2007 Stan James World Matchplay Schedule of Play

PLEASE find below the Schedule of Play for the 2007 Stan James World Matchplay, which will take place at Blackpool's Winter Gardens from 22-28 July.
The tournament will see eight-time champion Phil Taylor defend his title, and he has drawn Fleetwood's Wes Newton in the first round.
World Champion Raymond van Barneveld will make his World Matchplay debut alongside fellow Winter Gardens debutants Mervyn King, Michael van Gerwen and Adrian Gray.
The opening game of the tournament will see Gray - one of four qualifiers alongside the world's top 28 to be involved in the event - take on Kevin Painter.
Former Blackpool finalists Wayne Mardle and Mark Dudbridge also meet on the opening night, with the action on Sunday 22 July being completed by Roland Scholten's game against Chris Mason.
Taylor begins his challenge on Monday evening against Newton, with Peter Manley taking on Dutch wonderkid van Gerwen and number three seed Colin Lloyd - the 2005 champion - facing King.
Van Barneveld will open his bid for the title against Denis Ovens in the final first round game, on Tuesday evening.
Tickets are still available for the Stan James World Matchplay. For full availability, visit the Winter Gardens Box Office, contact Ticketmaster on 0870 380 1111 or visit www.ticketmaster.com to buy online.

2007 Stan James World Matchplay
Schedule of Play
Sunday 22 July
First Round
7.00pm Kevin Painter v Adrian Gray
8.15pm Wayne Mardle v Mark Dudbridge
9.30pm Roland Scholten v Chris Mason

Monday 23 July
1.00pm Terry Jenkins v Alan Tabern
2.00pm Ronnie Baxter v Bob Anderson
3.00pm John Part v Alan Warriner-Little
4.00pm Barrie Bates v Andy Smith

7.00pm Dennis Priestley v Colin Osborne
8.00pm Peter Manley v Michael van Gerwen
9.00pm Phil Taylor v Wes Newton
10.00pm Colin Lloyd v Mervyn King

Tuesday 24 July
1.00pm Andy Hamilton v Mick McGowan
2.00pm Adrian Lewis v Steve Beaton
3.00pm James Wade v Wayne Jones
4.00pm Andy Jenkins v Mark Walsh

7.00pm Raymond van Barneveld v Denis Ovens
Second Round
8.15pm Mardle/Dudbridge v Scholten/Mason
9.30pm T Jenkins/Tabern v Part/Warriner/Little

Wednesday 25 July
1.00pm Priestley/Osborne v Wade/Jones
2.30pm Lloyd/King v A Jenkins/Walsh
4.00pm Manley/van Gerwen v Baxter/Anderson

7.00pm Lewis/Beaton v Hamilton/McGowan
8.30pm Taylor/Newton v Painter/Gray
10.00pm van Barneveld/Ovens v Bates/Smith

Thursday 26 July
Quarter-Finals
1.00pm T Jenkins/Tabern/Part/Warriner-Little v Manley/van Gerwen/Baxter/Anderson
3.00pm Priestley/Osborne/Wade/Jones v Lloyd/King/A Jenkins/Walsh

7.00pm van Barneveld/Ovens/Bates/Smith v Lewis/Beaton/Hamilton/McGowan
9.00pm Taylor/Newton/Painter/Gray v Mardle/Dudbridge/Scholten/Mason

