BDO World Championship - Preview

On 2. January in the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green the BDO World Championship will begin - better - the two BDO World Championships as beside the Men's World Championship there exists the BDO women's World Championship as well.

When you look at the women to be sure reigning world champion Lisa Ashton as the BDO World Number 1 to be sure enters the tournament as favourite to win. Once she already defended her title - there is no reason she will not manage it again. Her head start to the number two Fallon Sherrock is quite distinct which speaks her form is really good. Of course there are some strong rivals, among them Fallon Sherrock who's improving all the time. On the big stage she's still showing nerves and not always her performances are on the high level she is able to produce. That could be a problem in Lakeside once again.

Anastasia Dobromyslova didn't look as strong as in the years before - she is at the moment the number 5 of the BDO but to be sure she is a high class player with some experience on the Lakeside stage. Aileen de Graaf after another good year could be a threat for Ashton as well. And then we have Deta Hedman who certainly has a chance to win the title though she is only the number four of the BDO this year. Till now the Lakeside stage always was a problem for her and she yet failed to convince. But might be this year it will be easier for her as she has much less pressure and not everybody expects she will win.

I can't imagine one of the other players will have a realistic chance to win - to be sure they are good players but in the ranking they are far behind the top five. Even Trina Gulliver is no longer playing on the same level as she did some years ago though I think she still could be able to cause an upset. She to be sure has the most experience in winning in Lakeside.


When I look at the seeded men I see only three players with a realistic chance to win the title: Glen Durrant, reigning champion Scott Mitchell and Martin Adams.

Glen Durrant - a quite unobtrusive player - is the deserved number 1 of the BDO. 2015 he won a lot of tournaments among them the prestigious Winmau World Masters and the Finders Masters. As he is really unobtrusive one often overlooks that he is a high class player who has by now a lot of experience and is quite capable to play consistently over a long tournament. In last year's world Championship he already reached the semi-finals - might be it will be the final this year. But of course the expectations on him - both of the fans and his own - are rather high. Under this pressure very often the number 1 seeds in the BDO World Championship crumbled away.

Of course reigning champion Scott Mitchell is one of the favourites as well despite his not too successful year 2015. As he admits he had just not enough time to practice, Might be he was able to spend more time at the practice board before the World Championship. Winning the title once to be sure makes this year's World Championship both more difficult and easier. He knows how to win - and experience which might help but the reigning champion always has a lot of pressure.


The third of the in my eyes real favourites is Martin Adams. As he himself says he can enter the tournament unburdened and relaxed as no one - not even himself - expects anything from him. Adams is a really strong and very consistent player which he proved during the Grand Slam. He might be is none of big scorers but he is a very good and high finisher. Beside he is really experienced on the Lakeside stage and he's already won the tournament several times. He's overcome the crisis after his divorce and is at least as strong as before. And I can imagine he even keeps his cool in a World Championship..


Beside those three top favourites there of course exist some players capable of an upset - Scott Waites for example might be the young Welshman Jim Williams as well. The not British among the seeded players didn't convince me during the Winmau World Masters - I can't see them to be able to win the World Championship. Some commotion could provide from the international qualifiers as last year Canadian Jeff Smith and might be American Larry Butler as well who impressed in the Winmau World Masters and the Grand Slam. Players like Darius Labanauskas and Peter Sajwani of course are able to survive the first round as well.




Among the other qualifiers the name Ted Hankey is eye catching, but I can't say whether he will be able to get into the later stages of the tournament. The same holds true for Tony O'Shea or Martin Phillips, who are no longer as strong as they were but who on their day still could be dangerous for the favourites.









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