TheOche.com

MAGIC, Magnificent. Mesmorizing. The adjectives could have gone on and on to describe the action in the eleventh week of the Whyte and Mackay Premier League in Nottingham yesterday evening.

The Trent FM Arena may well have produced the best night in the competition to date, with all players giving a good account of themselves, and definitely providing fans with something to shout about.

The action was so good that even the great entertainer himself wasn’t needed to liven up the evening-but he will have almost certainly have been watching from his hospital bed having been rushed there during the course of the day with the mumps.

As a result of his absence, both Mervyn King and James Wade played two matches, and if they continue to play in the manner that they did last night then they could well take the title from Phil Taylor next month at Wembley.

`The King` kicked off proceedings against Jelle Klaasen, and they produced a thoroughly fascinating 7-7 draw with 12 maximums being hit in 14 legs.

The result was certainly a fair one with both players scoring well and hitting doubles at a consistent rate, although Jelle needed a win to put a little bit of pressure on Jenkins and Barneveld. I think he will probably stay in 7th position for the remainder of the competition.

`The Matador` seemed to slow down his throw ever so slightly, and it worked well. He thought a little bit more about his shots, adjusted the angle when he had to, and took his chances when they came along.

At one stage he was 5-2 down and it seemed that King would get the two points he needed to have a chance of going top by the end of the night.

However, the Dutchman showed some fighting spirit and fought back to claim a point after the commercial break. He will be determined to finish above Wayne Mardle in his debut season in the Premier League without a doubt.

King will have been slightly disappointed as he would have seen his opening match as a golden chance to claim the win and secure his spot in the play-offs. Although he could only draw, it’s only a matter of time before that place is his.

James Wade took to the stage for the first time against Terry Jenkins, and produced possibly his best darts ever in this competition to go top for the time being.

He recorded a sensational 108 average having dropped from 121 just before the break, and it seemed he could do no wrong having hit nearly every double that fell his way, and even put himself on a nine dart finish but missed the last treble 20, to the disappointment of the 5,000 crowd.

In all honesty, Jenkins didn’t play badly at all but he was undone by a darting masterclass by the World number two, and on any other night he would have perhaps got a result. The scoreline read 8-1, and this didn’t flatter Wade at all.

Infact, it was the near perfect game of darts, and the excitement then reached boiling point amongst the watching thousands as Wade would take on Taylor to conclude the evening’s entertainment.

Before that though, Mervyn King had to take to the stage once again to play Raymond Van Barneveld, who needed at least a point to reclaim fourth position in the league table.

As per usual, King was greeted with the usual sound of jeers and boos in contrast to the cheers that the Dutchman received as they took to the stage. However, this seemed to play into the Englishman’s hands and the look on his face was one of determination and grit.

Every time he took a leg, he turned round and gave the traditional sneer which he tended to give at the Lakeside many moons ago, and Barneveld was put under a lot of pressure towards the end being 7-5 down.

He came back to 7-6 and then both players missed fifteen darts between them to finish off the match, but Raymond finally prevailed, hitting double two to secure the point which places him above John Part on leg difference for the time being.

King should have won the match and was clearly gutted at not being able to take his chances which would have eventually put him top of the league by the end of the night.

The point for Raymond could be nothing short of crucial. With just three games to play, the final play-off spot is ideally in his own hands, and three wins would guarantee his place at Wembley at the end of next month.

The last match of the night has to beg the question:

`Why can’t players finish off matches against Phil Taylor? `

Well, even James Wade didn’t seem to know despite being four legs up at one stage and playing the better darts.

He checked out a 68 and a 145 on the way to an impressive draw, although he should have beaten the reigning champion despite what Phil thought in his post match interview.

Doubles were Phil’s weakness once again this week, with his percentage below 20% at one stage whereas Wade took every chance that came his way apart from the one that would have given him the victory. Phil missed a couple of darts at tops and then Wade should have checked out, but he too missed darts to win which let Taylor back in to claim an unlikely draw.

The World number two was visibly disappointed at the result and answered his questions sharply and quickly which showed how much he had wasted his chance of recording the double over Taylor.

However, he was honest and said that he had `let himself down and it was his own fault. ` He seemed to take his foot off the gas after going 7-3 down, and the momentum quickly swung into Phil’s favour and he used it to his advantage and made James pay for it.

After the end of week 11, this is how the table looks:

It’s unlikely now that Jenkins and Klaasen will have a chance of making the play-offs being as far back as they are. However, John Part is definitely in with a shout and will challenge Barneveld until the very last match in Cardiff.

The questions now will turn to who plays who in the semi finals. At the moment fourth place is likely to be either Raymond or John, but with the table how it is, they could play either Taylor, Wade, or King. With the league winner likely to have a slightly easier match, there’s still plenty to play for as the party travel to Aberdeen for Week 12.