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Paul Nicholson congratulates James Wade back in 2009

World Darts Championship: Paul Nicholson's predictions of every quarter, his costly Ally Pally mistake and his favourite match ever played

By Paul Nicholson

Darts

Fri December 17, 2021 · 3y ago

Paul Nicholson's column ahead of the William Hill World Darts Championship reflects on his favourite moments and his own unusual Ally Pally experiences while he also tries to predict who will come through each quarter of the draw.

The Greatest Game?

There’s been so many World Championship classics down the years – such as Barney’s famous triumph over Phil Taylor and when Adrian Lewis hit a nine-darter in his first final with Gary Anderson - so not everyone will agree with my choice, but I’m going for Rob Cross v Michael van Gerwen in the 2018 semi-finals, because when it comes to a last set shoot-out, it doesn’t get more dramatic than this.

It was past midnight, everyone missed their last train and knew there’d be a scramble for cabs – but nobody wanted to miss the end. It proved that not only do you need quality darts for an epic, but you need missed match shots to create drama and an electric atmosphere.

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MVG blew six of them including five in one leg! It may not have had a nine-darter but it had everything else. It’s the most encapsulating match I’ve ever seen live in person and it also had extra sub plots which add the icing on the cake to the whole story.

Cross was of course making his tournament debut and having got through that titanic battle against one legend, he went on to fulfil his fairytale by annihilating Phil Taylor’s farewell dream with a crushing 7-2 victory and the second highest ever average (107.62) in a World Championship final.

However, I don’t think he would have won that title had he not had the next day off. The MVG clash took so much out of him that he’d never have been able to mentally recover in time to face Taylor the very next evening!

Best World Championship Match Ever?! 2018 World Championships - Michael van Gerwen vs. Rob Cross

As far as my favourite Ally Pally final is concerned, then I’d have to go for when Gary Anderson beat Taylor 7-6 in 2015, which is made more remarkable by the way he bounced back from that moment at the start of the ninth set when his third dart of a 180 knocked them all out of the board!

Then at 6-6, he defied any sign of pressure to win the deciding set 3-0 to land his maiden world title. His bottle has never been questioned since.

Click on the image to read or watch our exclusive Gerwyn Price interview

Too much Ally Pally pressure!

Playing at Ally Pally is obviously an exhilarating experience for darts players but it can also make us crumble with nerves – regardless of whether you are experienced or not!

China’s Qiang Sun famously missed the board completely with one of his darts in a visit after he’d managed to bust 133, and the next year he tripped over the oche and onto the floor.

Take it from me, when you’re having a really nervous performance and nothing is going your way, it makes your heart shrink. It happened to me in my last appearance there against Kevin Burness. Anything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong.

I even bust 31 with one dart by hitting double 15. It makes me swallow my pride when I think of that and these days those kind of moments are clipped up on social media to make fools of us!

It was all going so well...until the masseuse turned up

As a player, analyst or commentator – there’s no place I’d rather be in darts than Alexandra Palace. It’s iconic, it’s our home and the festive atmosphere makes us feel we own Christmas and New Year. My Ally Pally experiences as a player might not always have gone to plan but my debut in 2009 was turning into a fairytale for me. After brushing Adrian Gray aside 3-0 with one of the highest averages in the first round that year (96.62), there was the ecstasy of beating Adrian Lewis 4-3 by edging the deciding set 6-4. That was the biggest adrenaline rush I’ve ever had in my career - and maybe the best performance – so I wish I could can it up and relive it whenever I want.

I then found myself up against the legendary Dennis Priestley who was a real inspiration to me growing up but for some reason I was remarkably calm. Despite being 2-0 down in sets I then won the next four to knock out my hero with a 97 average and thought ‘It doesn’t get any better than this.” For me at the World Championship, it never did – but it really should have had it not been for one fatal mistake ahead of the quarter-finals with James Wade.

