In less than five years on the PDC circuit, Superchin Daryl Gurney won his first major. Winning the World Grand Prix changed Gurney from a contender to a winner overnight and opened up great opportunities from the thrower residing from Derry in Northern Ireland.
Playing in the PDC initially was no easy task, as any tour card holder will admit. From 2013 to the present day the PDC calendar has become more demanding, with an ever-increasing standard in a term I have heard and used a few times, you snooze, you lose!
Daryl’s fortune started to turn a corner in 2012 where In June 2012, Gurney won the England Masters, Northern Ireland Open and the Tom Kirby Memorial Trophy in fairly quick succession. In winning the latter he earned a spot in the preliminary round of the 2013 PDC World Championship, where he edged out Robert Marijanović 4–3 in legs. Gurney then beat Andy Smith 3–1 in sets in the first round. Gurney then lost each of the first three sets in a deciding leg in the second round against Dave Chisnall and outscored him in the 180 count, but was beaten 4–1.
In January 2013, it was time for Gurney to enter Q School in an attempt to win a two-year PDC tour card and was successful on the second day by winning six matches and the Irishman has never looked back since.
In the ever-competitive environment, Gurney excelled up the rankings and broke into the World’s top 32 during 2016 with his first major semi final in the 2015 Pro tour finals. The top 32 was maintained during the year with quarter final appearances at the World Grand Prix, followed up by the World Championships in what would be Gurney’s best year to date.
2017 early on teased Gurney as the real contender with back-to-back Semi finals in the UK Open and World Matchplay and in October lifted the World Grand Prix defeating Simon Whitlock in the final.
Looking back to the beginning of that year, his direction was painting a positive picture and was hot property throughout the year.
Gurney with his initial major win weeks later went deep in the European Championship only to lose out in the Semi Finals. With a quarter final at the Grand Slam and Players Championship Finals was seemingly where Gurney peaked from such a good run.
2018 for the first half of the year was not a great experience for Super-Chin with early exits in the World Championships followed by the Masters weeks later. The Premier League saw Gurney finish 5th, but in between suffered another early exit at the UK open making the last 32.
With the World Series invitation could well have been what Gurney needed from a below par few months as a last 16 World Matchplay exit again did not inspire critics. With the World Grand Prix defence approaching, Gurney had the Champions League of Darts as a warm up, however failing to qualify from the event.
With form not on his side, the defence of the World Grand Prix begun well seeing off John Henderson. Ron Meulenkamp gave Superchin a scare in round 2 taking the game to the deciding set. With this came confidence in demolishing Gary Anderson in the quarter finals, but was derailed easily by Mighty Mike to make a very respectable Semi-final run.
Expecting that form may have turned a corner suffered a first round exit at the European Championships and continued at the World Series Finals. For a World number five not to have qualified for the Grand Slam outright was a pleasant surprise, as two weeks after the Grand Slam begun, Daryl Gurney chalked up his second PDC major in lifting the Players Championship title in an event, where the Irishman nearly suffered defeat in the last 32 against Ryan Searle. Following this saw growing confidence with wins over Brendan Dolan 10-6, a 10-2 drubbing of Chris Dobey and a 11-3 lesson on Danny Noppert to reach the final.
The Final was against Mighty Mike where the opening twelve legs all went on throw until Gerwen took the first break of the game. Daryl broke back immediately and held his nerve to then regain the lead on throw. The Green Machine then broke back in leg 17 within two of victory. The crowd was more PRO Gurney than ever as he broke immediately to take leg 18 and the fans then roared him home to take the title 11-9 in quite the final.
The reaction of Gurney winning the title could see in his emotions how hard he worked for this seeing as 2018 was not a year before this event that would be seen as a success. Putting it more fairly would assess that the demands of the Premier League and World Series invitationals appeared to take its toll. As history would suggest, other players form post Premier League appearances led to a downturn in form. Names such as Wes Newton, Kim Huybrechts and Mark Webster come to mind.
Daryl Gurney’s victory has certainly assisted his planning for 2019 as Daryl would have been contending his toughest year having 2017 money to defend from Semi Finals in the UK Open and Matchplay as well as his World Grand Prix victory. With the Players Championship title victory of £100,000 has certainly turned a disappointing season into a season saver.
By easing the burden with the ranking points will take considerable pressure off the Irish thrower and will at least assist in preserving his PDC world ranking moving forward.
Hopefully Gurney’s mindset of winning a major ranking event two years running will give the man a thirst to make it a third in 2019 and will have plenty of opportunity to do so. With the pressures of the PDC calendar, Gurney will need to be selective to keep himself relatively fresh, three-four deep runs at the European Tour to secure qualification for October’s event should be a target. The UK Open as an open draw will need some luck of the Irish for all players.
Gurney will thrive in 2019 off the back of his success and can pocket opportunities in events where the likes of MVG and Anderson choose to miss events as one of the front runners.
