PDC Champions League of Darts 22nd-23rd September 2018- Brighton

[craigmc]

Very good weekend of darts there. Couple of Loons fighting to hold back the tide can't disguise the facts.. i shall look foreard to the amatuer sides offering of pub masters on whichever format it washes up on?

[Paddy McGinty]

Take off your rose tinted glasses!!!

Vassos is dreadful said everyone on here, that’s changed now has it?? Let alone Dan Dawson.

Get Tony Green, John Gwynne and Stuart Pyke back please!!!

I'm watching on RTL7.

Lucky you, a professional production in comparison no doubt...

Yep, Jacques Nieuwlaat comms, Roland Scholten, Co Stompe in the studio.

The other refreshing part was Nieuwlaat talking about Hamilton qualifying for the BDO Worlds during the match.

I imagine there's one hell of a lot of jealous PDC players out there.......

[Ginge]

Can someone point me in the direction of all the posts from people this weekend saying Vassos is an amazing commentator, please?

[fling]

Vassos commentating and the presenter and interviewer were all rubbish from what I heard as luckily I was playing catch up and managed to fast forward through interviews and turned over straight after it finished.

[Ginge]

Vassos commentating and the presenter and interviewer were all rubbish from what I heard as luckily I was playing catch up and managed to fast forward through interviews and turned over straight after it finished.

No no no no now that he is commentating on a PDC event we all think he is fantastic, according to one of our more neurotic forum members.

[Paddy McGinty]

Hes always very good....cant understand what all the fuss is about.

[DavidB]

Can someone point me in the direction of all the posts from people this weekend saying Vassos is a dreadful commentator, please ?? Given past views the same neurotic people should think the same, no??

[only85]

vassos has improved from what we first saw a lakeside all those years ago imo, he not perfect like crofty however he is getting better & as i said for me he has not grated much this weekend as he has previously, when looking at commentators you look for clear diction / description & information while still crofty & big jr lead the field by a mile to state vassos is rubbish to me seems harsh (& a tad blinkered) equally to state hes great is wrong 7/10

[Ginge]

He is atrocious. You can't polish a turd.

The event was great for me for only two reasons:

- I made a shedload of money because Paddypower got their odds wrong all weekend
- Because its the event that got the BBC to ditch Lakeside, and this seemingly annoys a lot of people on here.

Other than that, its a load of shuiiiite.

[craigmc]

What is this "Lakeside" you mention? None of my workmates have heard of it?

[ssjsa]

GARY ANDERSON lifted the Paddy Power Champions League of Darts title for the first time with an 11-4 victory over Peter Wright in the final in Brighton on Sunday.

The two-time World Champion made it four televised titles for the year thanks to a series of spectacular displays throughout the weekend at The Brighton Centre as he clinched the £100,000 top prize.

Anderson avenged his 2017 Champions League final defeat to Mensur Suljovic with an 11-4 triumph in the semi-final before seeing off his fellow Scot by the same scoreline in the final.

Having survived two missed match darts against Michael van Gerwen in their final group game earlier in the day which would have eliminated the World Matchplay winner, Anderson recovered to fire in three ten-darters during a dominant display in the final.



"I'm over the moon to win, it was a hard weekend and I struggled at times but came good in the end," said Anderson, who has also won the UK Open, World Matchplay and US Darts Masters in 2018.

"I just turn up and play my game but it's going alright so far this year. It's been a good weekend."

Anderson also landed seven perfect darts in his bid for a nine-darter which would have earned the Brighton crowd a share of a £50,000 prize offered by sponsors Paddy Power.

"I had a good go at the nine-darter, I really tried for the fans all weekend," he added. "Now I'm looking forward to having a few days at home - my little man [son Tai] will love this trophy!"

Anderson flew out of the blocks in the final, breaking the Wright throw three times as he raced into a commanding 6-1 lead.

Wright, who came from 8-5 down to defeat Van Gerwen 11-9 in the semis, fought hard to stay in the game but a 4-7 deficit was as close as he came to halting his World Cup of Darts teammate's march to glory.

Anderson reeled off the next four legs in typically quick fashion, ending the game with three ten-dart legs and a 65% checkout rate to land his maiden Champions League title.

Despite falling at the final hurdle, it was a positive weekend for Wright, who had previously failed to make it out of the group stage in the previous two years of the event.

"I think I just ran out of steam," Wright admitted. "I played really well but I had nothing left in the final.

"Gary is the man to beat at the moment and I believe I lost to the best player of the weekend.

"It was a pleasure to play in front of such an amazing crowd."