I’d been averaging in the mid to high 90s in every game so far and playing better than everyone except Phil Taylor whereas Wade had only creeped 90 on one occasion. I was full of energy, no injuries and raring to go. I would have beaten James easily if it wasn’t for this one thing I wish I could turn back time and change.

Matt Porter came into the players room and said there was a masseuse here if anyone needed one for any strains etc. A couple of hours before going on stage I said yes because it might relieve some of the lingering nerves, but she was so good, she made me too relaxed! My body went from being finely tuned for a long format match to being like jelly. We both averaged in the low 80s and I lost 5-3. I’ve never known a masseuse being offered to players since then.

As a commentator, I still get those exhilarating moments because I’ve had the opportunity to call some incredible matches. When Fallon Sherrock beat Mensur Suljovic I lost my voice! But I don’t think anything can match the feeling you get playing on that stage.

Predicting this year's draw

Quarter One

Fallon Sherrock’s clash with Steve Beaton is the first tie that leaps out at us in this quarter – and indeed the whole draw - but can you imagine the narrative if she wins that, then beats Kim Huybrechts to set up a third-round meeting with Gerwyn Price?

The prize money she’d earn from beating Price would almost certainly be enough to move her into the top 64 in the world and earn her a PDC Tour Card for next season without the need of going through Q School.

And not only that, the scalp of the world champion in front of millions of viewers across the globe would surely seal her selection in next season’s Premier League. That would be quite ironic considering Price is not yet convinced that she deserves an invitation at this stage in her career!

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, Fallon has a bad draw because the crowd surely won’t boo a darting God like Beaton?! She’s had the fans overwhelmingly on her side every time she’s been on the oche so this will be a different test for her to overcome.

Fallon Sherrock is 'ready' for Gerwyn Price, the World Darts Championship and the Premier League!

From a performance perspective at Ally Pally, Steve hasn’t played very well in his 15 previous appearances here and has only gone past the second round once so it’s definitely a winnable game for her especially when you think how well she’s played in recent months.

Everyone seems to forget Lisa Ashton has qualified for her third successive worlds and she’s also in this quarter against Ron Meulenkamp, and if she can win her first match on this stage then she’ll face Michael Smith, a player she has beaten this season.

As far as picking the two players who will reach the quarter-finals from this section, I’m going with Price and Smith, who is now in a much better place than last year when losing early on to Jason Lowe with a very poor performance.

There will be a lot of attention on Jonny Clayton in this quarter but he’s on course to meet Bully Boy in the fourth round and I think the latter is trending quickly enough in the right direction to come through.

It’ll be a tremendous quarter-final and I think Price will sneak through and come from 4-3 down to win it 5-4 in a deciding set. That’s how much I’ve looked ahead to it already!

As far as an outsider to watch is concerned in this quarter, the young American Danny Lauby Jr could catch Willie O’Connor cold in round one and then he’d come up against the struggling Glen Durrant. He’s been in the country for a while now playing competitive darts in the Online Darts Live League and that will get his match fitness up.

Gerwyn Price and Fallon Sherrock are in the same quarter of the World Championship draw

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Quarter Two

The father and son combo of Raymond and Ky Smith from Australia are in this section but I don’t think they’ll be meeting in the quarter-finals!

But if there’s going to be an unusual name or qualifier in this year’s quarter-finals, then it’s most likely to come from this section, which looks wide open and full of shock potential.

James Wade will be the favourite to get through this quarter but he’s not been playing consistently well this season, particularly recently, and I’d expect the improving Joe Cullen to come through his half and reach the last eight for the first time in his career. It’s a huge opportunity for him.

The bottom half could be where the surprise packages come from including Ryan Joyce, who has been to the quarter finals before, plus Martin Schindler, who has been producing a string of superb performances this season.

I mentioned the German’s potential in a previous column and if he can get past the inexperienced Florian Hempel and an out of sorts Dimitri Van den Bergh then he’ll grow in confidence and be a real danger.

