UK Open: Paul Nicholson looks ahead to the 'FA Cup of Darts' and picks out contenders for glory
Paul Nicholson previews the UK Open in his latest column and assesses whether there will be more surprise names making a run to the final.
The 'FA Cup of Darts' is the first ranked major of the season but this year it will be taking place behind closed doors in Milton Keynes rather than its usual home of the Butlin's Minehead Resort, while there are also no amateurs in the field due to lockdown restrictions preventing those qualifying events from happening.
Nevertheless, the Asset is still expecting plenty more shocks due to the random draw factor...
Magic of the cup
I think not having the amateur players this year does take some of the ‘FA Cup’ magic away from the UK Open. The traditional format can of course unearth unknown players who go on to great things such as Rob Cross, while it is special to see ‘pub’ players potentially get their dream chance to take on a legend of the sport.
Nevertheless, there are lesser-known players in the field from Qualifying School, the Development Tour and Challenge Tour so there’s still plenty of opportunity for big shocks and surprises.
The open draw always excites me and is one of the big reasons why this is one of everyone’s favourite tournaments of the year.
Shocks and surprises
As a darts analyst, I put the UK Open up their highly with the other big majors because we’ve had it for so long – it’s now in its 16th year. We need to hold onto events which have such great history and the longer it continues the more grandeur it has.
I also like its positioning in the calendar as the first televised ranking event of the year.
Darts fans often debate about which events count as a ‘major’ but there’s no doubting this one due to its unique format, plus the upsets it so often conjures up and many magical moments we’ve witnessed down the years.
There’s almost always a surprise finalist even in years when big names such as Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld and Michael van Gerwen have ended up winning it on multiple occasions. The likes of Barrie Bates, Gary Mawson, Mark Walsh, Colin Osborne, Wes Newton, Corey Cadby and even Gerwyn Price in 2017 all reached the final against the odds to create big stories.
And then there was Nathan Aspinall winning the whole thing as a huge pre-tournament outsider two years ago.
A lot of this is of course down to the random draw format – especially in the earlier days of the tournament when a lot of the players outside the handful of legends were on a similar level. It’s always been seen as a springboard tournament that gives players a better chance of breaking through a field without necessarily having to play someone who would be seeded in any other major.
These days the bigger hitters are more comfortable with the open nature of the draw than ever before, and we saw that last year with Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price reaching the final.
Draw comfort
Some people say there’s no easy draws in darts but there’s no getting away from the fact that in this tournament you’d rather play someone a long way down the rankings with little experience in the early rounds than one of the genuine title contenders.
The draws really do make a difference – just look at the 2018 edition where you had Dave Pallett, Robert Owen, John Part, Corey Cadby, Steve West, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price and Gary Anderson in the quarter-finals. Only Anderson would have been widely tipped before the tournament began, while Cross was in his debut year and Price still climbing the ladder.
That said, a tough draw doesn’t stop you going far, just ask Robert Thornton. His run to glory in the 2012 was named ‘Robert’s route’ because he had to go through Mark Webster, Gary Anderson, Dennis Priestley, Wes Newton and Dave Chisnall before having to beat Phil Taylor in the final!
If the leading players these days get handed ridiculously tough draws, it doesn’t really bother them because they know what it’s all about. On the flip side if you’re much lower down the rankings then the prospect of playing a huge name on a televised stage has appeal – a bit like when minnows draw big clubs in the FA Cup.
Memories
There’s been moments in the UK Open I’d rather forget and I guess that’s the story of my career but there are other moments which make my smile twinkle.
I was fortunate enough to be in Bolton during the Super Series last week and walking into that room brought back memories of that afternoon in 2011 when I beat Gary Anderson and then Phil Taylor the same night. On that day nobody was going to beat me.
Ultimately my lasting memory of the UK Open is my trilogy with Gary Anderson across three successive years. Beating him in 2009, losing to him – and my temper – in 2010 when Russ Bray had to hold me back from the crowd, and then defeating him again in 2011.
To come through that in a very good game not only won me the ‘series’ 2-1 but also helped me banish what happened 12 months earlier. That was the most important thing of all because the person I was in 2010 didn’t know who he was.
I was more confident in 2011 – both inside and out - and that showed on the stage.
Money matters
Nathan Aspinall is defending £100,000 in ranking money from being champion two years ago – but I expect him to deal with this new kind of pressure in his budding career.
