Saturday 8^th November.

I had drawn Robert Thornton (pictured right) in the first round of this competition and he is the current World Masters Champion and has been one of the in form players in the PDC at the present moment.

I took the opening leg in 14 darts and Robert replied in 13 darts in the 2^nd leg. The 3^rd leg I hit 140,100,61,140 and missed a 60 checkout to take the first set. Robert punished me for that and took the set and kicked off the next set with a 180, he also took the 2^nd set 2-1 with my winning leg being 14 darts.

The 3^rd set was also a 2-1 win for Robert again with my winning leg coming in 14 darts.

This meant I lost 3-0 to him but taking positives out of this is quite easy –

The match went very similar to my game with Robert Thornton losing every set 1-2 although missing some opportunities which could have swayed the game in my direction.

I was not happy after losing this game and this is no disrespect to Felix but more respecting my own belief in my own ability. I am glad I was not happy because if I was then I would be saying that I am happy to go away losing.

FULL RESULTS AND PDC REPORTS HERE  Players Championship

Going forward for me…

I have entered the German Open which is played in Halle on 29^th and 30^th November then I am playing in the World Championship qualifiers on Saturday 6^th December.

I am then going to re-evaluate where I go from there. Although I believe that I will play the circuit next year it may be a much reduced tour which I will be doing. By much reduced I mean that I will be hand selecting which tournaments I go to starting with Gibraltar in January and Doncaster also in January.

The entry fees go up next year so its £100 per event to enter but the good news is the last 64 payout is increasing to £200 which basically needs to be used to enter the next 2 events.

It is not easy at all but on current form all I need to do is get a bit of luck in my performances and also in the event draws and I will automatically be earning money enough to cover my expenses.

Happy darting,

Dave Ladley

I travelled to Scotland at the weekend and played in the Scottish Players Championships on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday was a bad start for me and I lost 3-0 to Peter Walford and I was not sure what I had done wrong. Usually I analyse what I have done then try and correct it for the next tournament. This time I just literally put it down to a ‘bad game’ which can happen to anyone in any sport and just set my concentration back onto Sundays Players Championship.

On Sunday I had drawn Matt Gallett in the first round. Matt is an up and coming players with quite a lot of talent. I took the opening set 2-1 with a good finish under pressure in the deciding leg and also did this in the second set winning 2-1 with a 113 finish in the deciding leg when Matt was sitting on double 16. The 3^rd set was also 2-1 for me and I won the match 3-0 in sets. This set up another clash with Colin Lloyd who I seem to be drawing all the time at the moment.

I took the opening leg and Colin took the 2^nd and I had a good 3^rd leg leaving Colin stranded in 200’s with me leaving 70, a big score from Colin put pressure on the 70 finish and I missed one dart at double 20 for the set only to see Colin finish and take the set 2-1.

The same pattern in the 2^nd and 3^rd sets gave me a 3-0 loss. I was happy to improve on Saturday’s performance but mad I did not take the opportunities as they arose,

Positives

Sponsorship with Fallen Hero

The original sponsorship deal between myself and Fallen Hero (which enabled me to play The PDC Pro tour for the last 12 months) has come to an end.

This is something which has come as no surprise because we had agreed a set period of time when the sponsorship deal was first signed.      I would like to personally thank Fallen Hero for their sponsorship and support which has been nothing short of fantastic.

Des Comerford of Fallen Hero said

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my relationship with Dave both personally and on a business level. Dave has promoted our brand professionally and I can only encourage other sponsors to come on board. The coverage and profile Fallen Hero have received on the PDC (Professional Darts Cooperation) has been phenomenal”

This does not mean that I will not carry on doing the Pro Tour, very much the opposite; it just means that I will be looking for smaller sponsors to help me rather than just one large sponsor and in my eyes this is much more manageable for businesses.

I am looking for 10 sponsors who would help me carry on the Pro Tour and so far I have managed to get 5 businesses interested.

For all of those people who know me know full well what I am about and how serious I take the darts and how much I believe in my own ability and without this I would not have achieved what I have achieved in the sport so far. There is much more to come and I can assure one and all that I will be putting full effort in to achieve my targets which I have set for the next 12 months. Number 1 target is to qualify for the 2009 World Championship and Number 2 is to start 2009 off to a flyer by gaining good results in Gibraltar and Doncaster which will set me rolling for the year.

I still have 3 events left to play this year – Holland Players Championship in Leiden, German Open in Halle and the World Championships Play-Offs in Wolverhampton.

Next event in Holland and I cant wait……..

I had drawn Steve Maish in the first round of the event and I have played Steve twice before and had not beat him so I knew that I had a difficult game to play.

I opened up brilliantly hitting 95,140,135,99 double 16 for a 13 dart leg and followed up winning the 2^nd leg and the set 2-0 with a 139 finish (T19,T14,D20) for 15 darts whilst Steve was sitting on a double.

The second set was a good reply for Steve but I had missed chances. The 3^rd set was mine 2-1 with Steve missing 3 darts at double 10 to let me in and punish him (nice to have the boot on the other foot for a change).

The 4^th set was Steves and I had missed doubles so this levelled things up for us 50/50. The 5^th set 1^st leg I finished 81 (S15,S16,BULL) for 15 darts with Steve sitting on a double but again he returned the favour winning the 2^nd leg and setting up a deciding leg. I hit 83,140,135, to leave 143 with Steve still in the 400’s I knew all I had to do was hold my nerve and hit the finish – T20,T17 and missed double 16 but tidied this up next time to get a win which I knew I thoroughly deserved.

My second round clash was with Adrian Lewis who I class as one of the top 5 players in the world and his natural ability is awesome. I won the first leg in 15 darts and missed an 80 finish on double 20 to win the first set 2-0 only to watch him take out 106 for the leg then win the 3^rd leg for the 1^st set.

The second set followed the same pattern as the 1^st with me taking a decent first leg the missing a dart for the 2^nd leg and again losing the decider this time due to a 12 dart Lewis leg. The game was becoming very indicative of a match where someone is chasing and the chaser being me.

The 3^rd set first leg was taken by Adrian and despite throwing first in the 2^nd leg I could only admire the darts he was throwing as he took another great leg to win the match.

Dublin Players Championship Sunday 5^th October 2008

I had drawn Colin Lloyd in the first round of this event and again knew I had a sizeable task on my hands. I had played him in Holland 2 months ago and had run him very close so knew I had the game to get at him but again knew I had to hit him early as this standard of player does not need me to gift him an early lead.

The first leg was a storming opening for me 180,140,145 and sitting on D18 only to see 3 darts miss and lose the opening leg. I never get despondent and again took a good 14 dart leg to go 1-1 but missed out in the deciding leg and went 1 set down.

Without going into details the next 2 sets followed roughly the same pattern as the first set and I lost the match 3-0. Missed doubles cost me dearly losing each set 2-1 and only one leg of the 9 played where I did not have a shot at the double.

This sounds disappointing but believe me I am not taking any negatives from my weekends performance.

Positives from the weekend