Friday 27 July
Semi-Finals
7.00pm
9.00pm

Saturday 28 July
Final
8.00pm

Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship Tickets

David Allen
PDC Media Officer
TICKETS for the 2008 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship, staged at Alexandra Palace on 17 December-1 January, go on general sale on Monday.
The tournament will be the first held at the famous north London venue since the Professional Darts Corporation's decision to move the sport's showpiece tournament from the Circus Tavern in Purfleet.
The 2008 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship, beginning on Monday 17 December, will feature 68 players from around the world.
Tickets for the latter stages are already selling well, and record demand is expected when tickets are released on general sale at 10am on Monday.
"This tournament has really captured the imagination since the fantastic final we had between Raymond van Barneveld and Phil Taylor on New Year's Day and the announcement that we will move to the prestigious Alexandra Palace," said PDC Chairman Barry Hearn.
"More fans than ever before can see the world's best players battling for the biggest prize fund in darts this Christmas.
"Alexandra Palace will be a wonderful new home for the Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship and we urge fans to book their tickets early to ensure they get a seat for the event."
Tickets begin at just £15 for the early stages, with tickets priced at £50 and £40 for the final.
Tickets have been on priority sale for the past week to annual subscribers of DartsTV on the PDC's official website, www.planetdarts.tv, giving loyal fans the chance to secure their seats first for the £500,000-plus tournament.

Andy Fordham Update

Donald McRae Tuesday June 12, 2007 The Guardian

"It's a big step for me to take," Andy Fordham says quietly as he looks over at a dartboard tucked away in a corner of the Belfry Social Club.
On an otherwise ordinary Friday morning in south-east London, just off the bleak stretch of Plumstead High Street, where the pubs begin to fill with the caved-in faces of seriously hard drinkers after 11.30am, Fordham cradles a small bottle of water.
The shake in his right hand, caused by the stroke he suffered earlier this year, makes the plastic container jiggle and twitch while the former world champion explains how difficult it will be for him to eventually throw a set of darts again.
"Hopefully I'll do it soon, in the next few months, but it's going to be hard. Once I feel I can walk properly and get my breathing right then I'll try to build up my muscles again. The stroke was on the right side of the brain, which affected the left side of my body, and I still slur a little bit, here and there, but nowhere near as much.

My walking is a lot better and sitting here I feel OK - but normally my head would be echoing like mad." Fordham shakes his huge head slowly, as if to check that the echo has gone. "Yesterday it didn't start until one o'clock. It's horrible.

I think I'm shouting all the time but people can't hear what I'm saying because I'm actually whispering. They're leaning forward to hear what I'm saying." The calm way in which Fordham recounts his distressing story gives hope that the amiable and generous darts player might yet overcome the problems which emerged with such severity less than five months ago.

Fordham collapsed as he prepared for his opening match in the British Darts Organisation's world championship in late January.

His massive frame was laid out on a stretcher, with an oxygen mask strapped over his face, and Fordham was rushed to hospital. After the kind of outrageous drinking which saw him sink between 25 and 30 bottles of Holsten Pils a day it is little wonder that Fordham's memory of his fall is so blurred. "I can't remember much but before it happened I would walk about 20 feet and have to sit down.

But I felt OK - apart from the breathing and the walking." There are moments in Fordham's company when the tendency to laugh with the big man reels past. But this is a story framed by darkness - and so the chuckling does not last long. "As the day progressed I tried to go over to the venue and I was starting, stopping, starting, stopping.

Once I got there I looked at the officials and said 'I don't think I can do this.' I remember going outside and next thing I knew two ambulances turned up - which was a bit cheeky - and I ended up in hospital.

" Phil Taylor, the world's greatest and most dedicated performer on the oche, who plays for the rival Professional Darts Players' Association, warned Fordham that his excessive drinking and weight problems had become life-threatening. Three years ago, in a six-figure showdown between the two champions, Fordham had retired midway through their match after an asthma attack. His disintegration this year was far more troubling.

"I didn't realise how bad I was. The doctors said my lung was squashed up into nothing - and people were leaving the hospital in tears. It was painful lying down, and that's when they told me I had so much fluid on my lungs.

"They tried to get a needle in my back so that they could drain it off but because of my size they didn't have one long enough. So the next day I had to have a tube put in, with a bag below, and when the doctor took a proper look he said, 'Oh my God, we've got to empty this now.

'" While initial reports suggested that Fordham had eight litres drained from his lungs he says that the actual figure was 18 litres. "On the second night, once it had almost gone, I felt so much more comfortable.

