I'm kind of sceptical Gabriel in the PL will do much for the market, especially if he gets his ass handed to him every time, but I guess it can't hurt to try

Short format variance tho

ZOMG

MVG MISSES D12 FOR A NINE TO HOLD

DOES NOT RETURN

That was the greatest leg of darts of all times and we saw it live

oh my god

What the ****

That last leg of set five could be pivotal

What a match this is

Absolutely incredible. Surprised to see MVG looking far more likely to crack than Smith.

Well done Smith. That was one hell of a performance from him.

Harsh that MVG only has 3 world titles

Incredible leg of darts. I was bouncing around my living room watching it. Imagine actually seeing it live at the Ally Pally? I found this:

I was wondering as someone who very casually follows darts, what level of golf achievement is closest to the rarity of a 9-darter?

Is it:

A) Chip-in from off the green
B) Holing out from Greenside bunker
C) Holing out on a basic wedge shot from like 80-100 yards
D) Hole-in-one
E) Double Eagle

you're basically needing to hit what for the top players is around a 40% shot nine times in a row. looks to be about a 1 in 4000 shot if my maff is right. no idea how that translates to golf

Early math seems to say that rough odds of a pro golfer making a hole-in-one is around 1 in 2500 to 1 in 3500 so probably somewhere in the neighborhood of that.

So this is roughly the equivalent of a match play situation where one player on a par 3 hits his shot to tap-in range and the next player makes a hole in one.

What other sports achievement would be comparable to that leg between MvG and Smith?

I thought of the 1991 olympic games far jump final where both Carl Lewis and Mike Powell beat the legendary jump of Bob Beamon.

Hard to say

Disappointing to see none of Greaves, Thornton or Gates on the Q-School lists starting Monday, but will be funny to see how Sherrock fails again

this is perfect

q-school under way, pdc cash cow update: not complete dumpster fire, beat norris and whitehead before losing to graham usher in the last 128

through to round 2:

uk - slevin (very good young irish prospect, was one off my list of picks to win a card), jacques (former card holder, uk open last 16 run), perez (asian championship winner), palfreyman (random veteran), jamie lewis (he of murdered by taylor in worlds semi), jim walker (former card holder), gadsby (complete random) and pilgrim (decent challenge tour player)

eu - kanik (former card holder), houdek (young czech prospect), konterman (been decent on challenge tour for some time), van de pas (yes, that one), springer (german player, looked pretty good early last year on euro tour), zygla (no idea), veenstra (formerly really high in bdo/wdf rankings), van schie (also no idea)

Lol at people competing that average 40. It's nice to get out of the house i guess

yeah, at least now they have the two stage thing where they can get rid of the "fun" players pretty quickly

pdc cash cow update: not complete dumpster fire again, got first round bye, then got a couple of wins before missing a bunch of match darts to matthew "nearly ended durrant's pdc career before it started" dennant. probably fairly safe to make stage 2 barring a complete first round dicking tomorrow. uk side just done with day 2, through are:

andy hamilton (for it is him), mike warburton (looked real good in bdo about 4-5 years ago but done little since), david sumner (no idea), jim moston (name rings a bell but not sure what for, may have qualified for uk open or something), chris quantock (was a card holder a few years ago, think he's still fairly young), josh payne (had card for years before losing it in 2021), graham usher (pretty consistent on challenge tour) and nick kenny (mostly known for bdo stuff, did have a card for 2-3 years, sneaking into the worlds through the backdoor at least once)

euro day 2 just done, qualifiers are:

chris landman (pretty successful in bdo/wdf, made pdc worlds a couple of years ago), andy baetens (been around the top of the wdf ranks for some time), stefan schroder (no idea), marko kantele (veteran finn who's had a card in the past), corey cadby (he's back!), steven strobbe (no idea), robbie knops (same), roy van de griendt (noticed him in a couple of challenge tours but meh)

some names needing results tomorrow or they're done include wayne jones, harry ward, adam smith-neale, scott taylor, steve hine, alan norris, leighton bennett, chas barstow and reece colley on the uk side, in eu jeffrey de graaf, wesley plaisier, alex spellman and alex merkx are about the only big names in trouble. plaisier missing out would be a huge shock