2018 PDC Unicorn Challenge Tour

[Booji Boy]

Because the CT OOM is the only route to the pro tours so is potentially worth a hell of a lot more, oh, and why call people jobb ers, that's just rude and unnecessary.

What you on about superior men’s

I was quoting The knowledge on the previous page taking the piss out of him calling Ratty a jobber you utter twonk.

Ahh yes, i see now, my apologies.

Swoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon, gentle thud.

[trotter]

Swings and roundabouts...qualifying for a Euro Tour is obviously better than playing in a challenge tour and obviously say Jamie Hughes won 2 grand at the Euro by winning one match whereas he would have to win a Challenge tour event to get that......
But 2 grand at the Euro won't get him a tour card for next year or get him into the pro tours whereas 2 grand in the challenge tour would probably get him into them all...so it's potentially worth more..

But I can see the argument that they should have won Tour cards in the first place..because if all card holders play then you're not going to get in Pro tours at all..so it's swings and roundabouts...

[Little Lonely Garry]

Swings and roundabouts...qualifying for a Euro Tour is obviously better than playing in a challenge tour and obviously say Jamie Hughes won 2 grand at the Euro by winning one match whereas he would have to win a Challenge tour event to get that......
But 2 grand at the Euro won't get him a tour card for next year or get him into the pro tours whereas 2 grand in the challenge tour would probably get him into them all...so it's potentially worth more..

But I can see the argument that they should have won Tour cards in the first place..because if all card holders play then you're not going to get in Pro tours at all..so it's swings and roundabouts...

exactly.

Why reward failure.
Ratajski and Hughes, Menzie etc should be thankful they are getting an opportunity to play the Euro Tour.

The PDC have a priority to look after the winners of a tourcard first, not the failures.

[ifm]

Swings and roundabouts...qualifying for a Euro Tour is obviously better than playing in a challenge tour and obviously say Jamie Hughes won 2 grand at the Euro by winning one match whereas he would have to win a Challenge tour event to get that......
But 2 grand at the Euro won't get him a tour card for next year or get him into the pro tours whereas 2 grand in the challenge tour would probably get him into them all...so it's potentially worth more..

But I can see the argument that they should have won Tour cards in the first place..because if all card holders play then you're not going to get in Pro tours at all..so it's swings and roundabouts...

Ignoring just the massive financial benefit of being able to play challenge tour/pro tour versus ET, the PDC deliberately changed the system so that the CT OOM is used instead of Q school OOM and then clashed them with ET's.
It was all rushed and should have been properly planned and implemented and now it's all a bit silly.
Maybe if a few CT players qualify for the ETs and didn't bother attending it would point out the problem.

[Reinier]

Agree with IFM here.

[ssjsa]

Agree with IFM here.

As do I. There is no way the PDC planned the calendar with the intention of having these clashes impact in the manner they have.

[The Jolly Man]

Agree with IFM here.

As do I. There is no way the PDC planned the calendar with the intention of having these clashes impact in the manner they have.

At the same time why should the PDC be planning calendars around players who in theory are the 129th best player.

I remember some were saying before the q-schools that the Euro q-school would be the easier of the two and the talent wouldn’t be there. Now we’re discussing how the PDC need to sort out its calender to help a player that failed to come through this easier q-school.

[ssjsa]

Agree with IFM here.

As do I. There is no way the PDC planned the calendar with the intention of having these clashes impact in the manner they have.

At the same time why should the PDC be planning calendars around players who in theory are the 129th best player.

I remember some were saying before the q-schools that the Euro q-school would be the easier of the two and the talent wouldn’t be there. Now we’re discussing how the PDC need to sort out its calender to help a player that failed to come through this easier q-school.

For me this is not about any one player, but rather the fact that the PDC have made their qualification criteria for the PC events to replace Tour Card holders who don't enter, through the CT OOM and they clearly did not factor in the ET clashes when they set said criteria.

[ifm]

Agree with IFM here.

As do I. There is no way the PDC planned the calendar with the intention of having these clashes impact in the manner they have.

At the same time why should the PDC be planning calendars around players who in theory are the 129th best player.

I remember some were saying before the q-schools that the Euro q-school would be the easier of the two and the talent wouldn’t be there. Now we’re discussing how the PDC need to sort out its calender to help a player that failed to come through this easier q-school.

Forget q school, it's irrelevant in this, the CT is there for players without tourcards, that's it's purpose.
That they have now decided the top up to pro tour will come from the OOM is very important as it gives players another opportunity at the big boys but so is the ET, to then have them clash is an error and i can only guess it's because the decision to use the CT OOM was last minute.
It's actually a good idea to do it that way but it has it's own problems like it only rewards form horses and basically sets up those players for the whole season, it of course as we are discussing also punishes players that don't attend and the clashes accentuate that.
I don't know the solution, they need to pull the players from somewhere and the q school OOM wasn't any fairer either.

[DavidB]

The real problem here is that if you fail at Q School you can still be a PDC player in the same season, how can that be right??

The Challenge Tour should be completely separate and be the amateur tour it was designed for with the winners of the OoM then given a PDC tour card for the next two seasons.

Of course that doesn’t solve the problem of the clashes but at least it doesn’t create the other problems it does now!

What is the average number of the 128 tour players not playing in every pro tour event anyway? Would topping up from the euro tour OoM be the answer? Ok they’d have to go quite far down...

[trotter]

My own opinion is that if the Challenge Tour is to be used as a genuine feeder for the Pro Tour then it has to be open to all players at all events....it's a great decision to use the challenge tour this way ..far better..but it's a bit crazy that players who qualify for Euro Tours miss out seeing the potential rewards of doing well in the challenge tour this year

[callataxi]

Actually the only euro tours that clash with the challenge tour is et 1,5 and 11.
So surely the really shrewd players will enter all the qualifiers and just not bother with those 3, thereby playing the
whole of the challenge tour for the potential of pro tours and still can play in 10/13 of the euro.

