Phil and Barney should take up bowls.

Oh good god yes.

If the standard tomorrow is as high then we are in for a real treat.

Hopefully Gary Anderson will edge it..

Wow, to have a higher average than your opponent but lose by 7 legs is quite something!

Great spot!

Barney may have only won two sets overall but he still won 14 of the 32 legs played, so I don't think there's any major distortion going on.

If you think there is, disregard it, but the fact of the matter is that Barney averaged 109 in a darts match lasting 32 legs and lost it.

What I am saying is, had he won more legs and lost his average would have been lower, that is the maths behind it. I love to see the 180s going in and the high checkouts, don't get me wrong, but I think Sky go overboard on averages sometimes.

Look, if you don't think that MvG v Barney was as good as everyone - me included - is saying it was, can you just come out and say it?

No. Because I never said that. No way at all. You are choosing to misinterpret my post.

What I am saying, and it's obvious to see, is that losers averages shouldn't be included in the list of highest averages because it's often skewered by them not having enough chances at a double.

I'm at a loss how you came to the conclusion it wasn't a stunning match.

I didn't come to the conclusion that it wasn't a stunning match; I posted the list of all-time averages solely to try and illustrate that it was perhaps the most stunning match we've ever seen!

It just seemed to me that your labouring of this technicality about Barney's average was a sort of masked attempt to downplay the quality of the match in general, that's all.

If I got the wrong end of the stick and we both agree on the most important point about how good the match was, then there is no issue.

And some people claim that darts is not a sport, they need to watch that and then try and back up their claim!

But winning 2 sets even if you lost you are likely to have a host of opportunities at hitting double on top of the 6 doubles you actually took out to win the 2 sets.

If Barney had hit a few more of his doubles his average would have been quite a bit higher.

Set to set, Barney was highly competitive tonight.

Indeed. In most matches where the losing player has averaged over 100 it's obvious that it's not a genuine average that they had so few chances to dent the average. But this is not one of those occasions.

Darren's theory that Barney's average was only so high because he was the losing player had so few chances skewed his average is a false one.

Barney tonight would have been averaging something more like 115 to 117 before trying to finish. With an average like that before checkouts taken into account he created a lot of chances tonight no matter who he was up against, his opponent would have needed to take out 3 or 4 9 darters to restrict Barney to having just 5 or 6 chances to win legs all night and Barney would not have even won as many as 2 sets if he hit just 6 doubles all match.

Barney had chances where he would also have averaged over 110 which is phenomenal and he still lost.

This.

And Barney would surely have won against anyone other than MvG. That was like a machine, completely unplayable, a masterclass by MvG, 114 three-dart average, a new record.

Certainly not dissing the game Jase. I think even Olly Croft would find it hard to fault that match.

If i am not mistaken don't they name the PL 10 tonight ? Who will they be ?

My predictions now we are at this stage

4 automatically in

MVG
Anderson
Wright
Taylor

4 certainties

Barney
Lewis
Wade
Chizzy

Other 2

Smith
Klaasen

Just my thoughts on who the 10 may be

Are we all going for MVG to win the final then?

He is on unbelievable form, not even peak Taylor from the 90's early 2000's, could beat him I think, he is entering a phase that we may possibly not have seen before from s player before.

Agreed. Hopp or van de pas or reyes may be left field options. Unlikely given they all lost, Hopp in particular.

I wonder if the announcement may be delayed in case of a bdo defection this year

They normally announce it now on Finals night

Darren you are probably basing your top 4 automatic qualifiers on the OOM pre WC, it is actually the post WC one they use.

This has
#4 Lewis - so automatic qualifier
#5 Wade
#6 Taylor

Given they would still pick Taylor not really an issue.

The interesting question is who gets slots 9 and 10.

The player you ignore is Suljovic who is #8, who ranks above Klaasen #9, Barnie #10 and Smith #11.

Would be surprised if Smith is picked as he got annihilated in the 2016 PL and hasn't really performed at the other 2016 TV majors either. They are actually struggling to find someone for the final spot, so do they go further down the rankings to an established player like Thornton, Whitlock or Huybrechts or do they go the youngster route as with Smith last year so go for van de Pas.

Yes, I think I was mistaken.

Going for 7-4 mvg tonight, I just hope it lives up to expectations.

Barney brilliant this tournament, really good to see

They didn't give Bunting a PL wildcard in 2014 the year after he defected from BDO. He had to wait until 2015 and that was after a year of good performances in the PDC so they knew he could hack it against the top players. For 2015 he got wild cards to both PL amd WSOD.

Also remember the Lakeside champion is no longer offered a PDC tour card, they have to win one at Q School like everyone else. Of the switchers I don't think Durrant who is probably the best BDO player has the name recognition to go straight into PL. the only one is Waites if he wins Lakeside and switches given he is multiple Lakeside winner and has won GSOD. But isn't his shoulder gone so playing poorly and very unlikely to win Lakeside or switch.

Of course Taylor was defending finalists points wasnt he ? As you say the top 6 are shoe ins anyway

Yes it was from the 2015 final, £120,000.

I think the interesting OOM ranking is Lewis who in the rolling 2 year main OOM is now #4, but in the 1 year table is #16, so has a serious amount of cash to defend this year or he will fall well down the rankings. This year he loses the money from the 2016 WC and 2015 Players Championship as finalist in both and he also had quite a few Pro Tour and UK Open qualifier wins. Will be interesting to see in 2017 if he gets off his backside and actually enters the floor events as last year he entered hardly any (half the Pro Tour and only 3 Euro Tour).

So that puts Taylor out of the World Cup as it stands then?

Expect a quick rewriting of the rules there or James Wade 'mysteriously' pulling out.

Yes that's correct. It is the top 2 per country as per main OOM. Not sure of cut off date but limited opportunities for Taylor to get above Wade and Lewis. Would have to play Pro and European Tours and win some, something he has said he won't do.

Of course there is precedent with cases of players encouraged to drop out last year from World Cup.

Scotland - Wright pulled out as Anderson did not want to play with him after Wright's wife posted insinuations on Twitter than Anderson has thrown matches. Some of his PL and GSOD group stage losses have looked dodgy in the past.

Netherlands - Klaasen was encouraged to withdraw so Barnie played with MVG. Firstly Barnie is a much bigger name for TV and secondly their is that incident when Klaasen send nude photos of himself to a relative of .MVG. Reportedly MVG said he won't play if PDC picked Klaasen.

Will be interesting in World Cup this year as both those countries have same problem again this year.

I agree with England it will almost certainly be Wade has a "health" issue. Given Wade is reliant on PDC invites to PL and WSOD I am sure he would be happy to give it a miss. The prize money is also very low, so even if you think England should at least get to semis he's not giving up much. A complication is Chisnall is only £6k behind Taylor in OOM, so good chance he would have pushed Taylor to 4th ranked for England by time of World Cup.

Is there an argument for allowing the highest ranked player from each country to choose their partner - or at least letting them select from the next two or three highest ranked players from that country?

I think the World Cup's a bit of a dud event anyway, truth be told; team events in individual sports are only worthwhile if they have tradition.