The darting year is picking up speed as we head into February and one of the standout events of 2022 was the World Seniors Championship, the second of which will be staged at the iconic Circus Tavern this weekend.
Robert Thornton enjoyed the darting galaxy returning to Purfleet a year ago when he took care of Martin Adams in the final to win the inaugural title and he has qualified to attempt to win the crown for a second year. Some good players will go up against him though.
Recent Winners
2022 – Robert Thornton
The Format
The format of this tournament is the same as it was a year ago except 32 players enter the tournament with the opening three rounds all being the best of five sets before it goes up to the best of seven sets for the semi-finals and then the final is played over the best of nine sets. The first round is played across four sessions on Thursday and Friday with a bumper Saturday afternoon session having the eight second round matches. The quarter finals are Saturday evening with the semi-finals on Sunday afternoon and the champion crowned on Sunday evening.
Top Half
16 seeds have been put together for this tournament based primarily on their history in the game rather than their current form. As the defending champion Robert Thornton is the number one seed and the 7/1 third favourite to make a successful defence. He is seeded to meet the three-time world champion Glen Durrant in the semi-final but the likes of 10-time women’s world champion Trina Gulliver, current WDF world champion Neil Duff, 1983 world champion Keith Deller, former world finalist Kevin Painter, Terry Jenkins and another former world finalist in Peter Manley will all want to stop him.
There are eight unseeded players or qualifiers in this top half of the draw with some real household names among them. The tournament favourite Scott Mitchell is one of them while four-time women’s world champion Lisa Ashton is another. Ronnie Baxter has been invited for the first time as have Chris Mason, Mark Dudbridge and Roland Scholten while Michael Huntley and Dennis Harbour came through the qualifying route to make it into the tournament.
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Bottom Half
There is only one name who could possibly head up the bottom half of the draw and that is the 16-time champion of the world, the number two seed Phil Taylor. Taylor was sent packing in the quarter final last year and will want to go much better this time around. He is seeded to face Martin Adams in what would be a juicy semi-final should both make it that far. The six seeded players looking to stop that from happening are the three-time world champion John Part, 1997 BDO winner Les Wallace, former world finalist Tony O’Shea, legendary 1988 world champion Bob Anderson, Seniors Masters winner David Cameron and Larry Butler.
There are no shortage of household names in this half of those who were invited or who qualified through the various entry routes. In terms of the invited players, Co Stompe is always popular as is Darryl Fitton. American player Leonard Gates got a late invite too and based on his Alexandra Palace form could do a bit of damage. The qualifiers in this half are Dave Prins, Andy Jenkins, Richie Howson, Colin McGarry and Darren Johnson. This is a wide open half.
Betting
I’ll take one player in each half this week and the way the format is I really think it will be a young and relatively fit player who will come out on top. Whoever makes the second round will need to play four matches and potentially 36 sets of darts in two days to win the title so those who are getting on in years will struggle to last the pace. That leads me to a man who didn’t win a world title in the top half in Mark Dudbridge. I think ‘Flash’ has if not a bye certainly a winnable opening match against Glen Durrant whose problems were seen too much over the last couple of years and forced him into retirement. At 50, Dudbridge only just qualifies for this tournament but he was in a Modus Super Series outing towards the end of last year where he won a group and in the main threw a good dart. He is said to be taking this event very seriously and given that his action was perfect in his prime I think he could be a huge price to come through out of a wide open second quarter and snatch this title.
Another man who could be a big price is Andy Jenkins. The 51-year-old immediately ticks my first box of being the right age to go deep here and while as a darts fan I absolutely love Bob Anderson, the reality is he isn’t beating Jenkins in their opening round clash. It gets tougher from there on in for Jenkins but the Hampshire man is extremely active in the game even without a tour card. He is often involved in the Modus action and plays all the competitive Opens in Hampshire as well. Those Modus events are good preparation for this because you play five matches over a period of time so stamina and quality shouldn’t be an issue for ‘Rocky’. A second round clash with either David Cameron or Richie Howson might but if comes through that there might not be much in his way until the final.
Tips
Back M.Dudbridge to win World Seniors Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back A.Jenkins to win World Seniors Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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