[Little Lonely Garry]

Actually the only euro tours that clash with the challenge tour is et 1,5 and 11.
So surely the really shrewd players will enter all the qualifiers and just not bother with those 3, thereby playing the
whole of the challenge tour for the potential of pro tours and still can play in 10/13 of the euro.

Correct,

The problem lies in the fact if they are not good enough for q-school why would they think they are good enough for a euro tour, other than win a round or two max and get as much money for those 2 rounds than what they would get for winning a challenge tour event.
The fact is if they did not fail in the first place then there would be no problems but they did fail

[ifm]

So, Challenge Tours 5-8 played at Milton Keynes.
Have to say my two concerns for this were pretty much unfounded for this, firstly there was a lot of talk from the previous weeks pro tour about the cold and it was too hot instead
At least for the initial matches each day, i heard a couple of players complaining about the fans still blowing as they wound down but it was fine once they had been off half an hour or so.
The other issue was darts connect, i was a big fan of the system and i'm even more so now, for those that don't know it was introduced to CT this weekend and they backed it up with two DC guys, stations to practice and, well just very well supported.
The only issues i saw/heard of were some of the players that are not good counters "having a go" which led to some frustrations because you still need to be able to count to use it!!

Anyway, MK is a good venue, beer prices are bloody high but apart from that it's fine, the PDC have cut back on security apparently because i gather they have had issues with confrontations (i didn't get that email so not sure exactly what has gone on) so now if you are caught on your phone or with outside booze you will be told and i believe you will receive a fine subsequently.

To the comps!!

CT 5
Sat 3/24 5 0 - 5 McFarlane(82.2) v. Rodriguez(84.4) PDC Challenge Tour 5
Sat 3/24 7 5 - 2 McFarlane(73.7) v. Brooks(69.7) PDC Challenge Tour 5

Received the bye (or seeded as i call it ), first time!!
So thrown in at the deep end with DC and was marking Rachael Brookes who started with an 11 darter and eventually fell over the line.
My first match about an hour or so later was against Rachael and you can see why she does pick up wins, she can score very heavily (she hit 15 scores over 100 v me) at times and when you know there are friends and foes watching the game live it's tough lol.
Anyway after trading breaks the first 3 legs i won 4 in a row for a nervy 5-2 win with a 73.7 av.
Next up was Rusty Jake and he hit big scores at the perfect times and clattered me 5-0, i had chances in 3 legs i think but i was not even in the match.

CT 6
Sat 3/24 8 5 - 3 Corner(88.9) v. McFarlane(88.2) PDC Challenge Tour 6
Sat 3/24 6 5 - 1 McFarlane(77.3) v. Bambrick(73.3) PDC Challenge Tour 6
Sat 3/24 7 5 - 2 McFarlane(85.7) v. Scutt(81.0) PDC Challenge Tour 6

Nothing really to report on the first two games, was a bit frustrated v Kev Bambrick but he didn't play well either.
Against Richie it was just really bad scores that hurt me, looking at the log it was 140, 45, 60, 140 in most legs, you can't do that against very good players, they will always be 3 darts in front.

CT 7
Sun 3/25 6 1 - 5 McFarlane(86.9) v. Bowles(96.8) PDC Challenge Tour 7
Sun 3/25 6 5 - 1 McFarlane(85.2) v. Hughes(80.6) PDC Challenge Tour 7
Sun 3/25 8 5 - 3 McFarlane(77.3) v. McKirdy(70.7) PDC Challenge Tour 7

Poor finishing was the tale of game one, Robert played poorly in game two and i was outclassed in game three though i was never far behind, John had a 99 in his previous match so he was certainly on form including back to back 180's in one leg against me.

CT 8
Sun 3/25 9 4 - 5 McFarlane(74.5) v. Lever(75.0) PDC Challenge Tour 8
Sun 3/25 7 2 - 5 Newton(88.7) v. McFarlane(85.7) PDC Challenge Tour 8

Bad start v Wes but stayed calm and played some good stuff, Wes was always right there though and it was a close match, he's not too far away and i think he'll get that consistency back, well i hope so as he's always been one of my favourite players.
Against Ian, well, i have no real comment, missed doubles throughout and 13 i think in the decider to win it, very, very poor but i put it down to the end of a long weekend.

So looking through the logs of these games and my recollection i'm fairly happy, the thing with darts is that being good enough will not cut it at all, you have to be consistent too and that's where i let myself down.
So many legs i hit poor throws in and that is where you lose legs, couple that with horrible doubling at times and i can see why i'm not having the runs that i can have.
Practice gives consistency so i need motivation.
Also i'm buying some black trainers, in shoes i was near crippled come Sunday and my calves are still killing me, two comps in a day is not good, it really needs a change as old fellas like me can't take it.
Andy Smith might have it right, he only plays on Sundays because he doesn't think he can cope lol

[ssjsa]

Good write up.

[WCDPA]

69 legs of competitive darts over 2 days and you are shattered

[BlueSpark]

Have you ever won more than 2 matches in one of these CT events?

[ifm]

Have you ever won more than 2 matches in one of these CT events?

Yes

[Ecky Thump]

Have you ever won more than 2 matches in one of these CT events?

Yes

Didn't you reach a final?

[ifm]

Have you ever won more than 2 matches in one of these CT events?

Yes

Didn't you reach a final?

Missed doubles to win it, a couple of semis too.