" Last month, however, his recovery went badly awry. "They had to put another tube in at the hospital but when I came home my stomach just swelled. Jenny, my missus, said 'That doesn't look right'. The doctor did a scan and the fluid was round my liver so I had to go on the water tablets. It's a lovely thing - you don't stop going to the toilet. But I lost 4½ stone in two weeks." Fordham's answer is blunt when asked to explain the reason for the build-up of fluid.

"My liver's finished ... well, not finished but I can't drink again - ever. Not with this liver anyway." When did he last have a drink? "January 8 at 5.45 and eight seconds," Fordham says wryly. "At first, because I was in hospital, I couldn't get near it and that helped a great deal. I suppose over four months you could count on one hand when I've had a bad day, but it's been a while since I had the hump about [not drinking].

" He discusses his staggering past intake so casually that 30 bottles-a-day seems almost normal for a man whose waistline stretched to the 60-inch mark. Having been engaged to Jenny for 19 years, he drank more than 60 bottles of Pils in celebration of their first wedding anniversary in 2001. "It was around 62," he says, "and I had a few spirits as well.

" Fordham must scoff at the claim that David Boon, the Australian cricketer, drank 52 cans of lager during a long-haul flight?

"Yeah - I heard they were only small cans. But I'm learning you can enjoy yourself without having a drink. I've got no choice. It's either that or kill yourself." Fordham often felt he needed to be "half-cut" to withstand the mental pressures of professional darts. "You're walking out in front of a few thousand people.

There are television cameras and you don't want to make yourself look like an idiot. It just took away the edge of nervousness. But now I have to see if I can do it without a drink - touch wood, again, I'm sure I can." Yet there are physical ailments and psychological demons to be overcome first.

"The last time I picked up the darts was two months ago. There's a dartboard in our bedroom, and one day I stood there and threw the first dart. I'm aiming for the treble 20, and it's gone just underneath the bullseye.

I thought, 'What's happened here?' I kept playing for a couple of days and felt it coming back. But it's Catch-22, you play darts on your own and get bored. But I don't want to play against other people yet." After he won his world championship in 2004, beating Raymond van Barneveld and Mervyn King, Fordham was unsettled by his sudden celebrity.

"It's not me. A lot of it was very difficult. There are some people you see on the telly and you think you'd like to meet them and then you wish you hadn't. Some of them are so far up their own arses." If he now wishes that he had turned down "at least half the rubbish", he defends his involvement in ITV's tawdry Celebrity Fit Club.

"In a way that did me good because I didn't realise how big I was. I went to see the doctor before the show and the scale wouldn't go up to my weight. He estimated I was about 25 stone. But when I stood on this giant set of scales on the show and he said '30 stone' I couldn't believe it. Since then I've got tired of all the comments because people can be quite rude.

" The challenge for Fordham - apart from avoiding alcohol and living healthily - remains strikingly clear.

His fragile self-esteem will be boosted immeasurably if he could return to the darts circuit and start winning matches amid his new-found sobriety. "I've got to get over that hurdle. People are phoning up to offer exhibitions but they pay you for those and if your game's shit then you're letting them down.

I want to try a competition instead because then it's only me who suffers. But it would be nice to win a first-round match." After the interview, while I go over to the bar to buy Fordham a Diet Coke, he is encouraged by the photographer to approach the dartboard.

The 45-year-old man they call The Viking looks decidedly worried. He shuffles over to tell me that a tiny camera has been placed above the board and that he has been asked to throw a few darts in its direction. Reassured that he does not need to do anything that makes him uncomfortable he calls for his darts from behind the bar.

"Let's give it a whirl . . ." In a poignant moment he soon looks down at the arrows in his hand. He positions himself carefully and then, taking aim, his first dart lurches through the air. It hits the lower half of the board.

His next dart makes him groan. It misses the board completely and clatters into the wall.

The Belfry seems quieter than ever as Fordham lines up his third throw. His hand rocks back and forth before his wrist cocks forward and, in a blurring rush, his fingers open.

The dart almost fizzes with intent as it smacks into the board, just below his chosen treble 20. "Who knows?" Fordham says with a shy grin. "Maybe the comeback starts here."

