The 2017 PDC season kicks off tonight with the Unibet Masters from the soulless "new town" of Milton Keynes. As ITV picked up horse racing from Channel 4 this year, this means the top 16 players in the world of darts play over three days instead of two as it was previously. The bottom half of the draw plays today and the top half plays tomorrow.
Last year's runner-up to Michael van Gerwen - simple Dave Chisnall - starts the tournament alongside Dutch veteran Raymond van Barneveld. Assuming Barney actually follows up his promise of taking the year seriously after a largely disappointing 2016, the high-scoring Chizzy could be in trouble. The first Masters champion Phil Taylor is up next against petulant strop thrower Michael Smith; the Philth is out of the top 4 in the world for the first time in over 20 years and has hinted at retirement in a couple of years, so a swift exit to the still unfit for TV Blubby Boy would be handy. Two last 16 rematches from this year's Worlds end the evening as dethroned champion Gary Anderson faces young Benito van de Pas and "Scottish" clown Peter Wright plays Stoke dabber Ian White. Gando and Big Ben produced the highest quality round 3 match with a combined 211 average (Anderson reaching 108) while Diamond's sorry recent decline continued with a pathetic surrender to Wright.
Coverage starts at 7:00pm UK time on ITV4, although the brand new "The Darts Show" is on now.
>Tonight's matches (best of 19 legs) Chizzy (7) v Barney (10) Taylel (6) v Michael "Snackpot 2.0" Smith (11) Gary "Big Game Counter" Anderson (2) v Benito van de Pas "the Dutchie on the left hand side" (15) Snakeshite (3) v Ian "Three litres of Diamond" White (14)
Isaiah Anderson
After Glen Durrant hit D16 to win the Lakeside Worlds 12 days ago, over 450 players rocked up to Wigan's Robin Park Leisure Centre last weekend to qualify for the PDC ProTour at Q-School.
It was a "comeback" Q-School as a number of big names from years gone by reclaimed their Tour Card, including three time world champion John Part who qualified with a 2008 Worlds Final rematch against Kirk Shepherd (who himself qualified), Cwmparc coke boy Richie Burnett, paranoid delusional CIA agent Paul Nicholson and King of the Jobbers Ronnie Baxter.
The full list is in pic related. Most of these guys won't achieve much over the next 2 years.
Cameron Russell
>no new knob of the week
Thomas Gonzalez
Has corey cadby retired?
Alexander Brown
Too many mushrooms to choose from.
>That OP thumnail looks like MVG is huffing a fucking massive bong.
Jose Young
Based Richie
Carson Smith
Anyone watching "the darts show" on itv4?
Brandon Bell
Cadby's spending one more year in Australia before coming across to the UK.
Yeah. It's pretty good.
Noah Carter
>mfw /180/ is back
Aww yiss Richie is back
Tyler White
I believe the arrogant sob, Cadby will be in the thick of the top 32 in a few years I dont have too many doubts. Probably the top 15.
Cameron Peterson
Is he the eric bristow that darts is missing right now?
Ian Hernandez
Yeah its kind of better than I expected, hopefully they dont overcook it as theres only so much you can talk about at the end of the day.
Ethan Garcia
He's the bastard love child of Manley and Poois
Gavin Rivera
And we're on now!
Alexander Thompson
>A major announcment before that match
Could it be? Is Feel retiring?
Joshua Smith
>was feeling sad about /147/ ending >/180/ is back outta nowhere
Andrew Butler
>Barry Hearn announces he will kill Taylor at the end of the match regardless of the result
Zachary Stewart
>waiting to become FUTURE GOAT
Brandon Nelson
I just hope its not Barney going to announce something like that, sounded like he might not be here after he got knocked out at the Worlds. Suicidal interview.
Easton Turner
B A R N E Y
Grayson Bell
Daniella just gave me a stroke
Logan Jenkins
Pls no
Nathan Barnes
>that massive spot on Chizzy's forehead
Jeremiah Robinson
DAT BULL 122
Sebastian Ward
DAT CHIZZY 122!
Landon Hernandez
Chizzy top 3 scorer on the planet
Brandon Reed
>dim dave Nothing's changed then.
Benjamin Brooks
THAT BARNEY 10 DARTER!
Hunter Gutierrez
>that chizzy doubling
Isaac Adams
>unicorn boards
Blake Jackson
>24 chizzy_throws_his_IQ.webm
Lincoln Wood
>Jizzy
Ian Carter
>Jizzy >dizzy Pick both
Jack Lee
>chokenall in charge of doubles
Jackson Garcia
>le lose 7 legs in a row man
Nathan James
Is jiz taking the piss?
Matthew Sullivan
>implying he has the intelligence to do that
Brody Anderson
>pissy jizzy does another missy
Colton Hughes
>no more "7"s
I miss the scoring power of the BDO already
Leo Barnes
>miss 15 darts at double >still average 96 Sums up Chizzy really.
Henry Perry
>taylor having a mic bit >itv teasing it constantly What is this wrestling?
Logan Gomez
HOLY SHIT
Evan Adams
>wrestling Nobody post THAT walk-on.
You know which one.
