“RIDICULOUS!” talkSPORT Darts react as Luke Littler DESTROYS Ryan Searle 10-2 in Blackpool

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Hello and welcome from sunny Blackpool. It’s the Talk Sport Darts team here and we’re reviewing what’s happened at the PDC World match play so far with the beautiful village hotels where Nick will be burning up the golf course later on and Mason I’ll be digging it up but we won’t say anything about that. Um what a couple of days of darts we’ve had. I mean it seems like we’ve been here forever but we’ve got to start off the opening night we lose the defending champion Luke Humphre dumped out by Han Van who fully deserved the win. take. Yeah, he did. Statistically, he was better than Humphre. Some key moments, Humphre missed a shot. Van was there to take a shot and he gave himself enough opportunities to get over the line. And considering what he went through 12 months ago, losing to Rob Cross 1312, you got to give him credit for putting himself in that position again with a stronger mindset and being able to get the job done this time against the world’s best player. It was always a draw, Chris. It was going to be tricky for them both. Neither of them wanted the game, but Van Vain, he’s got a maturity about him now, hasn’t he? Yeah, there there was a couple that night that we all felt that could be potential banana skins, and one of them was Van, the other one was Wesley Nyman against Nathan Aspen, another former champion, of course. And yeah, it it it may be a shock to the I don’t know, the odds compilers for us that watch a lot of darts. Those two were always going to cause their opponents problems. And Van Bane is one that myself, Niko, and you have always said that it’s not it’s not if, it’s when. And uh maybe this week is his week. Maybe it is. So Yan Van safely through. You mentioned Nathan Aspenol. He lost an absolute cracker to Vessel Nyman who every time Nathan put any kind of pressure on him, Nimon came up with the answers and again a deserved win for Vessel. Yeah, I think Nathan would say the same. I I love watching Nathan play. I think everybody does. when he was able to find a couple of 121 checkouts and you think he’s just going to do it again, isn’t he? How does he do this? And then all of a sudden, Nimon would hit back with a counter punch that you just had to applaud and at the end of the game, Aspenol can say honestly he gave everything he had, but on that day Nimon was just a little bit better. Yeah, great debut for Nyman. Um he sets up a tie with James Wade who put in a record-breaking performance to brush aside Joe Cullen at opening game of the tournament. His highest ever average 62nd game on that stage averaged over 104. And he he battered Joe Cullen, didn’t he? Yeah, he did. And and we we have this theme about you know the new young players and the new kids on the block and and everything else. Yet there’s James Wade uh you know his 20th year here at the the match play and he’s putting in his his best ever performance. But that doesn’t surprise me. But you’ve got players like Gary Anderson and James Wade who in the last 12 months have have both posted personal best averages in anything they’ve ever played in. So I’m not I’m not particularly shocked by Wade and he’s got all he got so much experience and a happy content practice James Wade is a player that could potentially win the tournament. And it it was like a few years ago when he sort of was in the doldrums and then popped up and he won the World Series of Darts and the Europeans back to back and you’re like you don’t you you’re not surprised. You don’t sort of walk away scratching your head. You sort of go oh well that’s that’s Wade. He he he’s that kind kind of player. He’s so talented and so got so much experience. But and Joe Cullen didn’t play bad. He averaged nearly 96 and got and got spanked. He did indeed. Also getting spanked on his debut was Cameron Menses who never really turned up Danny enough but brushed him aside with a minimum of fuss. Whatever could have gone wrong did go wrong. It’s the lowest average we’ve seen in this tournament since 2018 when Richard North made his debut. And you build yourself up for these things. And this is why Blackpool is such a tough place to start at because you go into that room, that grand place against some of the best players in the world. And it doesn’t really matter who you draw. It’s a nerve-wracking experience when you do it for the first time. And I sincerely hope that doesn’t hamper Cammy moving forward. I think what you got to do is just say that happened. I will learn from everything. And every time he leaves 178 from now on, we’re going to say, “Don’t go for a maximum, Cammy.” Yeah. It It’s one of those kind It’s a long race. I mean, even in a when we do the Pro Tours