Sunday afternoon's final group matches had seen Wright join Suljovic in progressing from Group B with a 10-3 win over World Champion Rob Cross.

A disappointed Cross said: "I didn't play anywhere near my best. I was so determined to play well but it didn't happen for me.

"It wasn't good enough this weekend and I've got to take it on the chin. We've got lots of big events coming up and I know what I've got to work on to put it right."

Northern Ireland's Daryl Gurney, meanwhile, agonisingly missed out in Group A, with his 10-7 win over Dave Chisnall coming in vain when Anderson edged past Van Gerwen by taking out 140 in the deciding leg of their contest.

Gurney conceded: "I couldn't have done much more. I gave it my all and to win two games out of three in a group like that is a good achievement."

Focus on the PDC circuit now moves to the Unibet World Grand Prix, which will be played at the Citywest Hotel, Dublin from September 30-October 6 and will be shown live on Sky Sports with tickets available at www.ticketmaster.ie.

2018 Paddy Power Champions League of Darts
Saturday September 22
Afternoon Session
4x Group Matches
Mensur Suljovic 10-8 Rob Cross (B)
Peter Wright 10-7 Simon Whitlock (B)
Daryl Gurney 10-8 Gary Anderson (A)
Michael van Gerwen 10-2 Dave Chisnall (A)

Evening Session
4x Group Matches
Rob Cross 10-8 Simon Whitlock (B)
Mensur Suljovic 10-7 Peter Wright (B)
Gary Anderson 10-3 Dave Chisnall (A)
Michael van Gerwen 10-7 Daryl Gurney (A)

Sunday September 23
Afternoon Session
Final Group Games
Mensur Suljovic 10-1 Simon Whitlock (B)
Peter Wright 10-3 Rob Cross (B)
Daryl Gurney 10-7 Dave Chisnall (A)
Gary Anderson 10-9 Michael van Gerwen (A)

Evening Session
Semi-Finals
Gary Anderson 11-4 Mensur Suljovic
Peter Wright 11-9 Michael van Gerwen

Final
Gary Anderson 11-4 Peter Wright

[teddybreak]

Van Gerwen has lost his aura of being almost unbeatable over the last few months, will be interesting to see if he can get it back now the big ones are coming up.

[ssjsa]

Van Gerwen has lost his aura of being almost unbeatable over the last few months, will be interesting to see if he can get it back now the big ones are coming up.

Certainly makes for an interesting next 4 months. Have posted that I don't think MVG will reach the semi finals in Dublin, and whilst obviously I want Gary to win his maiden Grand Prix title, I think there are a number of players who could win this. Think the 1st Round will be carnage for the higher ranked players.

[Dannyboy]

MVG won this yet?

[ChrisW]

Unfortunate scheduling for the Final.

[Zapp Brannigan]

Van Gerwen has lost his aura of being almost unbeatable over the last few months, will be interesting to see if he can get it back now the big ones are coming up.

Eh it’s the same as Phil back in the day, you know mvg is going to average 95-105 so your going to average 100 to win your match.

The only difference is Phil could bully opponents and not as many players could hit a ton average on tv. Now more players are near that standard and and mvg doesn’t do what Phil did on stage

[Zapp Brannigan]

Unfortunate scheduling for the Final.

And yet 5 live did a piece on the darts at dinner time yesterday massively praising it and saying how Saturday was well viewed and said how it was a good alternative to people who didn’t want to watch bodyguard.

Also did a bit advertising telling people to go out to pdc events because it’s a great day out, great advertising this.

[ChrisW]

Unfortunate scheduling for the Final.

And yet 5 live did a piece on the darts at dinner time yesterday massively praising it and saying how Saturday was well viewed and said how it was a good alternative to people who didn’t want to watch bodyguard.

Also did a bit advertising telling people to go out to pdc events because it’s a great day out, great advertising this.

Good to hear.
Just think if they moved it an hour earlier would have avoided the clash.

[teddybreak]

Van Gerwen has lost his aura of being almost unbeatable over the last few months, will be interesting to see if he can get it back now the big ones are coming up.

Eh it’s the same as Phil back in the day, you know mvg is going to average 95-105 so your going to average 100 to win your match.

The only difference is Phil could bully opponents and not as many players could hit a ton average on tv. Now more players are near that standard and and mvg doesn’t do what Phil did on stage

The last 2-3 years he was able to pull a 12-darter out of the bag to break for the win so to speak. His averages are still up there, but still it feels different these last few months. Could be coincidence or just a temporary thing, we will see. At least it's more interesting for the tournaments coming up than it's been for some time, in my opinion.