As much as he knows that money effectively disappears the moment he walks through the door, he’ll just be focused on winning another tournament and not get bogged down with thoughts about defending as much of the money as possible.
He had a couple of decent semi-final runs in the Super Series and with his strong mind there’s no reason why he can’t win it again and consolidate his position in the world’s top 10.
Glen Durrant is another player entering a very important year in terms of ranking money as this is his third season in the PDC ranks.
Although he didn’t win much at the UK Open in 2018, it’s an important opportunity to make gains early on in the knowledge that he’ll be defending big amounts from his semi-final runs at the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix and Grand Slam of Darts later in the calendar.
Raymond van Barneveld is obviously a player with ranking money on his mind more than most as he prepares for his first major outing since his return.
Regardless of what Wayne Mardle said on social media, Barney winning his first Pro Tour title since 2013 – and his first of any kind since 2015 - was a huge shock.
If he’d been on such a long drought but had reached numerous semi-finals or finals over a couple of seasons then it wouldn’t have been a surprise. But to come from Q School and have all those question marks about why he was coming back and whether he could cut it, then it is a huge upset. Nobody saw it coming. And even in the final he should really have lost to Joe Cullen, who gave him lots of chances.
However, with the confidence and hunger he’s gained from that, Barney can’t now be discounted for the UK Open in the same way he would have been had he not won a title last week.
If he can continue to play with this kind of vigour then he will be great to watch but there’s still a long, long way to go if he’s to ever get back to the world’s top 32, let alone the top 16 – or even earn enough prize money to qualify for the biggest majors again.
Winning £10,000 now gets you nowhere – it just gives you a starting platform. He’s around £161,000 behind Devon Petersen in 32nd on the Order of Merit and £300,000 behind Joe Cullen in 16th.
Only great players can climb that in two years. But, like I said in my column before his Q School campaign, I think his main motivation for all this is to earn money for his living, rather than a burning desire to become part of the elite again.
That said, he might also just be struggling to know what to do with himself away from darts. After all, it was his life for almost all of it. Maybe he does love this game a lot more than he realised and now he’s just here to enjoy it. If it is that, then maybe that’s why we may see the best of him again.
That happened to Paul Scholes when he retired and then came back to Manchester United. He didn’t know who he was without football and ended up being almost as good as he was before!
Darts is alright without Barney, but is Barney alright without darts?
Tie of the Tiger
Raymond couldn’t have been handed a much tougher opening clash than Alan Souter, who I did mention as my player to watch at Q School.
Not only did he come through that with flying colours but he made an encouraging start to life on the PDC Tour at the Super Series, averaging 96.05 across 13 matches in four days and reaching the quarter-finals on one of them – which he lost to the eventual winner. That so happened to be Barney, of course!
He also averaged 105 against Peter Wright on day two so make sure you watch this one on the Main Stage as it will whet the appetite for the rest of the weekend.
It’s an awful draw for Raymond because Alan will fancy this and I really have this as a coin flip.
Title contenders
We’re only four ranking events into the season but at the moment you’d have to say Jonny Clayton and Joe Cullen are playing the best darts and will be genuine challengers to the big three.
I do think this tournament is more wide open than usual and players further down the rankings are encouraged by Gerwyn Price not being 100% with an ear infection and neither Michael van Gerwen nor Peter Wright looking particularly fearsome right now.
Dirk van Duijvenbode’s 180 hitting at the Super Series was extraordinary and way higher than everyone else, while Damon Heta must be considered after his brilliant win over MVG in the semi-finals on Sunday before losing to Clayton.
It’s hard to know where to look and I’m sure there will be someone who comes out of the shadows to reach the latter stages.
I see potential in Michael Smith, who looked as though he’s brimming towards something special at the Super Series, Dave Chisnall is playing well and I also thought Rob Cross was playing well again. I was looking at his technique closely and it looked more solid and I thought he’d put in a lot of hours.
Don’t be shocked if Cross wins it, he’s my dark horse. Nobody is paying any attention to him even at world number four and he won’t mind that one bit.
Even when Rob lost, he played well and I think he’s the sort of player who will benefit from ahaving these events grouped closely together.
Don’t forget about James Wade either. When other players start to falter, he has a knack of turning up and saying ‘if you don’t want it, I’ll have it.’