PDC Senior Tour

[Bram_1900]

During the RTL 7 Broadcast of the UK Open quarter Finals Mastercaller and commentator Jacques Nieuwlaat mentioned a senior tour which the PDC is working on a la the Challenge and Development Tour with players in the winter of their careers like Roland Scholten, Peter Manley and Collin Lloyd. He didn't want to say too much about it but he was certain it was coming.

Anyone have heard about this and has more news or rumors?

[ChrisW]

Is it called the BDO?

[masticman]

Is it called the BDO?

[The Jolly Man]

It would surely have to be more akin Euro events than challenge Tour. What retired player wants to go to a leisure centre.

[only85]

Is it called the BDO?

I is it on setanta sports from king George’s hall Blackburn !

[markymark]

The novelty factor doesn't last long, as those events on Setanta showed.

[Zeyes]

45-year-old Colin Lloyd being touted as a senior player, there.

[Bomber]

They've been doing it in snooker for a while, was one event now a new seniors tour and tonight it is in Belfast with the likes of Hendry and White playing some others. People buy tickets, bookies price it up and sponsors stick up money for coverage via bookies or streaming, can't be arsed to watch Jimmy play Ken in a 6 red game tonight myself.

As an aside, snooker Players Championship starts tomorrow, 16 player field. Ronnie is in the weaker half of the field on current form and he is on 994 century breaks to date. He needs 6 tons to get the thousand up and Paddy are offering 5/1 it will be in this tourney - if he loses in the semis he will still play twenty-odd frames and if he plays in the final he will play 30-odd frames, if not forty-odd. Paddys price him as 11/4 to win the thing outright.

[Ginge]

They've been doing it in snooker for a while, was one event now a new seniors tour and tonight it is in Belfast with the likes of Hendry and White playing some others. People buy tickets, bookies price it up and sponsors stick up money for coverage via bookies or streaming, can't be arsed to watch Jimmy play Ken in a 6 red game tonight myself.

As an aside, snooker Players Championship starts tomorrow, 16 player field. Ronnie is in the weaker half of the field on current form and he is on 994 century breaks to date. He needs 6 tons to get the thousand up and Paddy are offering 5/1 it will be in this tourney - if he loses in the semis he will still play twenty-odd frames and if he plays in the final he will play 30-odd frames, if not forty-odd. Paddys price him as 11/4 to win the thing outright.

The snooker is actually live on TV tonight in PotatoVision (Channel 422)

[Bomber]

Also, snooker seniors is over 40s, as in Ronnie, Higgins, Williams, all seniors...

[Zeyes]

All in all, darts has two issues here: Lots of players managing to stay effective as full-time professionals to relatively old ages, and not enough depth for a full-fledged senior tour among those who don't manage that.

Golf's senior tours start at age 50, and that works pretty well there - basically only all-time greats are capable of being serious contenders on the proper tours into their late 40s. The second-stringers and rank-and-file players usually have to scratch and claw to keep their tour cards once they're on the wrong side of 45, just so they can keep earning steady money before it's finally time to shift over to the senior circuits. Darts might get there eventually if the Pro Tour keeps getting younger on the whole, but as long as 50+ year olds like Beaton and (as of today) Whitlock are able to reach TV quarterfinals without people thinking that it's a massive upset, there's just no real room for a senior tour.

[Zapp Brannigan]

They've been doing it in snooker for a while, was one event now a new seniors tour and tonight it is in Belfast with the likes of Hendry and White playing some others. People buy tickets, bookies price it up and sponsors stick up money for coverage via bookies or streaming, can't be arsed to watch Jimmy play Ken in a 6 red game tonight myself.

As an aside, snooker Players Championship starts tomorrow, 16 player field. Ronnie is in the weaker half of the field on current form and he is on 994 century breaks to date. He needs 6 tons to get the thousand up and Paddy are offering 5/1 it will be in this tourney - if he loses in the semis he will still play twenty-odd frames and if he plays in the final he will play 30-odd frames, if not forty-odd. Paddys price him as 11/4 to win the thing outright.

Went to the senior championships when it was revamped and they had it in Scunthorpe.

Got talking to Joe Johnson there and he said the whole reason for doing it was China, they paid for everything including sticking them in a hotel so they could play golf all week between sessions. They had a single camera, Virgo commentating live and they streamed it on a Chinese website and it didnt drop 100k viewers all week. Tickets were ok but they gave a load away (I only went because I got 2 free tickets).

Gotta be something similar for there to be any interest in this. Could imagine Sky or ITV asking for a seniors tournament but I cant imagine them doing a senior floor tournament or tour.

[ChrisW]

Stick to exbos. It works why change it.

[devosteve]

Snooker this week is at the Preston guild hall. When are the bdo coming back here?

[Bomber]

I still think if Paddy price Ronnie at 11/4 to win 28 frames of snooker, 5/1 to make 6 tons from 28 for him is fair value. You could even dutch the two bets..

[1205]

If you asked van Barneveld I'm sure he'd say that he'd play the full senior tour next year.

Darts is a game with a scoring system that both makes the standard of play obvious, and where small variations make a big difference. When the standard drops, darts can become painful to watch.

But, I think it's not a bad idea to be ready with something. The PDC can see that the ages of players coming onto the tour is falling, but that they have some decent aging talent.

Van Barneveld (51) is retiring, having suffered from the inability to handle playing a lot of games. King (52) and Anderson (48) have recurring back problems. Taylor (58) was still very competitive when he retired.

Wright is 48. Whitlock is 50. Webster is 50. White is 48. Suljovic is 46.

But the oldest player on the PDC tour is 54. That might in part be due to when the split occurred, but it could also be fading health, fading ability and losing the will to put in the hard practice that's needed to survive on the tour.

The BDO has a number of older players, 51 to 60 relatively high on their rankings.

A senior "tour", age 50+, with a limited number of tournaments, that would be less of a grind than the full PDC tour, could be something that would work. But it needs to be a tour that, as in golf (and ten-pin bowling) is competitive enough that players need to be serious in order to compete well.

[Ginge]

I still think if Paddy price Ronnie at 11/4 to win 28 frames of snooker, 5/1 to make 6 tons from 28 for him is fair value. You could even dutch the two bets..

Will depend what mood he is in. Could easily be turfed out tonight 6-1 or 6-2

Running at a century every 6.67 frames this season.

[Mensur Suljovic Fan]

I still think if Paddy price Ronnie at 11/4 to win 28 frames of snooker, 5/1 to make 6 tons from 28 for him is fair value. You could even dutch the two bets..

Will depend what mood he is in. Could easily be turfed out tonight 6-1 or 6-2

Running at a century every 6.67 frames this season.

Didn't seem bothered about getting to that milestone last time I saw him, remember at the Welsh Open he started trying to play some Hollywood shots when a century break was in sight rather than play it safe

[Ginge]

I still think if Paddy price Ronnie at 11/4 to win 28 frames of snooker, 5/1 to make 6 tons from 28 for him is fair value. You could even dutch the two bets..

Will depend what mood he is in. Could easily be turfed out tonight 6-1 or 6-2

Running at a century every 6.67 frames this season.

Didn't seem bothered about getting to that milestone last time I saw him, remember at the Welsh Open he started trying to play some Hollywood shots when a century break was in sight rather than play it safe

Aye could go either way, will have a tenner for interest but nowt more than that.

[Mensur Suljovic Fan]

All in all, darts has two issues here: Lots of players managing to stay effective as full-time professionals to relatively old ages, and not enough depth for a full-fledged senior tour among those who don't manage that.

Golf's senior tours start at age 50, and that works pretty well there - basically only all-time greats are capable of being serious contenders on the proper tours into their late 40s. The second-stringers and rank-and-file players usually have to scratch and claw to keep their tour cards once they're on the wrong side of 45, just so they can keep earning steady money before it's finally time to shift over to the senior circuits. Darts might get there eventually if the Pro Tour keeps getting younger on the whole, but as long as 50+ year olds like Beaton and (as of today) Whitlock are able to reach TV quarterfinals without people thinking that it's a massive upset, there's just no real room for a senior tour.

On this form Whitlock getting to a TV quarter-final would be quite an upset! In all seriousness, yeah, darts isn't at a stage where they could have a viable senior tour, but the ProTour is getting younger and younger, the average age for a tour card holder is in the mid 30s now which I'd imagine is way down on a few years ago. Maybe there will be space for it soon?