or the the European tours and and it’s a race to six years ago, that would be a that would be sort of a long game because we were so used to playing best to five. But if you don’t make a good start here at the match play, even in a race to 10, because the levels are so much higher, you don’t feel you you get panicked, don’t you, Niko? And you don’t feel like you can you can get it back. And although we’ve seen initial leads sort of pegged back within one, the energy and everything you’ve got to do to get it back close, what tends to happen then you’ll have a dip and then they stretch that lead again. And we’ve seen it so many times already. Yeah, we have. Um, Sunday was a a two session day and a completely contrasting session. The afternoon session, every seed in in action got beat. In the evening, every seed went through pretty straightforward really. We’ll start off with the afternoon session. You mentioned about coming from behind. Rob Cross led 6-2 against Dirt Van Diver. Dirt reeled off eight of the last 10 and wrapped up his spot. Played really well as well at the end. Yeah, he did. He he his average is probably not doesn’t reflect how well he played. He he he ended up with a just over a 95, but prior to that spell of absolute brilliance, you know, he’s averaging sort of late 80s, early 90s. So to get it to an overall 95, he had a spell there where he was averaging 104, 105. He was he was spectacular. But and and for Durk to do that, that’s not normally his way cuz if he can drop his head and he gets frustrated because he’s not playing to the level he wants. So that particular performance for me was stand out even though it’s not like you know the the weighty 104 or or you know some of the bigger numbers we’ve seen that the vessel 9 and 101 it it actually looked better to me. Yeah. the 137 from Durk. It was a drum roll shot because it wasn’t a rhythmical shot. Well, you mentioned it was seven all at the time. Rob Cross busting on 32. We’re watching backstage. He’s on 137 dirt. You think he’s not going to get this? He never looked like missing, did he? Yeah. I think it took him about 20 seconds to hit the treble 19. And when he does, you think, oh, hang on a minute. Then there’s a bit of a pause before the first tops. And when that goes in, you think, he’s got this. And then everything changed. Rob Cross looked like he just been hit with a bat. and Durk would flourish after that and Rob wouldn’t recover. Would you be worried Rob Cross? It seems a bit feast or famine, isn’t it? He’s l even like World Series either going out in the first round or making it to the final. It’s all or nothing at the minute. Yeah, life’s not easy for Rob at the minute. There’s been a lot of stuff in the press about stuff going on off the board. And I’m sure he’s got a lot in his mind. I think he just needs to take one day at a time, make good decisions, and then by the end of the day be in a better spot. And and and I think they’re two similar players, aren’t they? you say about feast of famine. You said that in when when we did some comms recently. Durk’s exactly the same, isn’t he? It’s it is very much he he’s got got it all or he looks ordinary and and that some players are like that and they have fantastic careers, but in a tournament like this where it’s long core starts and a lot of games, you the the deeper you go, the more chance you’re going to get found out. Yeah. Um no one likes losing, but Damon Heta must be sick as a pig. G. We’re going to say this every day probably now. Game of the tournament. But the game of the tournament so far was Andrew Gildin beating Damon Eta 1210. Eta average over a ton. Magnificent on his doubles. Just couldn’t get over the line. Yeah, Damon for the last couple of years has played really, really well here. That game is going to make him feel a little bit nauseated, that’s for sure. But he will be philosophical about the fact that he’s playing some tremendous stuff right now. And he bumped into an Andrew Gilding who had his best big stage performance for a decade. it just so happened to be against him. If we’re microanalyzing this, and this is maybe something that uh Damon can improve on in the next few months, it’s that towards the end of the game in the last 10% Gilding was averaging 110. Damon went down to about 90. So the sprint finish was there from Gilding and uh he closed Damon out. When he got a shot for the match, he took it immediately. And look at the way he finished the UK Open as well when he beat Van Go when he had one match start and he hit it. So he’s got a really good clinical nature about him when he’s in a in a game like that. And it was one of those rare kind of games where it was 4-1 to to Damo and we’re like this is what we expected and then after the second break 64 and then you just started to see