The Darts Shop

The ice man
Of the guys that have reached the last 16, so far the most impressive has been Barney. He's gone back to the darts he used when he first came to the PDC and he now looks like the most comfortable player in the tournament.

I reckon it's all down to ice skates...

Barney is apparently a keen ice skater and he has been studying speed skating to improve his darts technique. He's looked at the way that speed skaters lean forward and allow their foot to leave the skate and he's applied that to the art of releasing a dart.

As the Sky Sports flight cam shows, if you release the dart too early then the parabola will be too high - but if you take your hand off too early and "push the dart" then it will fly lower.

But a bit like Robert Stephenson watching a kettle, Barney has figured out how a skate can stay on the ice while the ankle flexes. He's applied that technology to darts and his release is now better than ever before.

Now that his release is perfect, the other things that use to faze him - like the crowd and the venue - don't bother him. He needed a Zen Master to win two years ago, but he looks as cool as anything right now.
Top of the Klaas
The man that looks the most inspired up there is another Dutchman, Jelle Klaasen.

This Cristiano Ronaldo look-a-like is a very cool dude who was world champion at the age of 21. I sometimes wonder how his darts go in because he lifts his back leg up like a ballet dancer and twists his shoulder as he throws - yet on Sunday night he had about nine 180s and he's been very, very impressive.

One has to say Wayne Mardle is looking strong. He shared twenty 180s with Robert Thornton on Saturday night which is remarkable when you consider that in the first world championship in 1978 there were only 37 in the entire tournament.

Wayne has shaken off his show-pony image once and for all and has proved he is a battler. Not only that, but he's worked out the equation to balance show business and efficient darts.

As for Phil Taylor, I still think he throws his new shorter darts slightly wrong when he's under pressure, causing it to dip around the double 16.

His muscle memory seems to be troubling him and we haven't seen the best of him yet. Maybe we'll see it against Kevin Painter, who is notorious for his verbals on stage.

The problem is he sometimes puts himself off as much as the other player, but he seems to have refined that in this tournament. Taylor v Painter should be a classic on Monday night.