Good luck for 2019 Daryl Gurney and let a third major come your way again very soon!
Playing in the PDC initially was no easy task, as any tour card holder will admit. From 2013 to the present day the PDC calendar has become more demanding, with an ever-increasing standard in a term I have heard and used a few times, you snooze, you lose!
Daryl’s fortune started to turn a corner in 2012 where In June 2012, Gurney won the England Masters, Northern Ireland Open and the Tom Kirby Memorial Trophy in fairly quick succession. In winning the latter he earned a spot in the preliminary round of the 2013 PDC World Championship, where he edged out Robert Marijanović 4–3 in legs. Gurney then beat Andy Smith 3–1 in sets in the first round. Gurney then lost each of the first three sets in a deciding leg in the second round against Dave Chisnall and outscored him in the 180 count, but was beaten 4–1.
In January 2013, it was time for Gurney to enter Q School in an attempt to win a two-year PDC tour card and was successful on the second day by winning six matches and the Irishman has never looked back since.
In the ever-competitive environment, Gurney excelled up the rankings and broke into the World’s top 32 during 2016 with his first major semi final in the 2015 Pro tour finals. The top 32 was maintained during the year with quarter final appearances at the World Grand Prix, followed up by the World Championships in what would be Gurney’s best year to date.
2017 early on teased Gurney as the real contender with back-to-back Semi finals in the UK Open and World Matchplay and in October lifted the World Grand Prix defeating Simon Whitlock in the final.
Looking back to the beginning of that year, his direction was painting a positive picture and was hot property throughout the year.
Gurney with his initial major win weeks later went deep in the European Championship only to lose out in the Semi Finals. With a quarter final at the Grand Slam and Players Championship Finals was seemingly where Gurney peaked from such a good run.
2018 for the first half of the year was not a great experience for Super-Chin with early exits in the World Championships followed by the Masters weeks later. The Premier League saw Gurney finish 5th, but in between suffered another early exit at the UK open making the last 32.
With the World Series invitation could well have been what Gurney needed from a below par few months as a last 16 World Matchplay exit again did not inspire critics. With the World Grand Prix defence approaching, Gurney had the Champions League of Darts as a warm up, however failing to qualify from the event.
With form not on his side, the defence of the World Grand Prix begun well seeing off John Henderson. Ron Meulenkamp gave Superchin a scare in round 2 taking the game to the deciding set. With this came confidence in demolishing Gary Anderson in the quarter finals, but was derailed easily by Mighty Mike to make a very respectable Semi-final run.
Expecting that form may have turned a corner suffered a first round exit at the European Championships and continued at the World Series Finals. For a World number five not to have qualified for the Grand Slam outright was a pleasant surprise, as two weeks after the Grand Slam begun, Daryl Gurney chalked up his second PDC major in lifting the Players Championship title in an event, where the Irishman nearly suffered defeat in the last 32 against Ryan Searle. Following this saw growing confidence with wins over Brendan Dolan 10-6, a 10-2 drubbing of Chris Dobey and a 11-3 lesson on Danny Noppert to reach the final.
The Final was against Mighty Mike where the opening twelve legs all went on throw until Gerwen took the first break of the game. Daryl broke back immediately and held his nerve to then regain the lead on throw. The Green Machine then broke back in leg 17 within two of victory. The crowd was more PRO Gurney than ever as he broke immediately to take leg 18 and the fans then roared him home to take the title 11-9 in quite the final.
The reaction of Gurney winning the title could see in his emotions how hard he worked for this seeing as 2018 was not a year before this event that would be seen as a success. Putting it more fairly would assess that the demands of the Premier League and World Series invitationals appeared to take its toll. As history would suggest, other players form post Premier League appearances led to a downturn in form. Names such as Wes Newton, Kim Huybrechts and Mark Webster come to mind.
Daryl Gurney’s victory has certainly assisted his planning for 2019 as Daryl would have been contending his toughest year having 2017 money to defend from Semi Finals in the UK Open and Matchplay as well as his World Grand Prix victory. With the Players Championship title victory of £100,000 has certainly turned a disappointing season into a season saver.
By easing the burden with the ranking points will take considerable pressure off the Irish thrower and will at least assist in preserving his PDC world ranking moving forward.
Hopefully Gurney’s mindset of winning a major ranking event two years running will give the man a thirst to make it a third in 2019 and will have plenty of opportunity to do so. With the pressures of the PDC calendar, Gurney will need to be selective to keep himself relatively fresh, three-four deep runs at the European Tour to secure qualification for October’s event should be a target. The UK Open as an open draw will need some luck of the Irish for all players.
Gurney will thrive in 2019 off the back of his success and can pocket opportunities in events where the likes of MVG and Anderson choose to miss events as one of the front runners.
Good luck for 2019 Daryl Gurney and let a third major come your way again very soon!