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INTERNATIONAL DARTS LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS 2006 For the first time the IDL was available to viewers outside of the Netherlands courtesy of online feeds through various parties. Coverage began with the second round with the major casualty in the first phase being reigning champion Mervyn King out of the contest.
ROUND TWO (LAST 16) The second round features the last 16 in 4 groups (or leagues) with each player playing the other three in their group. The top two from each group go into the quarter-finals where the competition reverts to normal knockout style. In the first night of second round matches Colin Lloyd appeared to have his business head on when he played Jelle Klaasen. An early break put him 2-0 up in the race to 7 legs and he then held his throw to make it 3-0. Klaasen's head had already dropped and Lloyd checked out a tasty 140 to lead 5-2. Two more legs quickly followed as the World Matchplay champion beat the BDO World Champion 7-2. Ronnie Baxter also seemed to have his head on as he took on Premier League co-star Raymond van Barneveld. Barney took an early break to lead 2-1 but Baxter checked out 102 to level the match. Baxter went on to lead 4-3, then 5-4 but an inspired last three legs from Barneveld saw him claw back the match to win 7-5. One of the all time classic Darts matches took place in round two, in fact some have said perhaps it's the "Greatest Darts match ever". A lot had been said about (just) 17 year old Michael van Gerwen and the much experienced former world finalist Martin Adams was sure to give him a solid test. Van Gerwen showed little nerves as he started with 3 consecutive 140s. Adams who had the advantage of throw though took the leg. Van Gerwen levelled and then broke Adams with a spectacular 125 checkout (Bull, 25, Bull). Adams broke back to make it 2-2. Then it was the Englishman who turned on the style with a 121 checkout to lead 3-2. Van Gerwen struck straight back checking out 141 to level at 3-3. Adams took the next with both players averaging 113! Adams took the 8th leg to make it 5-3 and perhaps finally seemed to have put van Gerwen on the back foot. However in the 9th leg, another spectacular from the Dutch lad as he took out 146 with a T20, T20, D13. The match was levelled at 5-5 and Adams took the next. Van Gerwen started the 12th leg with a 180, Adams threw a 180, van Gerwen another 180! That was as close as the 9 dart attempt got but enough to take the match to a deciding leg. Van Gerwen hit the bull on the second attempt and had the advantage of throw. He kicked off with a 180 with Adams trailing. Van Gerwen had 164 left with Adams not on an outshot. The Dutchman hit T20, T18 and he went for the Bull and got it! An amazing end to an amazing match. Adams losing average was 106.8 and Van Gerwen's winning average 108.5. These were the highest pair of averages in a single televised match in the history of Darts. In the second night of round two matches, Jelle Klaasen was knocked out of the tournament by Shaun Greatbatch 7-5, who exacted revenge for his Lakeside semi-final loss. Although Klaasen played well in patches, a consistant performance from Greatbatch was enough to win. Raymond van Barneveld had little trouble in beating Roland Scholten 7-1 with "Tripod" in very poor form. Could Michael van Gerwen repeat his heroics of the previous day against Darryl Fitton? Fitton took a 3-1 lead with a break of throw, followed by a 120 checkout. There was really no way back after that for van Gerwen, who although playing respectably was outclassed by a rock solid Fitton who averaged around 98 (v. Gerwen 93). Colin Lloyd took yet another battering at the hands of Phil Taylor with a 167 checkout in the second being his only leg win. Taylor won 7-1 wrapping the match up with a handy 112 finish. The third and final night of round robin second round matches would confirm the quarter final places. Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Ted Hankey and Simon Whitlock had already qualified following the second night's matches. Martin Adams raced to a 4-0 lead over Darryl Fitton averaging just over 100 and eventually won 7-3. This left Michael van Gerwen with the tough task of beating Tony O'Shea 7-2 in order to progress to the quarter-finals. Van Gerwen certainly started in style taking the first leg with a 160 checkout. A 132 finish followed to make it 3-0 but then O'Shea came back with an 11 dart game. Extremly high quality darts from both players with O'Shea checking out 161 to make it 4-2 and Van Gerwen's task looking now virtually impossible. However the talent of the young Dutch star makes the impossible seem possible and he took the next 3 legs to get the required 7-2 victory. Averages : Van Gerwen 106.23, O'Shea 105.18. Next up was Roland Scholten vs Ronnie Baxter and simply the winner would progress to the quarter-finals. It was a tight and high quality match with Scholten hitting an 11 dart game in the third leg and Baxter checking out on 108 and 158 during the match. It went to the very final leg at 6-6 and both players missed doubles for the match. Scholten finally pegged it and was therefore still in the tournament. Raymond van Barneveld was already through and seemed to be toying with Paul Hogan as he repeatedly left himself shots for a 170 maximum checkout. 7-5 to Barneveld in the end. Battle of the world champions was a bit of a null and void affair as Jelle Klaasen was already out of the tournament. However lots of personal pride at stake and Klaasen came back from a 5-3 deficit to level the game. Klaasen took the next leg and Taylor levelled at 6-6 meaning one leg only to determine the victor. Klaasen missed 5 darts for the match with Taylor missing 3 and Klaasen finaly secured victory on his seventh go at the double. A hollow victory for the Dutch champ but rumours of a proper rematch later in the year.
