High Roller Radio
What a Day!
(Left) Tweets from the Irish Darts Fan!
(Right) The winning double & handshake. Well done Mickey!
@irishdartsfan
Loving the Darts on the Emerald Isle!
Matt, the 'Irish Darts Fan,' is an avid follower of the tungsten pays particular attention to his fellow countrymen. News, statistics and player quotes. From O'Connor to Lennon to Dolan, darts in Ireland has nothing to do with luck, it's about the Skill of the Irish baby!
Big Weekend for Irish Darts
The action started on Friday with the UK Qualifiers for European Tours 5&6 in Barnsley. As usual, Steve Lennon was the master of the qualifying, and came through both. Jason Cullen will also join him in European Tour 6 after an impressive performance. Saturday was a relatively disappointing day. Daryl Gurney reached the Last 16 but only Steve Lennon and Kevin Burness had managed to get through Round 1, both losing in the Last 64. However, everything was made up for on Sunday when an inspired Mickey Mansell came all the way from the Last 128 to win Players Championship 8 with an amazing performance. He beat Adrian Lewis 6-4 in the final to win his first ever event on the PDC Pro Tour.
Mickey Mansell
An incredible day for a well deserving man. Here's my report of the individual players: It seems fitting to start with Mickey Mansell this week after his incredible display on Sunday to win Players Championship 8. It was Mickey's first ever final on the PDC and to go one step further and win it showed proper class. In Round 1, he beat top 16 star Kim Huybrechts 6-0, with what was ironically Mickey's worst average of the day, a solid 86.7. In Round 2, he won 6-0 again, this time beating Gary Eastwood, with an awesome 98 average, his tied best of the day. He beat another top 16 player to win his board, beating Alan Norris 6-1 before making his way into the quarter finals with an incredible 3rd whitewash of the day, beating Robert Thornton with another 98 average. Incredibly, he had only lost 1 leg in his 4 games on the way to the quarters.
Mickey played Gerwyn Price in the Last 8, and managed to beat the Premier League star comfortably 6-3, despite having to change boards due to an issue Price had with the floor. This was already unbelievable; Mickey's first PDC semi final since the World Cup of Darts with Brendan Dolan back in 2014, and his first individual semi final since February 2010. However, Mickey wasn't finished yet. He put in another top class performance against Josh Payne with a 95 average to win 6-3. Onto the final, and Mickey took on the in form Adrian Lewis who had reached the final on Saturday as well. Mickey showed no signs of pressure in what was his first PDC final, and his consistency wore Adrian down. His excellent average of 97.9, coupled with the fact he only missed 1 dart at double and hit a 180 as well, meant Mickey did more than enough to take his first PDC title 6-4. An incredible day, well deserved. On Sunday, Mickey had a 3 dart average of 94.9, hit an unbelievable 46.9% of his doubles and hit 11 180s. Possibly the most impressive fact is that he only lost 11 legs all day, compared to 42 won. An amazing day, £10000 in the bank, potentially Mickey's best day of his darting career. Congratulations, well deserved!
How About the Rest of the Irish Roster?
Moving on from Mickey and Jason Cullen also had a few impressive performances across the weekend. With his big European Tour debut coming up in a few weeks, Jason insured it wouldn't be his only, qualifying for the Dutch Darts Masters in May after beating fellow countryman Mick McGowan in the final round. While he failed to cash in either Players Championship, he showed some form against some top players. Here are his stats for the weekend. Jason's best average came in his painful 6-5 defeat to Tytus Kanik in Players Championship 7, where threw 88.8 for every 3 darts. His worst average was 79.6 in his 6-1 loss to Matt Padgett on Friday. He hit an almighty 50% (6/12) of his doubles against Mick McGowan in the ET 6 qualifier, but could only hit 14% against Padgett. His total 3DA for the weekend was a decent 86.4 and he hit 28.6% of his doubles. He hit 9 180s (including 4 against Simon Whitlock on Sunday) and won 28 legs to 29. As I keep saying, Jason is becoming more consistent every weekend, and soon enough, I'm sure he will be cashing very consistently on the Pro Tour.
