Max Baulcomb previews the imminent World Championships…
On December 18th, Alexandra Palace will be rocking once again as 64 of the world’s top darts players head to London aiming to be crowned the 2015 PDC World Darts Champion.
Once again the two hot favourites for the title are defending champion Michael van Gerwen and Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor who will be looking to claim his 17th world title.
Taylor heads into the tournament in great form having won the Grand Slam title last month averaging over 100 in the process. The Power’s route to the semi-final looks simple enough but in the last four Taylor will have his work cut out as he will be set to face the likes of Adrian Lewis, Stephen Bunting or James Wade.
In contrast, world number one MVG heads into the tournament in questionable form having recently suffered televised defeats to the likes of Kim Huybrechts and Terry Jenkins. However, ‘Mighty Mike’ tends to step up his game at Alexandra Palace and he will be looking to recapture the form that saw him become European and World Grand Prix champion earlier this year.
At this moment, the best of the rest seems to be Gary Anderson who is in red hot form having won the Players’ Championship beating the likes of Taylor, Bunting and Lewis with a 104 average.
Lewis has had a disappointing year by his standards but reaching the final at the Players’ Championship shows that he might be hitting form at just the right time.
After a difficult couple of years which included being left out of the Premier League, Wade has bounced back superbly in recent months recapturing some of his best form and winning the Masters in the process. Wade is in a tough section of the draw but he’s shown that on his day he’s got the game to battle through and win titles.
Bunting is already a world champion having won the BDO title last year but since joining the PDC he has gone from strength to strength. Being in the world’s top 32 after just one year shows what a force Bunting is and many consider him to be the dark horse.
The likes of Michael Smith, Dave Chisnall and Peter Wright are all in with an outside chance but they will have to raise their games to another level if they want to challenge the real darting heavyweights.
The World Darts Championship will run for two weeks over the Christmas period and concludes on January 4th.