The Price is right as Gerwyn gets job done
A NEW year, and a new world champion.
You just can’t beat the darts to get you over the post-Christmas hump and get January off to a riveting and lively start as you sift through the last of the Milk Tray.
Of course, there’s still some that will argue that darts is simply a pub game and not a sport at all, but now that none of us can get into our local watering hole it’s a nice reminder of what awaits us when the doors are finally flung open.
Anyway, if what the nay-sayers label a pub pastime can earn you half a million pounds for a couple of weeks work, well so be it.
For most of us a pint or a packet of peanuts is the best you could hope for, or maybe a turkey and ham for the dinner table if your luck is really in.
These days, the players, in the main, have left behind the beer-swilling, burger-munching image of old, and whatever moniker you want to put on it, watching them pelting arrows at a circular board is just good old-fashioned entertainment.
Having said that, the game is admittedly littered with contrary old so and sos, with finalists Gerwyn Price and Gary Anderson being cases in point, but that just adds to the intrigue of it all.
The Welshman is certainly a pantomime villain, maybe not to the same degree as a couple of years ago, but still a player the crowd love to hate, while Anderson is a grouchy auld yoke, who loves to have a moan and a grumble at any given opportunity.
You’d imagine he’d do some serious complaining if he had to do proper work for a living.
The Flying Scotsman wasn’t given the chance to build up any sort of head of steam on Sunday evening though, as former rugby player Price gave him a good and proper mauling by confidently racing into a 5-1 lead in the best of 13 decider.
However, Price then got a bad dose of the wobbles, missing eleven match darts before eventually falling over the line to win 7-3, becoming the first Welshman to win the PDC World Championship.
Looking noticeably nervy, Price jittered on double ten and double five in the penultimate set, and memories of past capitulations in other sporting spheres came flooding back.
Like Kevin Keegan’s infamous rant saying ‘I will love it if we beat them’ in 1996, referring to title-rivals Manchester United, before losing out in the race after holding a seemingly unassailable twelvepoint lead in January.
Limerick’s collapse in the 1994 All-Ireland hurling final also came to mind, when they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in what became known as ‘the five-minute final’.
Five points up with five minutes to play, the Shannonsiders looked to be cruising to victory after dominating most of the match, but the Offaly team they faced were made of stern stuff, and the midlanders went on to win by six with a late scoring burst.
Like the Magpies and the Treaty men, you could see just how much it meant to Price and it’s difficult to remain calm against opponents that have been there and done it before, with his nickname ‘The Iceman’ looking decidedly off the mark for a brief spell.
However, he managed to recover from his fleeting case of the yips, and after throwing away the earlier chance he steadied himself
to finally get the job done.
Clinching the title was all the sweeter for Price, as the victory meant he took over the world number one spot from fellow manic roarer Michael van Gerwen, ending the Dutchman’s seven-year reign at the head of the rankings, having himself only been a professional for six years.
You certainly wouldn’t want to get into a shouting match with either of that pair, never mind pitting your wits against them from the oche.
Speaking of noise, it’s a shame that the usual raucous crowd weren’t there to witness the drama, and although Price says he feeds off the emotion of the supporters, maybe, just maybe, he was glad that the oohs, aahs and boos were missing as he struggled to hold himself together with the winning line in sight.
With Sunday’s success taking his title tally for this truncated season to eight, there’s no denying that Price deserves his place at the top of the darting table, and it would be surprising if there’s not plenty more world crowns to come from the divisive Welshman.
Sadly, for the rest of us the early signs are not good for 2021, but hopefully it won’t be another annus horribilis like 2020.
It certainly won’t be for Gerwyn, as the Price is right at the top of his game and gunning for more titles.