Damo feel the heat from Gilding. But Gilding had to apply that heat and he did it in some style as Niko said that spell towards the back end of the match. Gilding was unbelievable and you think about his other performances on TV and it does leave you scratching your head. But Damo will be back. Yeah. Missed the nine, didn’t he? As well missed it. He admitted his heart was beating out of his chest and and he wanted the gold nine pin from the PDC because if you hit one on the floor, you get a silver one. You hit one on a big stage, you get a gold one. And it’s the little things, isn’t it? Andrew is so humble. He was talking about, you know, trying to get more money to uh do his bungalow and uh I really want that nine dart pin. That’s quite heartwarming in a way because he’s not thinking about all about the dough, isn’t it? No, it’s not about bonuses or, you know, fancy shoes. He wants a pin. He wants to put that on his jacket. And that’s the kind of guy Andrew is. It is. Uh also going out on Sunday afternoon, Dave Chisnel. I look, I don’t think any great surprise Dave’s not in the best of form at the minute. and Peter Wright beaten by Jermaine Watamina. Um we expected those I think yeah they were the seeds that you know there’s some seeds that we we felt that could be vulnerable and these two were it because of late they’ve they’ve both been really erratic and you know you get the odd decent performance from both of them but again it’s that long course starts as a player that is certainly on the ascendancy. Mike DKA won his first major last year. A dangerous dangerous player and neither played particularly well. Wina with 91 average and Mike Dedka with 93 I say not well you know it’s relative at this tournament but it was more enough for a 10-8 win and a 10-7 win. Yeah he took out a couple of big finishes to Deca didn’t he finished on that 148 to knock Chisnull out. Right. So that was disappointment for the season the afternoon Sunday night completely different story. We’ve got to start off with Luke Litler. never won at Blackpool prior to last night and he rocks up with an 108.92 average against Ryan Sil beats him 10-2 ridiculous really at one point I mean we were on comm we thought he was going to break the record if there wouldn’t have been any commercial breaks that record would have been smashed but it was just the disruption in the the pattern of the game where you’ve got to go off you come back you have maybe nine 12 darts back practice you go through that whole rigma all again of getting going um yeah he was splendid and in fairness Ryan Sur wasn’t too bad he averaged nearly 89 he did and got and just just was just not in the game. You know, there was when Litler’s like that, but he looked different. He’s been here for a couple of days. He he said he’s been practicing. You could see the difference. There was a sharpness. There was a there was something in his eyes where we both felt when we were watching the walk-on, this kid’s ready. Well, I said to to you Sat uh Saturday night, I was up on the balcony and he sat and watched every game. He never moved. Literally, he watched it. He said he’d been practicing when we spoke to him on the YouTube channel last night. bit more mature, a bit more ready this time maybe than last year. I think it’s desire. I think if there’s something he wants, he’ll go for it and he’ll he’ll get it and he’ll give everything he’s got. I think we’ve got to pay Litler a lot of credit. He’s played in two Premier Leagues now. That’s hard and he’s done a lot of World Series darts and a great deal of responsibility as world champion as well. Maybe having just a little bit of a lesser schedule over the last six weeks has allowed him to spend a bit of time with his friends and family and maybe they’ve been in his ear saying do you know what the match play is coming up you haven’t won that yet and you think well I’ll show you then new shirt looked like a fresh attitude and poor Ryan Sl who played really well and I expected him to play well he always plays well in the first round I tipped to win that game but I had no idea that little was going to be in that c that kind of fettle when you see him the first couple of legs, you think, “Oh no, this is the world champion who’s turned up here. That was proper.” And everyone is now on notice. Yeah, they are indeed. Um, one of the best performances in defeat, Martin Schindler, 103.45, played out of his skin against Johnny Clinton, yet never at any point did you feel he was going to win. Yeah, I’m with you with regards to the the sort of the match of the tournament so far was gilding and heta, but this is a very very close second. Johnny Clayton at the moment. Again, there’s just been a tweak in the equipment. A couple of little changes. Maybe that’s just given him an extra bit of