2017 PDC World Championship 15th December- 2nd January - Alexandra Palace, London

[Murphio]

troll

[The Jolly Man]

If Taylor wants to play more years and only the Premium Events, the PDC needs to change a rule.

2.11 Players will need to have participated in a minimum of ten events over a rolling two-year period to be eligible to qualify for Premier Events through the Order of Merit and a minimum of five events over a rolling one-year period to retain their Tour Card. However, players only need to have competed in one event to be eligible to win a Tour Card.

Players who fall beneath these thresholds will remain on the Order of Merit but will not be eligible for qualification for Premier Events until they have reached the level again with all eligible prize money counted.

For 2017 it will be no problem, but if he only plays the Premium Events in 2017, he can't play the Premium Events in 2018. Ofcourse no problem probably to play some Players Championships.

More interesting, Taylor is the 3rd Englishmen on the Order of Merit. So will he not play the World Cup of Darts?

They won't hesitate ignoring or adjusting that rule. Believe it has been changed in the past few years. Cristo Reyes wasn't eligible to gain his tour card with the existing rules at the time, but they changed the rules and Reyes got his tour card through one tournament (fortunately, cause what a player he is becoming).

For this year he has 3 already
Worlds
Matchplay
Grand Prix

Then they just cheat and classify the
Premier League - will get invite
Masters - already qualified for
WSOD FInals - almost certain to get invite
as Premier events

Plus he has the World Cup if one of Wade (probably) or Lewis is encouraged to claim a "sickie" and could qualify for Grand Slam, although runners up or winner of World Cup is probably his best chance.

Like in 2016 if he plays the 6 uk open qualifiers and plays well in the majors he is fine. When he stops winning through to semis and quarters in the majors he will retire and there won't be a need for a tour card. Personally think he and the PDC will try and do 2 years in Las Vegas to try and get the event up and running and then he will retire

[Zapp Brannigan]

If Taylor wants to play more years and only the Premium Events, the PDC needs to change a rule.

2.11 Players will need to have participated in a minimum of ten events over a rolling two-year period to be eligible to qualify for Premier Events through the Order of Merit and a minimum of five events over a rolling one-year period to retain their Tour Card. However, players only need to have competed in one event to be eligible to win a Tour Card.

Players who fall beneath these thresholds will remain on the Order of Merit but will not be eligible for qualification for Premier Events until they have reached the level again with all eligible prize money counted.

For 2017 it will be no problem, but if he only plays the Premium Events in 2017, he can't play the Premium Events in 2018. Ofcourse no problem probably to play some Players Championships.

More interesting, Taylor is the 3rd Englishmen on the Order of Merit. So will he not play the World Cup of Darts?

They won't hesitate ignoring or adjusting that rule. Believe it has been changed in the past few years. Cristo Reyes wasn't eligible to gain his tour card with the existing rules at the time, but they changed the rules and Reyes got his tour card through one tournament (fortunately, cause what a player he is becoming).

For this year he has 3 already
Worlds
Matchplay
Grand Prix

Then they just cheat and classify the
Premier League - will get invite
Masters - already qualified for
WSOD FInals - almost certain to get invite
as Premier events

Plus he has the World Cup if one of Wade (probably) or Lewis is encouraged to claim a "sickie" and could qualify for Grand Slam, although runners up or winner of World Cup is probably his best chance.

Like in 2016 if he plays the 6 uk open qualifiers and plays well in the majors he is fine. When he stops winning through to semis and quarters in the majors he will retire and there won't be a need for a tour card. Personally think he and the PDC will try and do 2 years in Las Vegas to try and get the event up and running and then he will retire

He's not trying to qualify for anything else so I doubt he will be doing the uk open qualsifiers

[Zapp Brannigan]

As for the rest of the tournament, if Barney believes I believe. Other than that I'm not really fussed who wins

[ssjsa]

Really looking forward to the semis tonight. Although I think Gary will win fairly comfortably, I also think Snakebite will play well.

In the second semi, hope RVB gives MVG a test.

[GRAYISALEGEND]

I just dont want RVB to be humiliated. Racing Post Sport man has tipped 6-1 MVG. Id take 6-3 MVG as a fair effort

[Rout]

I think Wright is gonna push Anderson a lot closer than people expect. Could see it being 6-5 or maybe 6-4.

[Dannyboy]

Fancy both games to be relatively comfortable for the 2 favourites - around 6/2 6/3.

[ssjsa]

For those having a punt on the darts today, here's 3DA's stats guide for the semi finalists.

[Booji Boy]

Plenty needle in the ando match. Fancy wright to nick it.

Andos wife was giving wright a mouthful on Twitter yesterday and wright was arguing with the team ando account over a series of tweets.

[xtreme rebel]

Any in running OoM table?

[T14T11]

Plenty needle in the ando match. Fancy wright to nick it.

Andos wife was giving wright a mouthful on Twitter yesterday and wright was arguing with the team ando account over a series of tweets.

Odds on Sky mentioning the root cause of it all?

[xtreme rebel]

What's the cause of the friction between Anderson and Wright?

[armchairfan]

Any in running OoM table?

http://www.dartsdatabase.co.uk/Rankings.aspx

[Booji Boy]

What's the cause of the friction between Anderson and Wright?

Weights wife accused Anderson of throwing a game so wright would not qualify.

Wright was subsequently kicked out the Scottish World Cup team.

[ifm]

For those having a punt on the darts today, here's 3DA's stats guide for the semi finalists.

Take it to the gambling thread.

[DavidB]

Can't find the post but the poster who was saying no talent coming through the BDO (obviously rubbish) and knocking the age of the top BDO players has failed to realise the average age of the PDC semi finalists is 42...

[ssjsa]

Plenty needle in the ando match. Fancy wright to nick it.

Andos wife was giving wright a mouthful on Twitter yesterday and wright was arguing with the team ando account over a series of tweets.

Personally, I think the needle will benefit Gary more than Snakebite. Have picked 6-2 to Gary in the prediction comp, but have chucked a score on Ando to win 6-0 at 16/1.

[Murphio]

Can't find the post but the poster who was saying no talent coming through the BDO (obviously rubbish) and knocking the age of the top BDO players has failed to realise the average age of the PDC semi finalists is 42...

PDC semi finalists. Christ on a bike. The age of the field condensed into four players. One can only hope Adams, Fitton, O'Shea and Phillips don't make the Lakeside semis any time soon.

[Case]

Completely disagree. MVG not human with his answers, arrogant, said he felt he would beat Gurney after just the first set - did he feel the same after winning the first set against Barney last year? There's confidence and then there's arrogance, I cannot relate to the guy at all because of the way he says things like "yeah he played well but he's not as good as me, he hasn't got my scoring power blah blah". Before singing his "oh Michael van Gerwen" song, he gets half of the crowd booing him nearly all the time, even the Germans have started doing so in the European Tour!

What part of that isn't true? Better that than alluding to how much money he's got, or name dropping 'mates' like Robbie Williams.

And if you're using a PDC darts crowd as a bellwether, you're barking up the wrong tree, wee lad.

I think the German crowd are there to watch the darts, they are 50-50 on van Gerwen I'd say. Taylor can definitely go on in interviews (not as much as Barney though), but he speaks normally and honestly.

So you like Taylor because he's honest but you don't like MVG because he's honest?

MVG not honest for me, as per my point about his match with Barney from last year. Taylor no longer my favourite but still someone I'll root for, as I would not be watching were it not for his "repeated brilliance" as Sid used to say. Ah Sid, how I miss him on comms...

MvG not honest, WOOF, cognitive disaster.