Steve Lennon was in action as well, and if he had not been outshone by Mickey Mansell's amazing victory, I'm sure a lot more people would be singing Steve's praises after the weekend. He once again qualified for both European Tour events on Friday, meaning he will play the next 4, really exciting news and he cashed both Saturday and Sunday on the Pro Tour. Steve's best average was 99.1, which came in his 6-0 demolition of Gary Eastwood on Friday. His worst average was still a very decent 87.6 in his 6-5 win over Josh Payne. He hit 60% of his doubles against Payne, but could only hit 22% in his 6-2 loss to Wade in PC7, potentially causing a stop to what could have been a tight match. His overall 3 dart average for the 3 days was 94.5, he hit 39% of his doubles and he hit 17 180s. He dropped to 46th on the Pro Tour Order of Merit, but has climbed to 55th on the PDC Order of Merit, jumping Willie O'Connor, who was absent this weekend. Great playing Steve, keep it up!
It was a frustrating weekend for Brendan Dolan, who played well, but could not find a way to win matches. He averaged 89.6 for the weekend, and took out 33.3% of his doubles, but lost 2 last leg deciders in Round 1, on Saturday to Alan Tabern and on Sunday to Max Hopp. Having also failed to qualify for European Tour 5 or 6, Brendan has dropped behind Dimitri van den Bergh to 37th in the PDC Order of Merit. However, a repeat of the quarter final he got a few weeks back should see Brendan fly back up the rankings.
Mick McGowan also had a tough weekend, failing to cash or qualify for either European Tour event. However, there are certainly signs for optimism. Mick beat Alan Tabern on Friday 6-2 with a 96 average, and while he was unable to replicate this in the Players Championships, he can feel there are certainly signs for improvement. His 3 Dart average for the weekend was 85.3 and he hit 31.3% of his doubles. His most impressive stat must be the 12 180s he hit, a very decent 2.4 per game. He remains 65th on the Order of Merit but has dropped to 98th on the Pro Tour. Let's hope Mick can rediscover his form and fly back up where he belongs. And the rest... Kevin Burness of County Down was in action at the weekend. He failed to qualify for either European Tour, but certainly made up for this when he won his Round 1 game both Saturday and Sunday, earning £1000 in the process. More of this and Kevin will fly up the rankings! Daryl Gurney had a quiet week by his standards, reaching the Last 16 on Saturday before losing to Tomi Alcinas in Round 2 on Sunday. He drew with Peter Wright in the Premier League, but the game was overshadowed by the tragic death of Eric Bristow.
'Player of the Week'
So, moving onto the Player of the Week. No prizes for guessing who it goes to this week! After not showing signs of doing much on Friday and Saturday, Mickey Mansell burst into life on Sunday, beating 6 previous winners on the Pro Tour, dropping only 11 legs, and incredibly, beating the great Adrian Lewis to win his first ever PDC title. Mickey Mansell, congratulations and well deserved! (From next week, I will have a chart about who's topping the Player of the Week leaderboard, but for now, no one has won more than once) So that's it for this week, once again I hope you all enjoyed. Contact me @irishdartsfan on Twitter with any Irish darting material you may know!
Thanks to High Roller Radio, but for now...
Matt
Matt, the @IrishDartsFan
Mickey Mansell Mayhem & Brilliance in Barnsley!
The Crafty Cockney - True Darting Legend!
After a couple of weeks away in Germany for the European Tour, the PDC circuit returned to England this weekend, Barnsley this time, for Players Championships 7 & 8, and the UK Qualifiers for European Tours 5 & 6. Unfortunately, Thursday night, the darting world heard the awful news that 5 time World Champion Eric Bristow had died of a heart attack while attending the Premier League in Liverpool. The outpouring of emotions and tributes in the darting community was amazing, everyone seemed to have a memory of Eric. Keith Deller and Dave Clark's tribute live on Sky Sports only minutes after the news had broken was particularly moving. My condolences to Eric's family and friends. RIP.
There's Ony ONE Mickey Mansell!
The journeyman pro, ranked 76th in the world, takes down Players Championship 8 in Barnsley beating two-time world champion Adrian Lewis in the final.
Steve Lennon Interview
Dynamite Q&A! Matt, the Irish Darts Fan, chats to the Irish darts star about his climb through the ranks, the PDC & more.
2-to-1 you'll LOVE it!
Duct Tape Gate?
The Mickey Mansell versus Gerwyn Price match was supposed to be live streamed on PDC.tv but when the 'Iceman' complained of a distracting noise everytime Mansell walked backed from the board after retrieving his darts. Apparently he was stepping on some duct tape. The match was moved to a different board. Mansell beat Price 6-3.
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