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Manley: eyeing fourth place

The Wembley crowd was as great as ever and the standard of the placards continues to amaze me. My favourite was the one that said: 'Hi boss. My granny's funeral was cancelled so I'm here at Wembley instead.'

Sid Waddell
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PREMIER LEAGUE DARTS
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We're off to Belfast this week where we'll take a step closer to finding out who will join James Wade and Phil Taylor in the Whyte & Mackay Premier League Darts play-offs.

Sky Sports commentator Sid Waddell will be here every week of the season in 2008 and this week he reflects on a nostalgic week at Wembley and looks ahead to a crunch match between Wade and Manley as the race for fourth hots up.

Sid on Manley v Lewis
Sid on Mardle v Taylor
Sid on Van Barneveld v Wade
Sid on Jenkins v Part

Wembley wa-hey!

Wembley was brilliant and was a very nostalgic experience for me.

I've been to lots of football matches there and in fact, I was inspired to make Jossy's Giants after one visit to the famous stadium.

I remember going there on an outing with my son's junior football team, Churwell Lions, to watch an international friendly between England Boys and Scotland Boys back in 1985.

The coach of my son's team was a guy called Sonny Sweeney, who had played for Leeds United and he didn't like the seats we'd been given, so he moved the party of 30 of people into the best seats in the stand - and nobody said a word to us. I loved his attitude and he ended up being the inspiration for Jossy.

It was also very nostalgic walking past the Bobby Moore statue at Wembley. I was a huge fan of his and I remember being on a school trip in France in 1970 when he was accused of stealing a bracelet. Some French fans started laughing at him when the story came on the television and I had to be restrained from punching them for insulting an English hero!

Wembley was also the venue where Phil Taylor beat Raymond van Barneveld in the £100,000 match in 1999. Barney went down 21-10 in that game, but the £40,000 losers cheque made sure he still went home with a smile on his face.

The Wembley crowd was as great as ever and the standard of the placards continues to amaze me. My favourite was the one that said: 'Hi boss. My granny's funeral was cancelled so I'm here at Wembley instead.'

This is the best Premier League Darts we've ever had. As I wrote in Sky Mag at the start of February, I expected James Wade and Adrian Lewis to make a big mark in this year's competition.

James is top and Adrian is involved in the scramble for fourth with Peter Manley and Wayne Mardle which is set to go to the wire. I don't think we'll know who has claimed that final play-off spot until 11pm on the final week in the Toon next Thursday.

Peter Manley v Adrian Lewis

There is currently a project in Los Angeles to make a movie about the life of Leighton Rees - with me portrayed by Lily Allen's dad!

There's a couple of American guys who make Westerns and they've written a movie script based on an obituary I wrote shortly after he died in 2003.

However, I think they should tear up that script and do the Peter Manley Story instead.

We've all heard the clichés about darts players liking to drink, being covered in tattoos and having fat bellies. Well, here we have a guy who likes a pint, wears pink shirts and seems to live off pork scratchings. Manley is the epitome of darts and he's a wonderful character.

I think he's the master of the sudden rush of form and my money's on him being the fourth man to get to the play-offs in Cardiff.

However, Rod Harrington - who has been doing a great job as both a pundit and as a commentator this season - begs to differ and he thinks the raw talent of Lewis will get him the fourth place.

That makes this a very interesting match, especially when you think back to a famous meeting between these two in December 2005. On that occasion, they both gave us an exhibition of sledging that Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath would have been proud of.

I'm not saying who was right or wrong on that day, but I do feel Manley was out of order when he let rip when Adrian was going for double 16.

It's fair enough giving verbals as your opponent walks backwards or forwards, some of the game's greatest ever players would do that, but Manley went over the top on that day.

So this match has got everything; it's Rocky Balboa against a snotty kid from the Potteries and it will be the game of the night.

A bit like Mardle, Adrian's capable of an amazing first six legs but he seems to have difficulty continuing his momentum after the break.