That said I still think Krzysztof Ratajski will come through it, even if he meets Martin Schindler in the fourth round, because he’s a fierce animal who is getting more and more used to the big TV stages and going on lengthy runs. I would not be shocked to see him face and beat Cullen to reach the semi-finals.

Quarter Three

If Peter Wright sticks with the same kit that helped him reach the Grand Slam semi-finals and then win the Players Championship Finals title then quite frankly he should come through this section and reach the semi-finals.

Snakebite also needs a long run because he’s defending £500,000 of prize money from winning the title two years ago and he won’t have experienced this kind of pressure before. Not many players have!

He could come up against the second youngest player ever to qualify for the World Championship in Fabian Schmutzler, who is just 16 and just a few months older than Mitchell Clegg was when he lost to Raymond van Barneveld in 2007.

There is the not so small matter of Ryan Searle who could be a spoiler for Wright in this top half of the quarter, especially with how close he ran him during the climax of the Minehead final.

Danny Noppert is also a danger should he meet Searle in round three but he hasn’t put in any big Ally Pally performances yet whereas Heavy Metal has reached the fourth round twice in three attempts.

Gerwyn Price: "Fallon Sherrock needs to reach the world final to earn a Premier League spot."

On form, Searle is probably the biggest threat to Wright in the entire quarter.

In the bottom section there’s two big names in Jose de Sousa and Mensur Suljovic, who are both out of top notch form and neither have played very well at Ally Pally.

Nathan Aspinall has reached the semi-finals twice but to stand a chance of getting there again he’d probably have to get past a third-round meeting with Brendan Dolan, who is obviously full of confidence right now after a great season.

The surprise package in this quarter could well be Callan Rydz as I’d expect him to beat Yuki Yamada before coming up against Dolan. He had a nightmare against James Wade last year but if he plays the way he has at times this season then he’ll cause Dolan problems and then quite possibly Aspinall.

Quarter Four

What. A. Quarter.

This has to be my favourite of the whole lot and I’m sure most other darts fans the world over will agree.

All of the focus will be on Michael van Gerwen because he hasn’t won a ranking major this calendar year and he’s going to have his work cut out to get to the quarter-finals because Chris Dobey and Luke Humphries are lurking after great seasons.

Dave Chisnall hasn’t won a tournament this year but if he gets going and meets MVG in the quarters again – just remember what he did 12 months ago!

As for the bottom half of this quarter, it’s a who’s who of former world champions featuring Gary Anderson, Raymond van Barneveld, Adrian Lewis and Rob Cross! The one player you don’t want to be in there is Ian White, who has never done massively well here!

However, the legendary trio in this quarter aren’t obviously at their peak and Jackpot could find it tough against Matt Campbell if he’s to set up the tie everyone wants between him and Anderson.

They’ve only ever met twice in those memorable finals so it would feel like a trip down memory lane to get them both up on the Ally Pally stage together for a trilogy instalment.

But my pick to come through this entire quarter is Voltage, who has been in great form in recent months.

He beats Raymond van Barneveld in round two and then comes through a stern test with a resurgent Daryl Gurney before a potential meeting with Anderson, who isn’t at the levels he once was.

I am expecting an MVG v Cross quarter-final and I think the result will be the same as their epic semi-final of 2018.

The outsider to watch in this quarter could be the wily competitor that is Darius Labanauskas. He’ll beat the returning Charlie Losper from South Africa in round one and give Chizzy, who hasn’t won a title all season, a real run for his money. I don’t see him having enough firepower to beat Humphries in round three, however.

Who will win the title?

I think Gerwyn Price will beat Krzystof Ratajski to reach the final and then he’ll meet Rob Cross, who overcomes Peter Wright in the other semi.

I just believe Voltage is ready for a huge run but it’s so hard to back against Price when you think how much he raises his game to unbelievable levels in the latter stages.