World champion Peter Wright ticks every box for being an all-time darting legend, writes Paul Nicholson

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The Asset also assesses Michael Smith's chances of bouncing back as well as other topics including the best three matches of the tournament, whether the overall standard was better than in recent years and if the withdrawal of Michael van Gerwen puts an asterisk next to the tournament.

On top of all that, he gives his early verdict on who will make the Premier League line-up...

'Wright things at the Wright time'

The manner in which Peter Wright won his second world title definitely puts him in the elite category of all-time greats.

Winning nine of the last 10 legs - with an average of 114 - when he looked in grave danger of defeat wasn’t the first time he’s been able to produce match-changing moments just when he needed to, under immense pressure.

Who could forget that double 18-double tops finish after Callan Rydz missed set darts at 3-2 up in his epic quarter-final victory? That reminded everyone of when he famously took out 302 in six darts when starring defeat in the face against Noel Malicdem on his way to his first world title two years ago.

Wright is someone who is able to find the brinkmanship saver and only special players at special moments can do that. He’s done it repeatedly.

What does that say about his mental strength when in Snakebite mode?

I don’t know where I’d put him exactly on the list of all-time legends but he’s definitely above most of those who have ‘only’ managed to win one world title.

I’d even say he’s a better player than John Part and John Lowe, who both won more world titles than he did. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of darts fans who’ll disagree with me about that but from a standard perspective, I’m sure even John Part will admit Wright is a better player than he ever was.

Wright can dominate, he can scrap, and he can pull out those majestic match-saving shots under pressure. He ticks every box.

That run of nine legs out of 10 came at a time when he was averaging around 95 towards the end of a gruelling final and just 24 hours after that incredible semi-final with Gary Anderson. He had to raise his game to astronomical levels out of nowhere for 10 legs when it looked like he was fatigued.

Amazingly his average en route to the 2014 final was better than he managed at this World Championship so what has he learned in the last eight years? It’s not that he has a better game, it’s to be better at winning the sets by taking out the key legs. He’s doing the right things at the right time.

That’s what makes you a world champion. If you can’t do that then you won’t be a world champion. Just look at James Wade as a prime example. He just hasn’t mastered straight start set darts at the longest format. His World Championship career proves this.

Bully Boy will bounce back

Make no mistake about it, Michael Smith did not choke in this final.

I don’t think there’s many players at all who would have won more than one leg during that Peter Wright blitz. He has to take some kind of solace from that.

Once he’s had a rest, he needs to switch his focus to getting back on the winning horse as soon as possible this coming season.

Whether that’s at The Masters or the first batch of Players Championship events in February. He can’t have any of those long spells without a title like he’s had in the past, because he needs to maintain that incredible momentum he built up over the past couple of months of 2021.

There’s no doubting his ability so his success will all boil down to his mental strength and bouncebackability.

Top three classics

It’s so hard to pick my top three because we were treated to so many classics, comebacks and shocks throughout the tournament and, as ridiculous as it sounds, I’m even going to have to leave out William Borland’s nine-dart victory over Bradley Brooks!

I commentated on that game and I’ll never forget it as long as I live – not just because of what Willie did at the end, but for how well both players performed from start to finish.

However, we’ve got to start with the final for the sheer number of 180s we saw from both players. There was 41 in total which was just one fewer than the record set by Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen in the 2017 final – while Michael Smith equalled the individual record of 24 which had been set 24 hours earlier by Wright against previous record holder Anderson!

Great matches don’t always need 100+ averages from start to finish – there needs to be something else in there, and we got that in the farcical second leg which Smith won in 28 darts after they’d combined to miss 21 attempts at double!

That was the worst leg of the tournament overall and it’s crazy to think it was set by the two best players. Just for context, the infamously poor leg of darts which always does the rounds on social media between Martin Adams and Tony Fleet at the Lakeside all those years ago was won by Wolfie in 27 darts, with his opponent back on 155.

We’ll always remember Smith’s 28-dart leg over many of the magic 10-darters we saw during the tournament, but fair to say the standard increased dramatically after that.

