Ultimate World Professional Championships Round 1. Rees vs Warren

[Moongoose McQueeen]

The 32 best players in World Pro History battle it out for the honour of being crowned Ultimate World Pro Champion.

There will be one game per day. Enjoy!

Saturday's game sees the first ever World Pro Champion and 11th seed Leighton Rees take on current and reigning World Pro Champion Wayne Warren in a battle of two proud Welshmen.

Who wins? You decide

No game tomorrow as it's Sunday, the day of rest.

[Deleted User]

Warren wins the abortion at the O2 against a string of nobodies. Rees wins the very first (and of course unified) World Title against the best on the planet.
No contest.

[The Cat]

Rees for me even though Warren is superb. Nasty draw for both.

Think quite a few people forget Rees averaged 92+ in the final on those boards.

[Richard Keys' Keys]

Be a close game, this.

[Moongoose McQueeen]

Agreed. Warren hits 140s for fun

[ChrisW]

Rees. Easily.

[Deleted User]

Agreed. Warren hits 140s for fun

Stop it. Rees hit a 97.5 average against Evans in the QF on old boards with huge wires and staples using the big old bomb darts of his.

[GtotheF]

Warren just edges it for me.

[mattp]

Warren by default. I never saw Rees in 79/80 mode.

[waddle147]

If it's just "the year they won the tournament" version, then Rees because for the time those averages were stunning.

In reality, we don't know how good he was, because he never got near that level again after the tournament due to poor health, and all we can say before that point is that he won some tournaments against very poor competition.

[meetthefeebles]

Rees, all day every day. He was just a better player. Simple as that. And I like Warren. He played well to win his title this year.

[Deleted User]

If it's just "the year they won the tournament" version, then Rees because for the time those averages were stunning.

In reality, we don't know how good he was, because he never got near that level again after the tournament due to poor health, and all we can say before that point is that he won some tournaments against very poor competition.

Apart from reaching the final again just 12 months later.

[waddle147]

If it's just "the year they won the tournament" version, then Rees because for the time those averages were stunning.

In reality, we don't know how good he was, because he never got near that level again after the tournament due to poor health, and all we can say before that point is that he won some tournaments against very poor competition.

Apart from reaching the final again just 12 months later.

I was referring to level of performance. He had 3 90+ aves in 1978, and got nowhere near that standard at any Lakeside thereafter. I'd be inclined to believe that his 1978 level was a freakish outlier with him at his extreme best over a shorter format, because had he played that well consistently before 1978 he'd have won everything.

[Richard Keys' Keys]

Baffling him with logic.

[Skewball]

If it's just "the year they won the tournament" version, then Rees because for the time those averages were stunning.

In reality, we don't know how good he was, because he never got near that level again after the tournament due to poor health, and all we can say before that point is that he won some tournaments against very poor competition.

Apart from reaching the final again just 12 months later.

I was referring to level of performance. He had 3 90+ aves in 1978, and got nowhere near that standard at any Lakeside thereafter. I'd be inclined to believe that his 1978 level was a freakish outlier with him at his extreme best over a shorter format, because had he played that well consistently before 1978 he'd have won everything.

Well Lakeside was about 7 years after he won it so not really relevent .......

[waddle147]

Well done Sergeant Wilson, I was wondering who'd be the first to spot that one.

[Deleted User]

If it's just "the year they won the tournament" version, then Rees because for the time those averages were stunning.

In reality, we don't know how good he was, because he never got near that level again after the tournament due to poor health, and all we can say before that point is that he won some tournaments against very poor competition.

Apart from reaching the final again just 12 months later.

I was referring to level of performance. He had 3 90+ aves in 1978, and got nowhere near that standard at any Lakeside thereafter. I'd be inclined to believe that his 1978 level was a freakish outlier with him at his extreme best over a shorter format, because had he played that well consistently before 1978 he'd have won everything.

In the few years previous to this (NOTW and Indoor League aside) there was no darts on TV but Rees, Evans, Lowe and also the up and coming Bristow were mopping up everything and were considered the "Big 4" in the game. Rees won the WDF World Cup Singles and Team Events in '77 and reached the NOTW final in '76 and won numerous other Opens. Although the spread of TV darts probably came just after his peak he reached the final of the British Pro as late as '87.

He was ranked at No. 1 in the World in 1978 and seeded No 3 for The World's win that year for a good reason, following the introduction of WDF rankings in '76.
He was also seeded 3 in '79, 4 in '80, 11 in '81 and 7 in '82. At the risk of sounding like a latterday commentator, Warren isn't fit to lace Rees' boots.

[Richard Keys' Keys]

You are not an authority on darts.

[Deleted User]

You could argue that without those 4 big names being hugely popular on the exbo circuit - often working together and doing Wales v England exhibition nights, (particularly in South Wales and Staffordshire/Derbyshire where fans would delight in unlicensed betting on the outcomes of the games) that Watterson would not have promoted the first World's in '78 which in turn lead to the explosion in popularity of televised darts.

[waddle147]

You could argue that without those 4 big names being hugely popular on the exbo circuit - often working together and doing Wales v England exhibition nights, (particularly in South Wales and Staffordshire/Derbyshire where fans would delight in unlicensed betting on the outcomes of the games) that Watterson would not have promoted the first World's in '78 which in turn lead to the explosion in popularity of televised darts.

Fair points. There's no way Rees or anyone else could have appreciated in 1978 the significance of him becoming the first ever world champion. Those big exhibition nights, compared to what high level darts would become in the following years with regular televised tournaments, is basically apples and oranges, which makes him hard to assess skill-wise (beyond obviousy being better than Warren).