Raymond van Barneveld retains title

David Allen; Media Officer Professional Darts Corporation

RAYMOND VAN BARNEVELD retained the Blue Square UK Open title with a 16-8 win over fellow Dutchman Vincent van der Voort at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton on Sunday night.
The Dutchman claimed his first PDC title 12 months ago in this event, and repeated his triumph to claim the £30,000 first prize.
He had defeated Phil Taylor and Colin Lloyd - his rivals in the world's top three - 11-4 earlier on Sunday to book his place in the final, and then powered past his fellow countryman to victory.
"I'm very proud and happy to have retained this title," said van Barneveld. "This has been one of the best tournaments I've ever played in and it's a special place.
"I had a good preparation and have kept some form from the Premier League but this event is survival of the fittest!
"It was always going to be hard in the final playing a good friend in Vincent, but I'm proud of him that he reached the final."
Van Barneveld won through Saturday's play with defeats of John MaGowan, John Part and Wayne Jones, before taking to the stage on Sunday against Taylor in the last eight for a second successive year.
He roared to his biggest ever win over Taylor - who had landed a nine-darter on Saturday - and then knocked out Lloyd with a clinical display in the semis.
He never looked in trouble in the final after taking a 4-0 lead early on, including finishes of 149 and 106.
Van der Voort took out 84 on the bullseye to get off the mark and then an unconventional 44 finish of double 12 and double ten.
World Champion van Barneveld won the next four to go 8-2 up, and extended that to 13-5 before van der Voort hit back, taking three of the next five to stay in the game.
But he was unable to delay van Barneveld any further, with double top sealing his victory and maintaining an unbeaten record at the Reebok Stadium.
Van der Voort had defeated Terry Jenkins and Colin Osborne in close, 11-10 contests earlier in the day to reach his first major final - only five months after joining the PDC circuit.
"In my wildest dreams I never dreamed of this but it's magnificent," said van der Voort, from Purmerend in Holland.
"I can play better darts but this is good experience and I hope to keep improving and reach more finals."
Liverpool's Alan Green and Coventry's Steve Hine reached the quarter-finals of a major tournament for the first time in the event, losing to Osborne and Lloyd respectively earlier on Sunday.
The tournament also saw Taylor land his third nine-dart leg in the UK Open finals at Bolton, and the fifth of his career in a major championship.
He paid for missed doubles against van Barneveld, and admitted: "It was a bad day at the office.
"I was beaten fair and square by the better man today but I'll go back to the practice board and regroup now for the Las Vegas Desert Classic at the start of July."

Blue Square UK Open - Sunday Results
Quarter-Finals
Vincent van der Voort 11-10 Terry Jenkins
Colin Osborne 11-6 Alan Green
Raymond van Barneveld 11-4 Phil Taylor
Colin Lloyd 11-6 Steve Hine
Losers £4,000

Semi-Finals
Vincent van der Voort 11-10 Colin Osborne
Raymond van Barneveld 11-4 Colin Lloyd
Losers £8,500

Final
Raymond van Barneveld 16-8 Vincent van der Voort
Winner £30,000
Runner-Up £15,000

