World Matchplay 2016 - 3
Upswing and Decline
While Blackpool never had a harbour the small neighbouring town of Poulton-Le-Fyle had even two at the beginning of the 19. Century - one on each side of the River Wyre. At this time Poulton, which has today a population of around 18 000, was an important centre of trade and even ships from Russia or North America dropped anchor. Different good were imported. Flax arrived from Ireland and the Baltic countries, oat from Scotland and England, coal from Preston. Important markets for cattle and cloth took place. Very important was the town for the flax industries which was far spread in the Fylde. With the industrial revolution all changed though the region around Poulton first refused all new industrial techniques. Over the years the Poulton harbours were displaced by the harbours of Fleetwood and Preston. When the railway arrived in Poulton there was another commercial upswing and every fortnight a cattle market took place. It took some time before the railway was build to Blackpool and all travellers had to change in Poulton to the horse drawn buses. But the commercial importance was in decline and today the town which existed even before the Norman invasion is only an unimportant small country town.
Upswing and decline is of course a big topic with dart players as well. All the time there are new faces and older, well-known ones disappear. Over are the times when Blackpool could celebrate local players on stage. Ronnie Baxter and Wes Newton both sunk into obscurity. While you still hear from time to time from Wes Newton it is a long time till we heard from Ronnie Baxter though both players still play on the Pro Tour. Wes Newton is ranked 34 in the PDC Order of Merit, Ronnie Baxter 49. But another veteran of the sport still manages to impress with good performance and did so on the third and last first round day of the World Matchplay - Steve Beaton. Beaton defeated Jelle Klaasen 10:6. And it was a convincing win as Beaton just played better as Klaasen. Some people had already seen Klaasen as a possible Premier League player. But to reach this Klaasen would have to improve a lot. At the moment it more looks that after a short impressive upswing he's already again in decline.
Certainly an upswing we could watch in the second match which surprisingly Brendan Dolan managed to win. Recently you only could follow more disappointing appearances of the North Ireland player while his opponent Raymond van Barneveld looked quite consistent. Might be not as good as he had been but usually showing good performances. But somehow he had his problems with Dolan, might be he didn't get on with the slow throwing rhythm. His biggest problems in the match were the doubles though while Dolan hit 59 percent - a more then decent quote. And probably that was the crucial difference.
The following match was one of those which made even the crowd break out in sweat - Phil Taylor v Robbie Green. Would Green have won that certainly would have been an upswing for him and a new discussion would have started whether Taylor is not really in decline...But somehow Taylor managed in the end. It could have been much easier for him would he have hit his doubles. He didn't in parts of the match and Green had chance after chance and he used them. It helped a lot that he scored almost as well as Taylor at least at the start of the match. Both players hit seven 180s!!! To be sure it was not a dominant performance by Taylor. We'll have to wait and see how he'll do in his next matches.
The last match between Michael Smith and Simon Whitlock felt not really gripping after that though it was not a bad match at least not at the start when both players were on par. But Smith not really looked inspired - might be he only was nervous as most players are in the first round. Whitlock gave it all but that is at the moment and already for some time not enough to win important matches. That of course poses the question whether he'll manage an upswing again.
Due to the highly competitive matches it was quite a long evening. Outside a mild evening waited and a full moon shone on Blackpool Tower.
