think we necessarily need our presenters to have a great knowledge of the game - ideally the studio guest analyst should have this, but I suppose when you’ve Rod Harrington in there, then the whole house of cards collapses alright.
Harrington isn’t exactly there to offer insight on the game being that he is a Director of the PDC. He’s there to promote the PDC and also Bristow can’t really be trusted to do what he’s told being that he’s a cockney wide boy.
He’s the best cockney wide boy in the game though, darts needs him more than he needs darts. I didn’t know Harrington was a director. It’s all a bit wrong really, this Sky-PDC thing, but there is no doubt that it makes for quality television and quality sport.
His jauntiness can backfire on occasion though. I recall a few years back he was doing Soccer Saturday in Jeff Stelling’s absence and he was farcical. The late goals were flying in and he was missing them on the vidiprinter and messing up his lines and was justing sitting there with his usual big, cheesy grin and gormless head on him.
I’d say it was still funny in a sort of charming way though. In fairness, I’d say Jeff Stelling’s gig on Soccer Saturday isn’t easy to do as smoothly as Jeff himself does it. I would imagine it’s easy to miss late goals etc etc. And surely the fact that it’s live, and depends on events, means one doesn’t have “lines” as such?
Semi finals going to clash with the Spanish football later, I’m not one bit happy about this.
High standard already in this first set.
Wade has rediscovered his form.
All legs against throw already. 2-2.
EDIT - Barney takes the last one with throw to take the first set.
I backed Barney to win 6-4 and Wade +2.5. Come on!