Blue Square UK Open - Night One Report

Report from David Allen
PDC Media Officer

TEENAGE wonderkid Michael van Gerwen powered into round two of the Blue Square UK Open as the tournament began on Thursday - but American Ray Carver was the biggest casualty of the opening night.
Van Gerwen, the 18-year-old third favourite for the event, overcame Chris McTernan 8-1 at the Reebok Stadium to begin his challenge for a first major PDC title.
The Dutchman took command early on by taking a 3-0 lead before McTernan - one of 32 pub qualifiers in the event following a series of knockouts in Punch Taverns houses around the UK - won leg four.
A 121 finish restored van Gerwen's cushion, and he quickly accelerated away to take the win.
He now meets Northern Ireland's Andrew Coulter in round two on Friday night, and said: "I'm happy to be through because it was my first game on a new stage and I know I can play better.
"I don't know much about Andrew so I have to be ready for the game."
American Carver, ranked 45 in the world, suffered the biggest shock of the opening night by losing 8-5 to pub qualifier Mark Hylton in the preliminary round.
Hylton, an airline cabin manager from the West Midlands, sent Carver back to an early flight home to Chicago by winning the final three legs of the match after the opening ten were shared in a close contest.
He went on to lose out in round one, going down to former World Championship qualifier Mark Robinson.
Cliff Lazarenko returned to the big stage and won two matches to progress to Friday's second round, winning 8-1 against Chris Daglish in their preliminary round contest before seeing off Nigel Payne 8-3.
Former World Champion Richie Burnett made an impressive start with an 8-1 defeat of pub qualifier Eddie Hughes.
Friday's play, beginning at 7pm, sees former Lakeside Champion Jelle Klaasen come into the action against one of the remaining pub qualifiers, Dorset's Scott Mitchell.
2005 finalist Mark Walsh takes on Ireland's Garrett Grat, and Bolton favourite Paul Williams will meet Michael Barnard.
The third round will feature former World Champions John Part, Bob Anderson and Keith Deller, while Mark Dudbridge and Ronnie Baxter meet in the biggest game of the night.

Some tickets still remain for Friday’s session, and can be purchased on 0871 871 2932.

2007 Blue Square UK Open Results
Preliminary & First Rounds
Board One (Main Stage)
Chris Daglish 1-8 Cliff Lazarenko (P)
Ray Carver 5-8 Mark Hylton (P)
Chris McTernan 1-8 Michael van Gerwen
Steve Cusick 8-3 Toon Greebe
Eddie Hughes 1-8 Richie Burnett
Paul Knighton 4-8 Alan Green

Board Two (Second Stage)
Ian Gunion 4-8 Sean Dowling (P)
Stuart Holden 8-2 Darrel Thorpe (P)
Mick Savvery 5-8 Ray Farrell
Vernon Sheppard 2-8 Michael Barnard
Paul Whitworth 2-8 Andy Roberts
Rico Vonck 6-8 Gary Noonan

Board Three
Brian Cathcart Bye (James Keogh withdrawn) (P)
Kevin Harris 1-8 Richard McLaughlin (P)
Peter Green 8-5 Dylan Cook
Mark Frost 8-5 Chris Allen
Cliff Lazarenko 8-3 Nigel Payne
Mark Hylton 2-8 Mark Robinson

Board Four
Nigel Payne 8-5 Ross Macken (P)
Barry French 1-8 Ian Branks (P)
John Burton 8-5 Nigel Heydon
Geoff Wylie 2-8 Mark Stephenson
Sean Dowling 4-8 Sam Rooney
Mark Wilson 6-8 Nigel Birch

Board Five
Andrew Gourlay 5-8 Rikki Williams (P)
Geoff Harkup 8-6 Wayne Brown (P)
Dave Blenkarne 1-8 Ian Wise
Ian Walters 8-5 Darrell Townsend
Richard McLaughlin 8-4 Rick Andrews
Aaron Turner v Nicky Turner

Board Six
Johnny Haines 8-3 Steve Hardy (P)
Steve Whitehouse 5-8 Nicky Turner (P)
Jason Crawley 7-8 Mark Pooke
Dale Newton 6-8 Rikki Williams
Simon Craven 8-6 Gary Blades
Geoff Harkup v Johnny Haines

Board Seven
Justin Henshaw 6-8 Gary Blades (P)
Rob Hawker 4-8 James Barton (P)
Stephen Davidson 4-8 Bob Crawley
Andrew Coulter Bye (Ian Whillis wIthdrawn)
James Barton 5-8 Danny Pinhorne
Scott Mitchell 8-4 Brian Cathcart

Board Eight
Nigel Birch 8-2 Alf Turley (P)
Gary Noonan 8-3 Pete Riley (P)
Henry O'Neill 8-2 Matty Dalwood
Mick Rodgers 8-0 Mark Thomson
Stuart Holden 8-6 Kieron Leal
Ian Branks 8-3 Doug Walker