>this is Taylor's last year I won't believe this until I see it.
Caleb Johnson
Well...bye.
Brody Garcia
>Ive spoke to Barry >Lets see what happens
Ethan Barnes
FINALLY
Matthew Wilson
>tfw you remember /180/ during the TWL year >tfw we managed to survive long enough to hear him announcing he'll be gone soon
>You know which one. No :^)
Justin Martin
Muh trebles
Jacob Wright
Fatpot 2 to utterly smash the sex offender
Austin Brooks
Whats wrong with his face
Camden Morris
16 TIMES THE CHAMPION OF THE WOOOOOOOOORLD
Elijah Hall
>all those bazza plants wearing taylor shirts
Jordan Walker
[blubby implosion intensifies]
Leo Wright
DAT OUTER INNER 91
BLUBBY ON TANTRUM WATCH
Evan Morris
>taylor bull finish
Jordan Myers
the cruellest
Parker Cruz
>Taylol Is this first round just going to have one player win the first two legs and then collapse?
Kevin Morgan
>you are now aware this year's Premier League will be pushed as the Taylor Retirement League
Parker Gomez
>state of these cunts
Angel Williams
Taylor/Smith or Rawling/Mason?
Chase Sanchez
Everyone, players, crowd, comms, advert cunts the lot
Samuel Gomez
It will be nice to see him get battered and drop out with the bottom pair.
Nolan Harris
>you now remember when Taylor was genuinely in with a chance of being eliminated in 2014
Noah Richardson
>last dart finish classic taylor
Owen Morales
TaylorWinsLOL
Henry Myers
Retirement?
What retirement?
Chase Nguyen
>Prakash Jiwa
legend
Nathan Ramirez
>gary plummer name drop >name dropping shops I won't miss these
Lucas Moore
>yfw he does the name drops while on comms
Joseph Richardson
>taylor doing mid-match ads
Lucas Cook
>You are now imagining Taylor and Mardle on commentary at the same time
Much rather have Rod "Mr Charisma" Harrington on the comms than Philth
Brody Williams
>that scenario
Jaxon Perry
>Unicorn boards
Benjamin Wood
Wonderful 130.
Benito getting banged.
Josiah Torres
Nice 128.
Brayden Clark
>gary manletson
Matthew Moore
DAT 142 TO WIN IT
Ryder Scott
lyl
Luke Green
*dabs*
Parker Jones
WHAT THE FUCK IS IAN WHITE DOING THE ABSOLUTE MADMAN
Michael Myers
>the state of this walk on
Michael Morgan
>unironically eating 8 burgers in a sitting
Asher Morgan
And then they dabbed
Christian Gray
>hitting fat 1 twice >Snakeshite
Levi Cooper
>more 100 averages in 4 matches of an unranked PDC event than in the entirety of Lakeside 2017
Jacob Reed
Fuck off justin
Lincoln Sullivan
sorry, I couldn't resist
David Collins
Its like we get it, the pdc has better players, obviously
Ayden Hill
>Ian Shite
Nolan Williams
DAT 116. WICKES ON SUICIDE WATCH
Henry Jackson
Wright having a nightmare on his setup shots.
Benjamin Price
>this picture of Taylor
Asher Cruz
Are we on in the afteroon tomorrow?
Matthew Foster
Evening session only again.
Daniel Evans
Has Wright been inhaling hairspray again?
Jack Brown
And that D8 ends a fairly standard session of good action with only one upset in the seeding.
That upset came in the first match of the tournament as Dave Chisnall's continued inability to combine his high scoring with good finishing saw him exit The Masters three rounds earlier than last year as Raymond van Barneveld brought his Worlds form to Milton Keynes, checking out at 56%. Although Chizzy took the first two legs, opening the match with a wonderful 122 bull out, he missed six darts to go 3-1 ahead and eventually lost seven straight legs. Despite Chizzy getting back in the match after that, the ruthless seven leg streak from RVB had already killed him.
Phil Taylor's announcement to retire after the 2018 Worlds overshadowed a typical Taylor performance where he was tested by a for once resilient Michael Smith: the Groper kicked it off with a 133 finish and then a 91 bull out but Blubby won 4 straight legs (including a 2 dart 100). The match went back and forth before the key moment: a single dart at tops missed by Smith for 6-6 saw Taylor hit D7 and the Philth only dropped one more leg.
Gary Anderson put in the performance of the evening as he showed no mercy in a 10-3 pummelling of Benito van de Pas - a five leg streak from 3-2 up that included a 130 out all but decided the match and despite Big Ben hitting a 128 finish to win his third leg, Gando bettered it with a 142 to win, ending with a 110 average and 56% finishing rate.
Peter Wright had a very scrappy match against Ian White that saw both men play at their best and worst: a noticeably off-form Snakebite was just too much for the very inconsistent Diamond, but if Wright plays like that against Philth on Sunday, he's not winning.
We return tomorrow at 7:00pm with these matches:
>Mensur Suljovic (8) v Jelle Klaasen (9) >James Wade (5) v Robert Thornton (12) >Michael van Gerwen (1) v Simon Whitlock (16) >Adrian Lewis (4) v Kim Huybrechts (13)