The Ladders Diary on Tour
Saturday 18th September – Holland Players Championship
In the first round I had drawn Colin Osborne. Colin is World Ranked 12 and quite obviously an outstanding player. Colin won the first 2 legs and I came back well to draw the game level at 2-2. Colin then won the 5th, 6th and 7th legs to move 5-2 up and despite me hitting a 14 dart leg to make it 5-3 it made little impact as Colin wrapped the game up 6-3. My winning legs were 14,16 and 14 darts and I had two missed opportunities in legs which could have made the difference.
Colin was complimentary about my game and admitted the game could have been won by either of us.
I was happy for the compliments but at the same time filled with determination to do better on the Sunday, and shows how fiercely competitive the PDC Tour is.
Sunday 19th September – Holland Players Championship
In the first round I had drawn one of the top Swedish darts players called Par Riihonen whom had won the Stockholm Grand Prix a week prior to this weekend. Par played very well in the first 2 legs but could not take out the winning double and I seized the opportunities and moved into a 2-0 lead. The next 2 legs were the exact opposite of the first 2 in the fact that they were winning legs for me where I did not take opportunities and Par punished me to make the score 2-2.
After this I settled better than Par and won the match 6-2 with the highlight being a 135 checkout hitting BULL, Treble 19 and double 14.
In the next round I had drawn World Number 10 Mark Walsh. I knew this would be difficult but I was determined to learn from the previous days experience against Colin Osborne. I won the first leg and the game swung one way then the other and I felt I had control in the game. I moved into a 5-4 lead with some good solid finishes and scores. Mark put 2 good legs together to seal a 6-5 victory with me sitting waiting on the doubles on both legs.
Positives for me
· Good performances on both days.
· Excellent preparation and practice on both days
· Improvement on the previous day’s performance
· Form is continuing to improve with increased confidence
· Looking forward to 2 weeks time in Dublin where I can continue this form.