Official Darts Thread

[TheBurningRed]

I’ve seen MVG get bored in matches and start doing silly things to amuse himself, I can see Littler doing the same. I can also see him packing up by the time he’s 30. 

[TheBurningRed]

Grand Slam of Darts starts tonight. Always enjoy this format. Although they should bring back the 9 dart shootout for any draws in the groups.

Game to watch this evening is MVG vs Beau Greaves. Tough group all round with Gary Anderson and Niko Springer. And with the short format, low confidence, MVG could go out at this stage.

Michael Smith managed to get through the qualifiers for his first tv event since I think the UK Open.

Of course, Littler is the favourite to retain. I can’t see past him winning. I’m hoping Greaves gives it a good go. A special talent, a wonderful throw and someone I do believe will be the first woman to win a major one day. 

[Dai]

Love the Grand Slam. Really enjoyed the European Championship from a few weeks back too. Littler being beat by just a pretty good, not special performance from Wade over a decent length must have given lots of hope to quite a few players for the next 2 months. 

[hallicks]

43 minutes ago, Dai said:

Love the Grand Slam. Really enjoyed the European Championship from a few weeks back too. Littler being beat by just a pretty good, not special performance from Wade over a decent length must have given lots of hope to quite a few players for the next 2 months. 

Euros was good. Not quite as hipster as last years effort but enjoyed it a lot, the final was excellent. I think Littler sometimes struggles a bit mentally with Wade. There was one bit where he was shaking his head in genuine annoyance, I can’t remember exactly why, but I’m sure it was the usual Wade antics. It doesn’t usually get to him but it did in that match. 

Glad to see my boy Wessel finally get a win at the slam, probably playing worse than all the matches he lost in last year. 

[TheBurningRed]

Those last three legs from Nijman was great stuff. Some bollocks. 

[TheBurningRed]

Alexis Toylo is torture. 

[hallicks]

7 hours ago, TheBurningRed said:

Alexis Toylo is torture. 

I’m glad Sky are being kind with the scheduling and putting him on last so we can all switch off and do other, more interesting things with our lives.

Greaves is on the Nijman ‘24 trajectory of averaging over a hundred in every match and still getting beat. They’re all having to play their A games to get past her. Obviously frustrating but she’s brilliant to watch and she’ll be back. Delighted for Springer to get the win over MVG. He’s not been playing anywhere near his best but he’s doing enough. I hope it clicks for him in the knockouts because he’s fantastic when he gets going.

[Dai]

I know he was unlucky at the Euro against Rock, but another major tourney where Bunting is out early. Crazy as he's been playing so well otherwise. 

I think I mentioned Toylo in this thread a while back. Can't remember what other tourney he stunk up recently, but hopefully he's gone soon. 

[Dai]

Plenty of big names out already; Aspinal probably the biggest shock so far. Heta, Bunting, Wade and Clayton all out too. 

Humphries seems in fine nick again, and Dobey is looking good too. Woodhouse has done some good things lately so could be an outsider to keep an eye on. You of course have Littler and GVV as well, which should make the quarters a very tasty line up.

[hallicks]

Another TV major for Littler, then. Fully deserved, best player over the weekend. 

It’s funny how players react to being in different stages. Wattimena was fantastic against Wade and the 156 checkout to win the match was just the level he was at throughout. You could see in his eyes that kind of relaxed focus where he wasn’t worried and everything was hitting. Then in the semi final, that look was gone. He wasn’t relaxed, he was thinking about it. And then almost the exact same thing for Aspinall between semi and final, except his eyes don’t betray his emotions in the same way, but his finishing was wayyy off.

Highlight of the weekend?

 

Well apart from that, it had to be Littler’s bull-T7-bull 121 against Pikachu. Fascinating and hilarious match that one.

Hopefully no more Ned “Shit” Boulting commentary ever again now that the coverage provider is changing. 

[TheBurningRed]

Littler is now a European Championship and Masters away from winning every tv ranking major. And a World Cup of Darts away from every tv event. And only 18. Unbelievable. Not even MVG could match Taylor’s dominance like Littler has.

Shame Beau didn’t show up for the youth final. Van Veen is great and I can see him getting in the premier league. Major winner and he’s beaten Luke Humphries 3 times on tv this year. 

[Dai]

No one was anywhere near Littler all weekend. Just makes it look so easy. Hopefully he goes out early in the Worlds as it would be nice to have an open Worlds.

I mentioned how bad it was watching Asp in this thread a good few months back, but its great to see that for the last few months hes been back to normal and playing some excellent stuff. Some of the 100+ checkouts he took over the course of the weekend was insane.

Crowd was dead for the entire thing though. Not in a good, old school Lakeside sort of way either. Just felt like zero atmosphere there, and silence for lots of it.

 

Whats the rumours about this new coverage then? Its being run by the PDC, so I assume they will just use all of the Sky Sports people, and probably just keep Mason? Format wise, and even production wise, I dont really see any difference with what ITV do currently anyway, can anyone else?

Edited November 25, 2025 by Dai

[hallicks]

16 hours ago, Dai said:

Whats the rumours about this new coverage then? Its being run by the PDC, so I assume they will just use all of the Sky Sports people, and probably just keep Mason? Format wise, and even production wise, I dont really see any difference with what ITV do currently anyway, can anyone else?

As I understand it, Matchroom are taking over the television production from ITV Sport, but the events will remain on ITV4. I expect one of the changes will be automated position switching for the board cameras, as I think ITV were still using manually operated ones. Or at least, there was always two blokes behind them by the stage, so presumably...anyway. Hopefully fewer missed throws and less wobbly pictures.  

Re: studio coverage and commentary, I'm interested to see who they go with. Dawson's great on comms and he's a natural at introducing the Euro tours, so I can see him being a fine studio anchor if he wants it, but I'd imagine that would mean he'd be off comms. I like Mason. I wonder if they promote the likes of Matt Edgar and Paul Nicholson from Euro tour duty. Nicko is probably a bit divisive, being slightly prone to mangle or go all in (or both) on his metaphors. ("Mind-numbingly brilliant!") But he's great when he gets into analysis of someone's technique. 

[TheBurningRed]

The WDF (formally BDO) Worlds have been on this week. Not really watched much. But we have a new teenage sensation in 15 year old Mitchell Lawrie. He’s in the final tonight. He’s also won the youth final this afternoon. He’ll also be in the JDC Final at Ally Pally on the 20th. An incredible player. Averaging mid 90s every game. The sort of quality you don’t see in the WDF anymore.

Deta Hedman finally won the women’s world championship. Incredible that she’s only just won it when she’s won practically everything else the BDO/WDF has had to offer. 

[Dai]

I watched a bit of him , and he seems like he should turn out to be a great talent. The WDF was on YouTube for free, and I couldn't watch more than 5 minutes at a time. Super depressing. I was watching it some times and there seemed to be 20 people there. 

 

Ross Smith is the first big casualty this year. Shocked with this, as I was just about to predict a good run for him, as he's been playing some great stuff. 

 

Any outside bets for anyone? Also, I am using Now TV for the first time this year, and they don't have the full sessions to watch on demand, just the highlights which I assume are the same ones they chuck on YouTube for free. Seems ridiculous, that. 

Edited December 13, 2025 by Dai