The #LARGESTEVERDARTSWORLDCHAMPIONSHIP starts in north London on Thursday, with 128 dart players being whittled down to 32 by Christmas, and the champion receiving a million pounds on 3 January.
For some, including the bookies, the first 126 matches seem almost irrelevant – the two Luke’s are clear favourites to meet in the final, with Littler 10/11 to win with the tournament’s official sponsor, Paddy Power.
Littler has a favourable draw, seeded to play Cullen in round 3, then Heta or Cross – three players showing limited form in recent months to suggest they can get to four sets first. A quarter final with Price or Dobey could follow, before a semi-final against whoever can battle out of a comparatively weak quarter (which Bunting, Clayton, Schindler, van Duijvenbode and The Smiths will be very pleased about).
In practice, the picture is a little more complex. Nobody has reached three consecutive finals at Ally Pally, the number 1 seed has only reached the final once in the last 8 tournaments, and The Nuke is still only 18. His success has been remarkable because nothing yet has fazed him. But it will, some day.
Before the seeding was confirmed, Humphries looked to be in a great place – in form, out of the spotlight, confident, and focused. But the quirks of the rankings potentially pits him in order against Nijman, Aspinall, and Van Veen in games 3, 4 and 5 – three form players, the last of which he has lost all four matches against this year. You would probably still tip Humphries to beat any of these players in a single game at Ally Pally, but all of them consecutively will take some doing. And all this prior to a semi-final against the victor from the Van Gerwen, Noppert, Rock and Anderson quarter – who will by that stage be riding a wave of form.
They have been so dominant this year, that it seems unthinkable a Luke doesn’t make the final. The question is, it seems, one Luke or two?
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For the first time the champion will need to win 7 matches. This is due to further expansion, driven presumably by profit but also by a desire to grow the game further around the world (just not to young Chinese players, eh Barry).
One watching brief will be the number of non-British players in the latter stages – MVG was the exception in the quarter finals last year, in a tournament Littler won by beating him and 5 Englishmen. So should we expect to see further British dominance this year? No. My call for the semi-finals, for the record, is Littler, van Duijvenbode, Van Veen, and Noppert. Maybe we’ll see some Dutch flags hanging from the Ally Pally lampposts come 3 January.