desire, but the last month, six weeks, there’s definitely been a change in Johnny Clayton’s game and level of performance, and he needed every bit of it last night. I thought Schindler was unbelievable. He he’s walked away in nearly 103 and a half average and he’s he’s out the tournament and he’s looking around other people who’ve won with a 91 and 93 and thinking what have I got to do? But that’s the world match play. The thing that piques my interest with Clayton is that he he’s played the game up until around 2023 rather uncomplicated. There’s a board. He has three darts. Let’s throw and see what happens. Yesterday when he won, he was talking technicalities. He was talking about how his darts are sitting in the board in a consistent entry angle. I think you haven’t spoken like this before. You don’t talk about things like kit and mindsets and things like that. You’re Johnny Clayton. You say 100% everything’s great. You know, I’ve had my troubles, but I’ll figure it out. He’s a very simple dart player. Now, he’s found another one or two% from the equipment and that’s having such a massive impact in his confidence. If he’s figured that out, who knows what he’ll do next. Good stuff. Uh the other two to go through yesterday as we wrap things up. Gary Anderson, Steven Bunting, both unhappy with how they played. Well, one of them’s going to be going out uh in the week because they play each other in the next round. Yeah, Gary Anderson made a a 98 average look more ordinary than anybody else I think I’ve ever seen. And and I mean that’s where Gary’s game is right now. We I I think some people think it’s favoritism or or whatever else. But when you watch Gary play and as for me and Paul having been players and you you sort of watch him and you you think, “Oh my goodness, how can you do this all the time?” A 98 average is elite. Like seriously elite stuff and he comes off stage you uh did you Yeah, you interviewed him and he’s well it felt like a 68. I’m like what on earth? Um yeah, he he’s he’s just a fascinating player to watch and the the reason we like watching him is because he can make things like that look so easy. But he it was a good little test early Dors and then when he come off of the break at 55 the the run of legs I think it was 14 14 13 Yeah, he was average about 108 you said those last five it was there was nothing well there was one leg close to a 15 dart and it was a 15 and that was the longest leg in that back five. Um that that’s like I don’t know being at Carnoui and and going birdie eagle birdie birdie birdie isn’t it? It’s it’s it’s special. One of the reasons why we admire Gary so much it it’s not necessarily about what he’s done over the course of time. It’s his ability to figure something out on the fly. So he takes darts on the stage. We’re not surprised by the barrels but the points don’t have any grip at the top. They’re longer and he’s obviously uncomfortable with the way they’re sitting in the board. They’re wobbling a little bit and you think, you know, he looks uncomfortable with this, but don’t worry, he’ll figure it out. At 55, he’s in the game, but Woodhouse has got a few things that he could chirp about. There were a couple of changes of equipment within the match, which is something Gary doesn’t usually do, but it was to do with point length and point grip. By the end of it, he figured it out and he won five straight legs to win 105. the final third of that game reminded me of a hockey game between the Penguins and the Red Wings and the Penguins just started bodychecking everybody into the boards and Gary was scoring all the goals. That’s exactly what he did and you got to admire him for that. Okay, one word answer. Who wins? Bunting or Anderson? I’m going to go with Bunting at this stage, but I’ve been so wrong so many times already. That’s the longest one word answer ever. Bunting. Anderson. Oh, there we go. Welcome along to the Talk Sport Darts YouTube channel. We’re here at the Village Hotel previewing the action for Monday night, the final first round games, four of them, four crackers as well. Uh we’ll start off with the old Dutch affair. Michael Van Gerwin takes on Raymond Van Barnaval. Met here was it 16 years ago. Barney spanked Michael Vanerwin. Paul Nicholson is MVG a bit vulnerable tonight. Yes, he is. I think he knows this. He’s had a lot of confidence in his career, has Michael, but at this point in time, and he said it earlier this year, judge me on the player I am right now, not on the player I have been in the past. So, we’re going to do that fairly. Right now, I give him so much credit for winning in Munich back in April. That was a stunning victory. As for everything else this year, it’s been difficult. We know that the stuff away from the hockey has been tough for him as well. But what I do