In contrast, Manley could throw darts standing on a hammock in a force-ten gale - he plays darts for fun and he sums up what the Premier League is all about.

Therefore I'm going for Manley to win 8-5 and move up to fourth place.

Wayne Mardle v Phil Taylor

In previous seasons, Taylor has reached this point averaging 101 - but in the last seven weeks he's averaged 106, which is incredible.

You can't see Taylor averaging less than 104 at the moment, whereas Mardle only managed an 86 average last week.

To ask a man to put 10 on his average would be stupendous, but Wayne will need to put his scoring up by nearly 30 per cent if he wants to live with Taylor in the first six legs.

That's almost impossible and I can't see Taylor's form dipping, even though he's already qualified. That's because the key to this man is greed, greed and more greed - for glory not for money.

Taylor is a millionaire and has never been in this sport for money. No dart player ever is - they are like cowboys who'd rather be out in the desert eating beans and being bitten by rattlesnakes than being at home relaxing in the garden.

Taylor typifies the world's greatest working-class sport and he will go about this in the same way as he would in 1987 before he turned professional.

It was a joy to watch him last week and I was devastated not to be commentating on his match because he's better than ever.

Not only has he perfected the weight of his new darts going to the 60, but he's also got the weight perfect to the double top.

Last week he had a dart lying on the wire, but he used the lie as a sighter and over the last three inches the point flipped up and it went in. It was one of the greatest darts shots I've ever seen.

He now has 99.5 per cent efficiency. He can still miss on double 16, but he is just about perfect on any other target on the board.

Wayne has done well this season to show the doubters that he's not just a big girl in a fancy coloured blouse. He's back to the form of four years ago when I tipped him to be world champion, but up against Taylor I can see him losing 8-3.

Raymond van Barneveld v James Wade

Barney's doubling was superb last week. I used the musical term Glissando to describe it because his performance was so smooth.

When he's relaxed, he is one of the greatest stylists to ever play the game and at Wembley he looked as comfortable as I've seen him for weeks.

I think he's much happier when the crowds are right behind him. When I first started commentating on darts 31 years ago the audience would go wild for scores of 100, but now they sometimes don't even applaud 180s.

The crowd seem a bit bored when players are only averaging 95 and that seems to affect Barney.

But it meant a lot to him to beat Lewis after three losses and he actually cried tears in his interview afterwards, such was his relief.

This guy is a millionaire and the Queen of Holland has him round for tea all the time but he's still one of the most mentally fragile players in darts.

I think his manager has been filling his head with too many statistics and measurements recently. It's like telling Kevin Pietersen he's been hitting the ball in the wrong place when he's just come off with a score of 96. It's better to just let Barney relax and play.

As for Wade, I think Taylor's influence is rubbing off on him. He's realised he has to try harder every time and he cannot afford to coast, which is Taylor's mentality.

It would be easy to say this will be a draw, but I actually fancy James to win it 8-6.

Terry Jenkins v John Part

John Part's match against Taylor last week was fantastic, even though he lost.

Before Wembley, Part's best average had been 98, but he managed 104 and held Taylor in the first six legs.

I didn't imagine he could play that well, but as a world champion sitting bottom of the table, he clearly decided he wanted to show how good he was.

He's the nearest thing we have to Eric Bristow in the modern game. He has a business degree, he can tell you the odds of any horse or greyhound you'd care to mention - or on a second-division football match that's taking place in Bratislava.

His intellect means he's best counter playing the game right now and he never has to stop and ask the scorer. He's totally reliable when closing games out and if he was a closing baseball pitcher, he'd be on something like £20million a year.

Meanwhile, Terry Jenkins seems to have hit a wall and the 130 shutouts we were seeing from him earlier in the season have dried up.

He's a steady 95 /96 averager and I can't see him finding a second gear or showing any flair against Part.

I think Part will average above 98 and he'll give us at least two shutouts above 130. I can't see him losing and I'm going for an 8-5 win.