The PDC World Series. A tour which first began in 2013 when the organisation decided to jet off to a tennis centre in Dubai and show the United Arab Emirates that you don’t necessarily need to look athletic to be an elite sportsperson.
On that occasion, the crowd was largely ex-pats – and by that, I don’t mean people who used to be called Pat then quickly changed their name because of its reference to a butch-looking EastEnders character with earrings the size of chandeliers. No, ex-pats means, in this instance, British folk who have decided they are sick of rain and idiotic politicians, so moved to pastures new. Tough to blame them really.
Since that inaugural trip, the World Series has rapidly expanded, with the PDC sending eight of their best around the globe to perform against the local talent. On occasion, it may seem like they’ve plucked random fans from the crowd or opened it up to Corn Flakes cereal competition winners, but when it comes to this weekend’s event – the Nordic Masters – the home team are represented by some very familiar names.
Firstly, let’s look at the elite lads. And it’s essentially your recent Premier League line-up but swapping a boulder for a machine. Josh Rock either didn’t fancy the trip to Denmark or was washing his hair the day everyone jetted off, so James Wade was offered the ticket and is more than an adequate replacement for the Northern Irish ace in Copenhagen.
Strangely, the Nordic octet comprises a couple of Baltic nation boys in Darius Labanauskas and Madars Razma. Either the person responsible for picking their team is dreadful at geography, decided against changing it to ‘The Nordic & Baltic Masters’ or simply thought, “Well, it’s close enough anyway and I’ve run out of decent Scandinavians, so screw it.” Perhaps we will never know – or even care.
All in all, there are five Swedes, a Norwegian the size of a steroid-abusing giraffe, a Lithuanian and someone from Latvia. All names most darts lovers will recognise. All hoping to cause a shock.
Latvian Madars Razma was given the unenviable task of facing world number one Luke Littler. But knowing him, he will relish the opportunity. There are some tasty-looking tungsten ties on offer and, because it’s being played in Europe, we don’t have to set our alarms in the UK at silly o’clock to watch the action live. Banging.
Mr Vegas Nordic Darts Masters – First Round Draw (June 5-6)
- Michael van Gerwen vs Oskar Lukasiak
- Stephen Bunting vs Viktor Tingstrom
- Gerwyn Price vs Darius Labanauskas
- Jonny Clayton vs Andreas Harrysson
- Luke Littler vs Cor Dekker
- James Wade vs Madars Razma
- Gian van Veen vs Daniel Larsson
- Luke Humphries vs Jeffrey de Graaf
