Winmau World Masters Play-Offs 2016

On the first day of the World Masters always the matches are played on the floor. The men play down to the last 16 - that means to the board finals of the 16 groups. The winners of the board finals usually have to play four to five matches and will play on the second day of the tournament on stage against the 16 seeded players which don't have to take part in the floor matches. This ruling when it first introduced caused some indignation but now it looks everybody is used to it. By the ruling the BDO wanted to prevent that on stage in front of the TV cameras only no names would play, as of course the well-known players had problems to survive the floor matches as well

This year the players winning through the floor matches were Norbert Attard - a not well known player from Malta who reached the semimifinals of the WDF Europe Cup 2016, the better known Swede Oskar Lukasiak, Canadians Kiley Edmunds and Jeff Smith - runner- up in the BDO World Championship 2016, Englishmen Gary Robson, David Copley, David Parletti and James Hurrell, Irish John O'Shea and Michael Meaney, Neil Duff from Northern Ireland, Welshman Steve Alker who some years ago played in the PDC, German Robert Allenstein and Scotsman Alan Soutar. Eliminated in the board finals were some well known names like Tony O'Shea, Ted Hankey, Madars Razma and Wouter Vaes. Toon Greebe reached the board finals as well - a young Dutchman who was infamous a few years ago as he was not able to decide whether to play PDC or BDO. It looks he's settled in the BDO now for good. One of the beaten finalists was Austrian Hannes Schnier.
Of the other German speaking players most lost already their first matches, only German Martin Schindler and Daniel Zygla and Swiss Felix Schiertz stood at the oche twice. How the chances are the qualifiers will win against the seeded players? That probably will depend on the form on the day and how they will cope with the stage and the TV cameras. Many of the seeded players to be sure are beatable among those is Robert Allenstein's opponent Jim Williams who didn't play a great 2016. His only real success was reaching the final of the WDF Europe Cup. So we can hope for interesting matches.

There were eight groups for the women this year and only four places in the quarterfinals on grab so the board winners had to play against each other. It were Maria O'Brien and Trina Gulliver from England, Australian Corrine Hammond and Vicky Pruim from Sweden who qualified. The women's quarterfinals will be played on the third day of the World Masters. Big names like Casey Gallagher, Rachel Brooks and Ann-Louise Peters couldn't qualify this year. A little bit annoying in our German view: Steffi Rennoch and Steffi Lück had to play against each other in the last 16. Steffi Rennoch won but lost in the last eight against Australian Corrine Hammond. The quarterfinals draw didn't take place yet but I think in the women's event the seeded ladies Lisa Ashton, Deta Hedman, Aileen de Graaf and Anastasia Dobromyslova will turn out to be the stronger players. Might be Anastasia could be some kind of uncertain prospect, but the qualifiers will need a good day nevertheless to beat her.

The youth players were in action on floor on this first day as well - both girls and boys played their events down to the final. The finals will follow on day two on stage in front of the TV cameras. None of the German speaking boys reached the last 32 which were dominated by English and Dutch players. Those eliminated till the semi-finals all participants from other countries and we had an all English and an all Dutch semifinal. Owen Maiden from England and Dutch Justin van Tergouw will meet in the final.
Far less girls did take part in the girl's events - there were only two groups. None of the countries dominated - it was a very varied field of participants. The semifinals reached two girls from Denmark, one from Russia and one from England named Beau Greaves who at the moment is rather uncontested. Two years ago Greaves reached the final as well. She had no problems with her opponent beating her 4:0. Russian Veronika Koroleva reached the final with the same result. Under the last eight she defeated German Denise Schuler 4:0 as well.









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