admire is that he took a break from the tournament that was right on his doorstep with very little notice and he said, “Right, I’m taking a break.” As soon as he went to New York City, you could see there was a difference. So, he’s happy to make changes straight away that I get behind. And I’ve never backed against Michael Vanerwin. I’m not going to do so. And I think Raymond is probably the right opponent for him coming back to the match player because he’s definitely going to want to get his teeth into him. Yeah, he’s I think when the draw would have come out, Michael would have thought well if he needs any kind of motivation. I mean they get they get on okay that you know it’s there’s no issues there but he will not want to lose to of all the people in this whole tournament the one player that he would hate to lose to would be Barnavald. And I think that will give him the motivation to have put some graft in, get himself right, prepared properly. And I I expect him to come out and play very well. His game is a bit erratic. It’s it’s very up and down, but ultimately his is a game is still there, and we’ve not seen a an agame performance from Barnaval for as long as I can remember. Interesting one. Um, also in action tonight, um, Chris Dobby kicks things off against Ricardo Pier Tresco. your mate Chris Dolby. How’s his game at the m minute minute? Game’s in good shape. I I think you look at the Premier League and it was difficult for the people in the top four, sorry, for the bottom four to to try and chase down the likes of Little Price and Humphre. But I think Chris came out of the Premier League with a lot of credit because he was very tenacious in trying to gather points. He he won in Rotterdam when everybody was complaining about the windy situation. He was able to figure it out. But he loves coming to Blackpool. who was coming here with his family well before he was able to qualify for the tournament. He he loves this part of the world and this draw is something he will enjoy as well because Ricardo’s feisty. He likes to have a bit of a scrap and he played well on debut last year but Chris has continued his ascendancy in the world rankings from 24 to 2025 and he’s continued to win as well which is really important. He’s now the most successful Jordi Dart player in the PDC’s history and he’s just going to keep winning and now he wants to go deep in all of these other ones to try and get him get his way into the top four. He’s the first to admit, Chris, that he’s form on the floor is magnificent, but his TV form hasn’t been where he wants it. Is that adding a little bit more pressure on his own shoulders? Yeah, I I think so, but he he’s got so many layers and levels to his game. He I love watching him play. I I think Dobby’s unbelievable when he’s when he’s on it. No one makes the game look easier. And that’s that’s the secret to Doby’s game. He he cannot try. As soon as there’s any kind of element of effort in that throw, it will break up. And he gets it now. I don’t think he used to get it. And he he allows himself to play with freedom. But this this ain’t going to be no walk in the park for him against Ricardo because he’s another player who’s had a little bit of a dip and a wobble, but just seems to be seems to be coming back. Adobe wins, but it’s going to be tight. If I was going to give uh Dolby any advice, it would be somewhat subtly get the crowd on side because Ricardo’s had issues with audiences, especially outside of Germany. So, yeah, just do a couple of sneaky tactics and see what you do. Yeah, fair enough. Uh we’ll see how that one goes. That’ll kick on proceedings tonight. It will kick off. It could do. Yeah, it could do. Um what well we talk about form horses going price winner on the World Series winner on the European tours reach a pro tour final all in the last couple of weeks. He is flying but he’s taking on a World Cup winner in Daryl Gurnie. Yeah. Um and they’ve got a bit of previous these two. I’m excited about this game but I’m also excited about about the way that Price is playing and he he sort of reinvented himself. He’s his body composition is completely train changed. He’s he’s training differently. He’s obviously practicing differently because there’s this is a this is a new version of of GZI Price and it’s it sort of manipulated itself over the last few months and then in the last two weeks he’s been remarkable. A World Series win, a European tour win, played incredibly in the the pro tours in between that week. Uh and normally we’d see Bry sort of go I’m not going to play in that. I’m going to I’ll give that a skip and he does what he wants. But the fact that he’s playing in everything right now tells me that he he’s got a different type of hunger and he wants success and he’s he’s been in the final here at the match play. He wants to win it and he’s on course to to do some damage. