Champions League of Darts Preview and Predictions
Summer’s over and for the PDC darts crowd it’s heads down for the sprint to the Alexandra Palace in December. Next up is the Champions League of Darts, taking place in Brighton on September the 22nd and 23rd. The Champions League of Darts, like the football counterpart, features a group stage before we get to the knockout phase. In this instance the top 8 players in the world have been split into two groups of four. Having played each other once the top 2 players from each group will go through to the semi-finals. Each group match is a race to 10 legs with 2 points for a win and no draws.
Odds On A Turn Off?
The field is a compelling one consisting as it does of the current top 8 players in the PDC rankings. That gives us the following, accompanied by their general odds:
4/5 Michael van Gerwen
4/1 Gary Anderson
7/1 Rob Cross
15/2 Peter Wright
10/1 Mensur Suljovic
25/1 Dave Chisnall
33/1 Daryl Gurney, Simon Whitlock
The PDC Order of Merit is based on prize money won over the last two years so there’s no question that these eight players deserve to be there. MVG leads the market which seems fair but he’s consistently been odds-on fave for a while now which I find confusing. I don’t recall that happening to Phil Taylor as much in what was a less competitive era overall. In recent televised events, from the US Masters to the Brisbane Masters (via the World Matchplay) Michael van Gerwen has won just once. He did roar back in the recent German Championship event losing only 1 leg en route to the final. However he then received a 6-1 spanking from Willie O’Connor in the first round in Holland.
Champions League Of Darts Group A
The first group sees Michael van Gerwen take on Gary Anderson, Dave Chisnall and Daryl Gurney. Most people I think would see Gary Anderson as at the 2nd best player in the world right now but he’s currently ranked 4th hence his presence in MVG’s group. Peter Wright’s busy schedule has seen him pick up more prize money while the World Championship win has seen Rob Cross overtake Anderson too.
MVG will take on Chisnall first and the winner of Gurney / Anderson in the second match. Before the Dutchman can even think about winning he’s going to have quite a task to even get out of the group. Ordinarily I’d expect him to deal with Chisnall despite Chizzy hitting a record European Tour average of 118.66 recently. Unfortunately for him he met van Gerwen the next day and lost 6-1. While the Chisnall match is a potential hazard the real trouble comes from Gurney and Anderson.
Champions League Of Darts Group B
On the face of it this is the group you’d rather be in as a player but picking the qualifiers is still no easy task. You’ve got the World Champion, the defending Champion, the World number two and a former World finalist and major winner in the mix here.
I would imagine that two of Rob Cross, Peter Wright and Mensur Suljovic would go through leaving Simon Whitlock behind but wouldn’t be completely confident about it. Second place will face the winner of Group A and vice versa but there’s no easy route to the final regardless.
Champions League Of Darts Predictions
Getting straight to the point I simply can’t have Michael van Gerwen at odds-on and I feel obliged to oppose him in some way. He does have a recent win in Germany to his credit but walloping Cristo Reyes, Martin Schindler and Joe Cullen etc doesn’t compare to the competition he’s facing in Brighton. While the longer format ought to be to his liking he’s still got that loss to William O’Connor to think about. If you have the time there’s an excellent PDC article about MVG’s doubling woes that explain his current predicament and reinforce the argument to take him on.
In fact there is also a case to be made for van Gerwen to go out at the group stage. He didn’t make it last year and 11/2 is a real tempter for a repeat if you’re feeling adventurous. If his first opponent was Anderson or Gurney I’d probably get involved myself but I’m not convinced that Chizzy is equipped to take the two points off him.
As far as finding the winner goes I think that’s a real tough one considering the class of the field so I’m going to swerve that. Thinking logically though if MVG is to go out early that would likely mean that Daryl Gurney qualifies from Group A. From Group B I’d just favour Rob Cross playing in a format that should suit and in what is essentially his home tournament. I’m therefore going to lay van Gerwen outright and have some of the juicy 80/1 for Gurney and Cross to meet in the final.
