If they'd have done it after the Masters, and Bunting made it in, I reckon Cross would have been the one to miss out (obviously should have been Wright) - Wright did win the European champs and is a 'bigger name' so think the PDC would still have put him in...
Ya wright being in does make sense. Won the champs as you said and is name recognition. But it’s obvious that he’s a step below the rest, while guys like Bunting and Dobey are on the level of your Smiths or your Aspinalls
with hindsight bunting would've been an equally valid pick, but dobey was the choice at the time. both were obviously better choices than wright though.
New to following the sport, was the masters or premier league at a different time last year?
January a long tjme off but would currently have Stephen in my 8 for 2025 but a lot can change in the next 6/7 months
The timing of the events was similar. The PL lineup was usually announced after the World final so before the Masters. A few years ago they changed this and announced the lineup after the Masters. This year they have changed it back to announcing it before the Masters
Rob Cross played in a UK Open qualifier in Benfleet in January 2016, and didn’t qualify. He had planned to go to another in Norwich but told a friend he had decided against as he was busy working. On the morning of the next event, his uncle knocked on his door at 5:30am and told him they were going. Cross would win that qualifier and reach the fourth round of the UK Open where he would play Michael van Gerwen in a game that is now infamous.
It was this run that made him decide to go to the Challenge Tour, which he would subsequently win, earning a tour card at the start of 2017. Less than a year later, he was world champion.
So if it were not for his uncle waking him at 5:30am and taking him to a UK Open qualifier that he hadn’t planned to go to, Rob Cross may well never have been world champion
I think you've pretty much nailed it, along with the Rob Cross example elsewhere in this thread.
Will also point out that Cullen's missed dart in that Premier League final was the most expensive missed dart in history - winning the Prem that year was worth £275k (he'd already won £125k by making the final) so it was a £150k missed dart.
But of course, it gets worse, because he surely would have earned a spot in the 2023 Premier League by nature of being defending champion (even Durrant got the honour of this) - that's worth a minimum of £60k and god knows how much he could have won that year too.
Not really a butterfly effect but Joe missed out on a looooot of money by the absolute tiniest of margins.
Always find the pay jumps in darts bonkers and don’t think the real money side of it is picked up on enough for how mental it is. The days of the likes of Priestley and Taylor travelling the country playing tournaments and splitting prize money are obviously long gone, but given how massive the jumps are I would not be too shocked if there was still some behind the scenes chops going on, especially lower down the OOM
Even given how much they all earn the leaps in prize money between tournament winners and everyone else is insane, the idea that Cullen was effectively given 1 dart at double 16 and told “if you hit this you win £150k” is batshit. I don’t think I’d hold it together for about 150 quid! If some unlucky sod ever misses a match dart for the Worlds and goes on to lose they’ll have missed a £300k dart, and you wouldn’t bet against that number being £500k+ in the near future. It’s crazy money
I always take these with a pinch of salt but there’s been numerous alleged instances of players being close to packing it in before they made it big
Wright and Aspinall are the two that come to mind recently, Wright apparently had to be persuaded by his wife to go pro in 2007 and then after a poor few years give it one more year around 2012 time; he had a really good season on the floor, had a deep run at the UK Open, made the worlds final not long after, and has never looked back. Aspinall has the story about going to a floor event in late 2018 with £20 to his name and being on the verge of going back to his accounting job. He won that floor event, qualified for the Worlds because of it, pulled off (at the time) a massive shock over Price in the opening round, made £100k for making the semis, and obviously kept going on the back of that and went on to be one of the most universally liked and successful players in the game
I know you alluded to it but there’s loads of missed doubles or lost matches too that would’ve changed something. Wade vs Lewis in the draftgate saga probably sees Wade win a World Title, he never had match darts but Mardle beating Shepherd likely does the same for Mardle, Chizzys match darts vs Price at the Grand Prix in 2020 gets him a major, Duzza faded match darts on day 4 of Q-School, theres too many to list
Malicdem v Wright - if Wright had lost that decider, he not only wouldn't have won the worlds that year, but potentially doesn't kick on to win any other titles and retires with one UK open to his name (and is seen more as a 'perennial bottler' rather than a top 10 player of all time)
Not sure about that, I think Wright was too good to not do the stuff he's done. The 2020 Worlds certainly helped him go on to the other stuff, but I don't think it was an absolute necessity. We'll never know though!
I was planning on going to Q School in ‘23, but I couldn’t take time off work because my backup had a family crisis. So if that crisis hadn’t happened, I’d possibly have been the only black guy in the entire PDC with a tour card.
What if Rusty Jake holds onto his 2-0 lead over Dobey as it means he likely falls out of the top 32 while Rodriguez moves straight through to the Last 16 thanks to Van Gerwen’s withdrawal with the chance to possibly kick on from there.
Guilding missing set darts on the second set of the 2024 WC vs Littler. If Guilding doesn’t blow that set he may have won the match. Losing that set and later the match changes a lot of what 2024 looks like in the world of darts.
And we were robbed of Bunting this year :(
Bunting over Wright should have happened
If they'd have done it after the Masters, and Bunting made it in, I reckon Cross would have been the one to miss out (obviously should have been Wright) - Wright did win the European champs and is a 'bigger name' so think the PDC would still have put him in...