QUARTER-FINALS The format switched from leg play to set play. Best of 11 sets, 2 legs to win a set. The SBS-6 coverage of the quarter-finals was erratic to say the least. No coverage at all of the first match as Colin Lloyd beat Ted Hankey 6-3. Could Van Gerwen do the even-more-remarkable and take the scalp of Raymond van Barneveld? It was like the Lakeside final all over again, although arguably this time Barneveld could be up against even stiffer opposition. Van Gerwen took the first set but Barneveld levelled with a 131 checkout to take the second. From the off it was clear that this wasn't quite the majestic Van Gerwen of previous nights but the match was close until 3-3 (with Barneveld checking out a 113 finish along the way). The remaining sets went to Barneveld who averaged around 100 (consistently) with Van Gerwen climbing to a 97 average from an early game 91 average. Barneveld was good value for the 6-3 win while Van Gerwen's trademark big finishes didn't materialise. Little SBS-6 coverage of the Martin Adams and Roland Scholten match aside from the close beginning. Scholten won 6-4. Broadcasting and internet problems also meant little coverage of the classic match between Phil Taylor and Australia's Simon Whitlock. Taylor was always chasing and the match went to a tiebreak set at 5-5. There was no splitting them although Whitlock maintained a leg advantage at 3-2, then 3-3, 4-3 to Whitlock and then he did it checking out that final double to beat Phil Taylor over a good distance by playing (as he said) the game of his life. Both players averaged 101 in the match.
SEMI-FINALS Five wildcards were offered to PDC players controversially before the start of the tournament in what has traditionally been a tournament to feature BDO players and attract BDO ranking points. The move of Raymond van Barneveld to the PDC earlier this year must have been a major contributing factor. I don't think anyone would have predicted however, that 3 of the 4 semi-finalists would have been PDC players at the start of the tournament. Colin Lloyd against Roland Scholten always seemed like it was going to be a close game. On their day both players can play quite brilliantly, as well as the very best (i.e. Taylor). However equally both players can be frustratingly disappointing turning in poor performances. The semi-final was somewhere between the two with Scholten taking the early advantage and leading 5 sets to 2. Scholten kept a 2 set advantage at 8-6 in the first to 9 set contest and was favourite to win the contest. However Colin Lloyd's never say die approach paid off as he stole a 9 sets to 8 victory. Could Simon Whitlock do the remarkable and take out Raymond van Barneveld the night after he defeated Phil Taylor. He was the man who put Barneveld out of the tournament a year earlier and a 3-0 head start certainly started him off in the right direction. 2 back to back 180s to start the match and a 144 checkout to win the third set looked impressive indeed. The 4 time world champ took the next set and then checked out a 108 finish to save the following one. He won the next leg to retrieve the match to 2-3. The next two went Barneveld's way making 4 sets in a row with Whitlock taking the next to square the match. Barneveld went 2 sets ahead at 7-5 and there was really no way back for 'The Wizard' after that despite a 143 checkout in the sixteenth and final set. 9-7 to Barneveld.
THE FINAL Unfortunately the final was not a close match as Colin Lloyd could not match Raymond van Barneveld. Despite Lloyd winning 2 legs in the first 3 sets with 125 and 107 checkouts, Barneveld quickly built up a 5 sets to 0 lead. Lloyd did come back to 5-3 and then 6-4 before Barneveld pulled away again to 11-4. A 135 checkout from Lloyd made it 13-5 and in the next set Barney checked out a 151. Final result and the title, 13-5 to Raymond van Barneveld.
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