The 2018 PDC season gets properly underway with the Unibet Masters from Buckinghamshire's answer to Los Angeles: Milton Keynes! The event is still held over three days, and tonight sees the bottom half play their first round matches.
The tournament begins with St. Helens dimwit Dave Chisnall against five-time World Champion Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld; these two also kicked off last year's tournament in the exact same seeds with Barney winning 10-5. Chizzy in recent months has been poor, with his scoring power all but gone, as evidenced by his straight sets elimination at Ally Pally by Vincent van der Voort, so this should be simple for Barney. A repeat of a great Grand Slam fixture follows with everyone's favourite unorthodox Serbo-Austrian Mensur Suljovic against a slowly maturing Michael Smith. Since winning the Champions League, the Gentle has lost his way, making just 1 televised quarter final since, and with Bully Boy's scoring power still being held back by his mental blocks, this could be tight. The newly crowned World Champion Rob Cross begins year 2 as a professional against the new Stoke #1 in dab sensation Ian White. Voltage's championship run was the stuff of legends, out-Tayloring Phil Taylor in the final, and he's sure to get even better. Diamond on the other hand has failed to make the last 8 of any event since September, so expect him to go out here. Closing the opening night are two 40-somethings in dancing clown Peter Wright and inconsistent fat man Alan Norris. Both men lost in Round 2 of the Worlds in surprise upsets, but crucially Chuck has never beaten Snakebite.
Coverage starts at 7:00pm UK time on ITV4.
>Tonight's matches (best of 19 legs) Chizzy (7) v Barney (10) Mensur "DIE MEISTER, DIE BESTEN" Suljovic (6) v Michael "Snackpot 2.0" Smith (11) Rob "BAuLDtism" Cross (3) v Ian "Three litres of Diamond" White (14) Snakeshite (2) v Alan "Walker, Yeovil Ranger" Norris (15)
There was also the first ever simultaneous Q-School, with over 600 players competing for 33 prized PDC Tour Cards in Wigan and Hildesheim last week. The biggest names to win through were Aussie bogan Corey Cadby, Dutch youngsters Jeffrey de Zwaan and Dirk van Duijvenbode, St. Helens veteran Alan Tabern and former World Youth Champion Arron Monk. Unfortunately Poland's Krzysztof Ratajski and Brazil's Diogo Portela missed out on a Tour Card by just one match win each, Portela the worse off as he lost 5-3 to Kamphuis in a Tour Card decider on day 4. For the BDO switchers, it was a case of "must do better" as just two managed to pick up Tour Cards through their respective Orders of Merit: thankfully Danny Noppert was one of them, but surprisingly so did Newcastle's Ryan Joyce, who you may remember had a cracker against Martin Adams at Lakeside 2017. As for the likes of Cameron Menzies, Jamie Hughes, Jeff Smith, Tony O'Shea and Darryl Fitton, they got nowhere close. Cammy, Yozza and the Silencer managed to get free entry to the UK Open qualifiers, but Silverback and Dazzler couldn't even make that, with the latter fucking off the last two days to play in exhibitions. The full list of Tour Card winners is in the pic.
January always seems to drag on, glad for some darts lads
Zachary Butler
...
Brody Miller
And we're on now.
Easton Allen
>that skinny Cross
Nathaniel Rivera
>Cross opening montage >that UK Open debut where he looked slim as fuck
Landon Miller
>cross is the new taylor the montages have already started
Colton Martinez
It will feel weird with no Phil around.
Jeremiah Brown
Does this qualify as Stockholm syndrome?
Landon Walker
It won't feel right for a long time yet.
>when the Dab is Stoke's best professional darts player now
Colton Watson
lol Barney
David Hughes
RIP in lard Adrian
Joseph Anderson
How exploitable.
Gabriel Reed
>first visit of the year: 28 Well that's 2018 already over for Dim Dave.
Jeremiah Flores
when will the dutch learn to spell
Christian Lewis
legit thought he was in the tournament, force of habit. >that collapse
Oliver Richardson
>116 left >first dart >big 3
Bravo, Dismal.
Dylan Jenkins
so is it advisable to throw the dart at a downward angle in order to fit the others? because sometimes i throw it straight at the treble 20, it'll hit in the middle, and doesnt leave me much space. if i'm anywhere close it deflects off that. so do players intentionally throw for a treble 20 corner at a downward angle to leave space?
Adrian Robinson
...
Jose Morales
Depends how your darts go in the board. Barney's darts for instance go flat.
wew
Benjamin Torres
Good match this so far
Hudson Russell
>dim dave
Alexander Sanchez
Fitton tried to get on the PDC circuit? How drunk was he when he decided that?
