FOR 70 players heading to the ultimate Christmas party at the Palace, the dream of being crowned the first world champion of 2012 is blocked by the unshakable force that is Phil Taylor.
After an uncharacteristic mid-season dip, The Power goes into the Ladbrokes World Championship as odds-on favourite to reclaim the PDC version of the title he has won on 13 previous occasions.
For Scotland's Gary Anderson, runner-up to Adrian Lewis a year ago, there is a second, equally significant figure who could throw him off the road to redemption at any juncture. It's the man he sees every morning in the mirror.
The heavy scoring on which Anderson's game is founded can be rendered meaningless when the steam appears from his ears. At a recent ProTour event in Spain, the 40-year-old stormed from the stage and forfeited a quarter-final tie against Jamie Caven after alleging that his opponent's sniffing was a deliberate attempt to put him off.
With a string of previous complaints of gamesmanship levelled at other players, including Lewis, it is common knowledge in the practice room that the way to turn over Anderson is to get him to turn on himself.
"Phil is the player most of the guys will see as the man to beat," said Anderson, who has lost his four most recent meetings with The Power, including a 16-4 humbling in last month's Grand Slam final. "But the person I have to overcome more than anyone else is me. Everyone knows what I'm like. I know what I'm capable of and all the other players know what I'm capable of. I've just not yet hit that really big average – 120 upwards – that I'm capable of on TV. I did it in one of the Players Championship events, so I know it's there. I just need to translate that form in front of the cameras."
The pressure of entering last year's final as favourite appeared to weigh heavily on the Flying Scotsman's shoulders. That was when his match average dipped below 100 for the only time during the tournament; and his anguish was compounded by a succession of missed attempts on double 10 at crucial moments.
Anderson gained compensation, of sorts, by defeating Lewis in the final of the eight-man Premier League in May, but a topsy-turvy year on the oche has been tinged with tragedy off it. In August, Anderson's younger brother, Stuart, who had battled heroin addiction, died of a heart attack aged 35.
Taylor was surprisingly eliminated in the last eight by Mark Webster 12 months ago. However, he heads into the £1 million tournament, which begins at Alexandra Palace on Thursday, as the clear form pick to regain the crown from his former protégé Lewis, who he took under his wing as a youngster playing pub league darts in their home town of Stoke.With Lewis awarded the No 2 seeding, Taylor and Anderson are scheduled to clash in the semi-finals, assuming neither succumbs to the kind of shock which saw Jyhan Artut, who Anderson faces in the first round on Tuesday week, whitewash four-time World Championship semi-finalist Wayne Mardle at the opening stage two years ago.
However, Anderson's interest in the competition will begin on Friday, when Englishman Michael Smith, who he co-manages with promoter Tommy Gilmour, faces No 23 seed Co Stompe. "Michael has done brilliantly to qualify," Anderson said. "It won't be an easy game for Co because Michael is a very talented young player."
Fellow Scots Peter Wright and Robert Thornton begin their campaigns on Saturday, while John Henderson faces 2003 and 2008 champion John Part on Wednesday week.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article