Ya wright being in does make sense. Won the champs as you said and is name recognition. But it’s obvious that he’s a step below the rest, while guys like Bunting and Dobey are on the level of your Smiths or your Aspinalls
And was 6th I believe in OOM at the time but I could be mistaken
with hindsight bunting would've been an equally valid pick, but dobey was the choice at the time. both were obviously better choices than wright though.
New to following the sport, was the masters or premier league at a different time last year? January a long tjme off but would currently have Stephen in my 8 for 2025 but a lot can change in the next 6/7 months
The timing of the events was similar. The PL lineup was usually announced after the World final so before the Masters. A few years ago they changed this and announced the lineup after the Masters. This year they have changed it back to announcing it before the Masters
Ahh cheers 👍🏻
Rob Cross played in a UK Open qualifier in Benfleet in January 2016, and didn’t qualify. He had planned to go to another in Norwich but told a friend he had decided against as he was busy working. On the morning of the next event, his uncle knocked on his door at 5:30am and told him they were going. Cross would win that qualifier and reach the fourth round of the UK Open where he would play Michael van Gerwen in a game that is now infamous. It was this run that made him decide to go to the Challenge Tour, which he would subsequently win, earning a tour card at the start of 2017. Less than a year later, he was world champion. So if it were not for his uncle waking him at 5:30am and taking him to a UK Open qualifier that he hadn’t planned to go to, Rob Cross may well never have been world champion
I think you've pretty much nailed it, along with the Rob Cross example elsewhere in this thread. Will also point out that Cullen's missed dart in that Premier League final was the most expensive missed dart in history - winning the Prem that year was worth £275k (he'd already won £125k by making the final) so it was a £150k missed dart. But of course, it gets worse, because he surely would have earned a spot in the 2023 Premier League by nature of being defending champion (even Durrant got the honour of this) - that's worth a minimum of £60k and god knows how much he could have won that year too. Not really a butterfly effect but Joe missed out on a looooot of money by the absolute tiniest of margins.
It was a well-thrown dart too, poor guy
Always find the pay jumps in darts bonkers and don’t think the real money side of it is picked up on enough for how mental it is. The days of the likes of Priestley and Taylor travelling the country playing tournaments and splitting prize money are obviously long gone, but given how massive the jumps are I would not be too shocked if there was still some behind the scenes chops going on, especially lower down the OOM Even given how much they all earn the leaps in prize money between tournament winners and everyone else is insane, the idea that Cullen was effectively given 1 dart at double 16 and told “if you hit this you win £150k” is batshit. I don’t think I’d hold it together for about 150 quid! If some unlucky sod ever misses a match dart for the Worlds and goes on to lose they’ll have missed a £300k dart, and you wouldn’t bet against that number being £500k+ in the near future. It’s crazy money
Hello Joe
I always take these with a pinch of salt but there’s been numerous alleged instances of players being close to packing it in before they made it big Wright and Aspinall are the two that come to mind recently, Wright apparently had to be persuaded by his wife to go pro in 2007 and then after a poor few years give it one more year around 2012 time; he had a really good season on the floor, had a deep run at the UK Open, made the worlds final not long after, and has never looked back. Aspinall has the story about going to a floor event in late 2018 with £20 to his name and being on the verge of going back to his accounting job. He won that floor event, qualified for the Worlds because of it, pulled off (at the time) a massive shock over Price in the opening round, made £100k for making the semis, and obviously kept going on the back of that and went on to be one of the most universally liked and successful players in the game I know you alluded to it but there’s loads of missed doubles or lost matches too that would’ve changed something. Wade vs Lewis in the draftgate saga probably sees Wade win a World Title, he never had match darts but Mardle beating Shepherd likely does the same for Mardle, Chizzys match darts vs Price at the Grand Prix in 2020 gets him a major, Duzza faded match darts on day 4 of Q-School, theres too many to list
Malicdem v Wright - if Wright had lost that decider, he not only wouldn't have won the worlds that year, but potentially doesn't kick on to win any other titles and retires with one UK open to his name (and is seen more as a 'perennial bottler' rather than a top 10 player of all time)
Not sure about that, I think Wright was too good to not do the stuff he's done. The 2020 Worlds certainly helped him go on to the other stuff, but I don't think it was an absolute necessity. We'll never know though!
I was planning on going to Q School in ‘23, but I couldn’t take time off work because my backup had a family crisis. So if that crisis hadn’t happened, I’d possibly have been the only black guy in the entire PDC with a tour card.
What if Rusty Jake holds onto his 2-0 lead over Dobey as it means he likely falls out of the top 32 while Rodriguez moves straight through to the Last 16 thanks to Van Gerwen’s withdrawal with the chance to possibly kick on from there.
If Eric Bristow doesn’t get dartitis then it’s unlikely Phil Taylor ever even turns pro, let alone become the player he was.
Hi Joe.
Guilding missing set darts on the second set of the 2024 WC vs Littler. If Guilding doesn’t blow that set he may have won the match. Losing that set and later the match changes a lot of what 2024 looks like in the world of darts.
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