Lincoln Russell
chisnall gonna plummet down the rankings now his throw is fucked and he has never been that clinical on doubles.
Ethan Rodriguez
THUMP THUMP THUMP
TWENTY-SIX
Jason Bell
fitton, winstanley, oshea, atkins, james hubbard all blown the fuck out, i even saw rachel brooks on the fucking list
Jordan Hill
THAT 130
Kayden Hill
It was probably regret more than anything. Fucked it off on Saturday to go play in an exbo after realising he was nowhere close to qualifying.
Him and O'Shea should have switched years ago.
BDO responded to the exodus by removing all the players from its rankings. Inexplicably, Ratajski is still on there despite playing at Ally Pally.
Rachel played son Bradley as well at one stage. Lost 5-4.
Julian Martin
any other munters give it a go?
Luis Young
No, because they would be banned from Lakeside 2019 as a result.
Ashton considered it but didn't go for that precise reason.
Someone needs to fuck the blazer brigade out of the BDO and get someone in who's clued up with the modern game. The BDO is for amateurs, not pros.
Matthew Torres
Here's that Fitton FB post about leaving for the PDC.
The fat cunt has needed that hip surgery for ages.
Gavin Martinez
JIZZY SURGE
Colton Wilson
>Barney [insulin depletes]
Jacob Cook
errytime
Carson Walker
They've updated the Dartsdata page again.
Now has the average highlighted and mentions the number of darts to win a leg.
Leo Ortiz
>stabbing yourself in the hand >jizzy
Mason Brooks
>Mason
Jeremiah Bailey
>stab yourself >lose that match
Leo Butler
ohnonononoono chizzy
Thomas Bell
>1 keked out loud
Nolan Reed
>Chizzy losing with a 107 average and 60% on the doubles Fucking plank.
Liam Hall
Massive choke
Kevin Rodriguez
You just knew he wasn't hitting the treble 20 at all before he even stepped up to the oche.
Michael Nguyen
>106 average >lose
Ryan Evans
>ITV
Connor Anderson
SHUT UP AND LET ME EAT
Blake Gutierrez
HA HA TIME FOR MENSUR
Isaiah Ward
SIMPLE THE MENS
Caleb Brown
Could be a bit dour if he's not firing as his pace is bound to effect Fatpot 2
Anthony Cook
M E N S U R E N S U R
Adrian Lopez
Discount Aidey might be the most boring player in darts. What is even the point of him
Aaron Richardson
>ITV commentary
Benjamin Lee
It's fucking Rawling.
He was like this all the time at Lakeside.
Cooper Wilson
lol
Landon Morris
Mostly know him from when he commentates boxing and surprise surprise he's shite at that too
Gabriel Peterson
Fucker's gone back to petulant shitbag mode.
I'm annoyed with that, especially after the game v Cross
Christian Richardson
Mensur is back lads :3
Jackson Phillips
>Michael Jackson and Roy Hodgson. Not people we see together very often. ...well, one of them is dead.
GET IN!
Andrew Stewart
Mon Mensur
Connor Evans
The silence afterwards pretty much summed up how bad a line it was.
Blubby getting fucking DESTROYED by the Gentle's finishing.
Thomas Gomez
heh
Tyler White
...
Christian Williams
...
Tyler Butler
...
Caleb Gonzalez
>blubby boy nearly swallowing the dart
Luke Collins
THAT 116
Mason Reyes
DAT 116
Justin Sullivan
Sublime 130 on the dot from Blubby.
Gabriel Gray
pretty sure he's a bosnian m8
Sebastian James
...
Wyatt Robinson
...
Brayden Long
...
Kayden Martin
...
Jack Wright
>le miss D14 man
Carter Sanders
>it's a mensur choke episode
John Gomez
...
Luke Smith
>Mensur JUST
That was a classic Smith 110.
Brody Allen
>he was 5-0 up
James Cook
>le bounceout boy
Andrew Bell
GWAN MENS
Wyatt Gutierrez
...
Matthew Martinez
Smith fucked that away in the first mini-session.
Joshua Stewart
Who /DABMOND/ here
Alexander Lee
Based Whitey
Juan Myers
>this line-up
Aiden Walker
>it's a Mensur stream of consciousness interview
Colton Adams
*dabs*
David Long
Change the walk-on tune pls
Jackson Torres
"no"
Dominic White
>that plasma ball
Dominic Moore
>Noppert >Van Duijvenbode >Kamphuis based
Dylan Long
>Breaths in the Taylor-less air
John Butler
Just noticed White has shaved his head.
Is he trying to harness the power of darting autism?
Jayden Roberts
how much would a player get from these appearances, i mean there cant be more than a few hundred attendance to these