It speaks volumes that they both averaged around 99 over the 12 sets, which you just couldn’t take your eyes off. One minute it looked as though Smith was going to win when he led the 10th set 2-0 and nobody even thought about a repeat of the Grand Slam of Darts semi-final when Wright produced that majestic comeback. The fact he did it again showed just what kind of a player he is.

My second match of the tournament has to be Michael Smith’s victory over Gerwyn Price because it had the euphoria of the record-breaking third nine-dart finish and also the drama of missed match darts.

The standard of the game was insane, the crowd got so involved, and the world champion was ultimately dethroned. It was a match we’ll be talking about for decades.

A lot was said about the behaviour of the crowd during the match, and I guess it summed up the atmosphere that the fans cheered the nine-darter before quickly going back to booing Price in the next leg!

My third match of the tournament might surprise a few but I’m going with Jonny Clayton’s victory over Keane Barry purely for all those ton+ checkouts.

In a five-set match there were 10 of them in just 19 legs, and both players contributed to the tally. It’s a staggering ratio and the odds for so many to be hit would have been ridiculously big.

The other factor in making this a classic was how much trouble Clayton was in at 2-1 down, and he ended up with the third highest average of the tournament to win it.

A year ago Clayton would have lost that match, which shows just how far his confidence has grown, and it took another world-class display from Smith to eventually beat him in another incredible match.

Soaring standards?

There were 13 100+ match averages in this year’s World Championship compared to a staggering 23 in the previous edition which was, of course, behind closed doors. A year earlier there were 11 which throws up the debate as to whether fans have a detrimental effect on performance!

That said, the standard was still superb. You don’t always need 100+ averages to have a great match - although there’s no doubting it helped in Peter Wright’s semi-final victory over Gary Anderson.

As long as you can get both players around the 95 to 98 mark and decent doubling percentages, you will be watching a great match, and there were plenty of those this year.

Asterisk engraved on the trophy?

At one point during the World Championship, it sadly looked as though there’d be a lot more than three players dropping out due to Covid so it was inevitable that many fans were starting to put an asterisk next to the tournament. Some even called for it to be postponed.

Fortunately, it didn’t rip through the event quite like we all feared but the fact that one of the three was Michael van Gerwen means there will always be a footnote of sorts.

However, we’re not talking about the MVG of a few years ago when it really would have caused an asterisk to be engraved into the trophy – there’s no guarantee he would have gone all the way through to the semis to face Peter Wright.

On current form, Snakebite would probably have beaten van Gerwen and it’s not as if he had an easy semi-final anyway – needing to average 104 to see off Gary Anderson, who produced a performance every bit as impressive as MVG may have managed.

Unfortunately, it has become the norm across all sports in this era for players to be withdrawn from tournaments so we can’t let it devalue them. After all, we don’t put one against the Premier League because Gerwyn Price had to miss it all.

Premier League predictions

I have no idea what they’re planning on doing with this year’s Premier League format or line-up because there’s so much secrecy sounding it. We better find out soon because it starts in February!

If they are sticking with the 10-player format then I believe these eight players should definitely be selected:

• Gerwyn Price
• Peter Wright
• Michael van Gerwen
• James Wade
• Gary Anderson
• Michael Smith
• Jonny Clayton
• Rob Cross

Then, we’ve got to pick two from Jose de Sousa, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Fallon Sherrock, Ryan Searle and Callan Rydz.

It’s amazing that de Sousa is in danger despite reaching last year’s final and also winning three Players Championship events last season which was more than anyone. But he hasn’t had a big TV run since and he’s on the chopping block.

I expect Dimitri to be picked because I hear a rumour that he’s negotiating the Belgian TV deal himself, which means from a commercial perspective it’ll be a good thing.

And then I’m going for Ryan Searle because of his run at the Players Championship Finals and the fact he’ll give the Exeter fans their first ever crowd favourite.

CLICK HERE FOR THE 2022 WORLD DARTS CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS AND AVERAGES

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