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s not there. And if you look at his situation retrospectively, he didn’t get to the Grand Slam last year. What’s happened since then? As soon as you take something away from him, he says, “No, no, no. I want that.” And this year he’s been a revelation. Maybe playing some of the best darts of his entire career, winning in places where he hasn’t won before. I think maybe the biggest surprise is he didn’t win in Risa again and Steven Bunting did. But coming to the match play where he has been to the final game previously, he’ll feel ready to go really deep again. And G is the kind of opponent that gets him up in the morning. Yeah. Well, Daryl Gurnie who takes on Going Price. Gurnie World Cup winner as was Josh Rock and Josh Rock takes on Ross Smith. Final game of the first round. They met last year. Ross Smith brushed aside Josh Rock but I think it’s fair to say we’re getting a different Josh Rock now. Yeah, we are. New darts, new confidence and has won this season. You see what the World Cup win meant to Josh and to Daryl. Great scenes after a phenomenal final with Wales, but winning something really does make you believe that that is part of your future. And Josh is a hard worker on the dart board. He’s got the right person and Daryl Gurnie in that practice room with him. I think that’s a big big thing. And it’s al also going to help Gurnie, I believe. I mean, I don’t know what Chris feels about this, but certain times when you’re in a practice room in a session with a certain person, it can have such a massive effect. Whenever Robert Thornton was in the practice room with me, I thought, I’m going to be all right. I’m going to be fine cuz he’s going to switch me on. It never failed. Apart from the time I actually played him, I used to stay away from him. But I think with Gurnie and Rock in the same room tonight, that’ll be that’d be very good for them. Yeah, that and and Niko spot on. Sometimes if you’ve got if you’ve got a friend rather than a foe in there and someone you’re used to doing routines with, you switch each other on. You do you motivate each other, you talk about the game. Um and and that that may that may that may be key for Josh Rock because make no mistake about it if if the Ross Smith that turns up who we know it’s lots of 180s and and finishes well um Josh Rocks in for a tough game you you would pick Josh Rock just purely on what’s happened in the last couple of months but you right off Ross Smith at your peril. I was going to say a word on Ross. He’s probably not quite at that elite level at the minute but we expect so much from him. I don’t know if I’m judging him harshly or not because like you said, if he turns up and plays well tonight, he of course he can win. Yeah. Let’s look at that European European Championship he won and and how he won it. He he just was rock solid. 100 average all the way through. 100 average in the final against Michael Smith who was absolutely flying at that time and everybody everybody picked Michael to win, not Ross. um he’s not really gone on from that, but that that can happen because you got that responsibility of being a major winner and and everyone’s the the attention’s on you all the time and I don’t think he dealt with that very well, but he’s sort of mellowed a little bit now and I I think we may get the best version of Ross Smith over the next probably four or five years. I like to think that we will because Ross alongside probably Danny Noat uh Humphre and some of the the bigger names in the sport. These are the kind of personalities and people that we need to take this sport forward to the next generation because they’re setting great examples. I I’m a huge fan of Ross. I think the way he conducts himself, the way he talks, he’s he’s a great advocate for his sponsors as well. I think he’s a wonderful human being. He’s a great dad and I think he’s a great player. I just don’t think he’s getting Josh Rock at the right time. Okay. Uh, prediction time then. Dolby Peter Trex go Dolby. Doby Price Gurnie Price Price Van Goen against Van Barnavald. Michael Michael and Smith against Rock. This this for me is the is going to be the tightest game of the night. And um I’d want them both to win, but we can’t have a draw. Uh, I I I’m gonna go Ross Smith. Acid test for Josh Rock. This after everything he’s gone through the last six months, everything that’s been good. Can you do it here? That’s the question. Extra legs. Josh Rock. Should be a good night. Make sure you join us from 7:00 on the Talkport Darts YouTube channel. Please remember, like and subscribe. We’ll keep the content coming throughout the week. Every dart will be live on that YouTube channel with Talk Sport.