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Well, as we mentioned in our earlier post, Mervyn King has had a fantastic 7 days. Not only did he consolidate his place at the top of the Premier League (joint) with a win over the man who beat him in last year’s final, James Wade, but he did the double in Swindon, winning the Players Championship on Saturday and then winning the UK Open Qualifier on the Sunday.
His win on the Saturday was his first tournament win in 2008, but he had a decent 2009 and his start to 2010 has been nothing short of brilliant, with a closely fought defeat to Paul Nicholson in the Players Championship Final at the start of February to add to his two wins out of two in the Premier League.
Saturday.
King outlasted 155 other players to claim the Players Championship title on Saturday. He started with a 6-5 win over Steve Evans, before beating Andy Callaby 6-2. His first “name” player came in round three, but by then King had hit his stride and he defeated Vincent van der Voort quite comfortably 6-2. The same scoreline gave King the victory over Steve Hine. He then took on an in-form Adrian Lewis, but Jackpot was sent packing 6-4. Another Premier League face in the shape of Ronnie Baxter stood in the way of King and the final, but Baxter proved no match to the red hot King and Baxter was sent home with £1,500 after a 6-1 defeat.
So, all that stood in the way of King and the title was Andy “The Hammer” Hamilton. Both men scored heavily, but it was King’s consistent finishing that allowed him to run out a 6-3 winner.
So, quite comfortably scorelines after the first round and it really shows how well King is playing with his new darts, which he seems to love at the moment.
On the Saturday, Jamie Caven got back on track with his consistent form in floor tournaments getting him to the semi-finals, where he narrowly lost to Andy Hamilton 6-5. Simon Whitlock also made it to the last 16, as he tries to eek out the wins on his start on the PDC ProTour.
Sunday.
Sunday’s UK Open Qualifier started off in a similar fashiong for King. He again started with a hard-fought 6-5 win, this time over Anastasia Dobromyslova. Then it was time for King to go into overdrive, picking up consequtive 6-3 wins over Peter Wright, Ronnie Baxter, Jamie Caven and Wayne Jones. It was the second time in two days that King defeated Baxter and surely it looks ominous for when they meet in the Premier League.
King then faced James Wade in arguably his toughest match of the weekend, but Wade was dealt with much in the same way as he was dealt with in Bournemouth in the Premier League on Thursday.
Then all that was left for King to do was beat Simon Whitlock to claim the £6,000 and complete a famous double. He did it quite easily, winning 6-1 thanks to some heavy scoring and, most importantly, clinical finishing at the important times.
King joins an elite group of men who have won both tournaments when two ProTour events have been hold over one weekend: Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis and Robert Thornton. Definitely some esteemed company for him to be in.
What else was notable on the Sunday was Simon Whitlock’s impressive start to his PDC ProTour career, after his last 16 on the Saturday. However, what might be even more impressive was Aaron Monk’s, simply because he beat his father Colin 6-5 in the third round, before losing to Wayne Jones in the fourth round.
So, King is clearly in top form at the minute, which is reflected in his prices for upcoming tournaments:
He is currently 9/1 second favourite with Blue Square to win the Premier League thanks to his great start to 2010.
He is currently 1/2 with Stan James to keep his good form against Ronnie Baxter in the Premier League on Thursday.
Stan James go an extremely generous 33/1 for Mervyn King to win the 2011 World Championship and if he keeps this form up for the whole year, that price is going to look like some of the greatest value of all time come December.
If you are looking to start your ante-post betting on the PDC World Championship, check out the prices below, head on over to Stan James and claim your £25 free bet when you sign up:
