F_T_Y

His sponors and management should be ashamed. Was a fitting end last night in front of 10k of his dutch fans and playing van gerwen. He is not playing well or enough or looks in any sort of mental state to challenge for anything.

Beaton v van den bergh on stage two! would rather have watched that than smith v wattimena. Price v Ratajksi looks the best of the games tonight.

Some performances from the king and beaton. Surprised Hughes v Price is on the second stage considering the two of them seem to be playing the best darts. Cross coming in under the radar playing some solid stuff and you can never count out James Wade.

That 110 in the second set with Jim sitting on a double was quality.

It has been pretty brutal so far, best matches have been in the womens, ashton getting beat and sherrocks performance yesterday.

The lakeside will be on eurosport and quest. Just looking at the betting, durrant is clear favourite with the German Michael Unterbuchner who had a bit of a run in the grand slam 2nd favourite at 9/1. He has not entered the European q school so will be fully focused on this and is in the other half of the draw from Durrant. Durrant has a potential tricky first round tie against the man who beat him in the masters final Adam smith neale. Outsiders, maybe Jim Williams who is pretty consistent throughout the year averaging between 90 and 95.

What a great final in store tonight, these two could be the main rivalry for the next decade. We know Smith can match mvg scoring wise and he has been finishing well too. We have seen this year if you stick with mvg he will make mistakes. I think this could be smiths time but it is going to be a great game either way.

Price lost the plot in that 5th set. He was not prepared for Aspinall coming back at him. Ian white game was a belter too, great standard from both. Best i have seen Petersen play.

Cracking match between chuck norris and Steve Lennon earlier. Hopefully Chuck can have another run here after a pretty anonymous year for him on the circuit.

Ashton was fantastic as expected, credit has to go to dekker also for holding it together after been blown away in the first set and the crowd on his back. But performance of the night was rob cross, after a poor year and everyone writing him off, i myself thought de zwaan would beat him, he pulled it out the fire against a guy averaging 106. That will be a massive confidence boost and he will fancy his chances of going deep in the tournament once again.

Lisa Ashton is the best women's player of all time . Standard wise she would have no problem averaging 90 odd in the best of five sets. Unfortunately for her she has been drawn against jan dekker, who is vastly experienced on the tv stage and on his day can be very good.The best chance any of the women would have had would be up against a Chinese qualifier or something. An absolute stinker for the defending champ rob cross against more than likely the rising dutch star Jeffery de zwaan. Van gerwen the favourite in most places but for me it should be anderson. Wade, whitlock and his old nemesis barney are all in mvg's quarter, and anderson is playing great darts and looks in the mood for world title number 3. Some outsiders, maybe big mensur or wade in great form at 33/1.

Ando let him get in his head, should have won that easy. Refs need to get a grip of that boy but anderson should have just took two seconds longer and waited for him to get out the way. Strip away the fist pumps and gurning he is a quality player. Its a shame his antics will over shadow a fantastic tournament win.

Hopefully anderson smashes price. I will go for 16-8 or 16-10 to the scotsman. Get the feeling Gary don't like him much. Earlier in the week he called clayton the welsh number one

I have always thought of this guy as a defender, he has looked out his depth anytime playing for Scotland, but he seems to play as an attacking midfielder and lone striker for his club side. Would it be worth trying him further up the pitch like warnock has done with him at Cardiff.

Harms has always been a dour faced p***k. European/world qualifier for one of the women's spots at the world championships is under way. Would imagine one of Dobromyslova, sharon prins or aillen de graff to qualify from the field of 200.

Wright looked spent in the final, not surprising given his performance against mvg in the semi, must have been about 5 legs in a row he hit double last dart in hand with mvg sitting on a finish. Grand Prix in Dublin starts this Sunday, Michael Smith v Adrian Lewis probably the pick of the first round ties.

We threw it away today, 2 really good goals and looked like we would run riot but the big man up front for cumnock bullied us all game, he won pretty much evreything, couple of gifts to let them back in it and it only looked like one team was the winner from then on. We are a relatively young team and passing the ball is all well and good but there is a time to play and a time not to take any chances. We need to sharpen up or we will be looking at another early exit from the junior cup like last season next week. Thought the ground at cumnock was immaculate, if/when we could produce something half as good at holm park i would be delighted.

Fair play to yates, aggressive rider who goes out on the attack without the same sort of assistance from team members that other gc men get. Movistar bizarrely done most of the work out front and then valverde and quintana were both cooked on the final climb.

Looks all over now.

Great racing today, quintana just won't attack anyone! lucky valverde managed to get back in and do some work or he would have lost more time on yates.

You shouldn't get paid to play for your country.

Jesus herrada from cofidis got himself in the break and ends up with the red jersey and a handy lead of around 3 minutes. Could we have a surprise winner? Two mountain stages coming up, the breakaways have had their fun so far but we might see some GC battles this weekend.

Watching football in a half empty stadium is pish whether it is murrayfield or hampden. These weeknight kick offs are always going to struggle to attract a sell out. Best bet just stay at hampden and play the lesser games around the country. Best atmosphere i have been at watching scotland was beating the irish at parkhead, ideally i would play the big games there but no one wants to give money to the evil old firm.

Simon Yates the favourite at the bookies. I fancy Miguel angel Lopez at 5/1. Super climber who has a strong team behind him. Looks likely to be a really close grand tour for a change. Sepp kuss for lotto nl jumbo may be one to watch, just won tour of utah and they are calling him the next le mond/ american gc contender.

He looks in great shape on his twitter. A very promising pre season and we have made some experienced signings. Hopefully we can carry on the good form when the league starts on Saturday.