GILDING STRIKES GOLD TO CAUSE AN UPSET FOR THE BRITS
Held over three raucous days at Butlin’s in Minehead, the UK Open is undeniably one of the highlights in the darts calendar.Like the FA Cup it sees a completely open draw from the third round onwards – so you can see two of the world’s best up against each other in an early battle and numerous David vs Goliath contests throughout the weekend as relative unknowns take on the world-famous stars.
For us quizzers though the important contest was Britain vs Overseas. Michael Van Gerwen looked odds-on to take the title back to the Netherlands for much of the last day of competition but he was surprisingly defeated in a sudden-death leg by the BRIT Andrew Gilding in the Final itself – a result that ranks amongst the biggest shocks in PDC major tournament final history.
If you were backing the Brits, you would have spent much of Saturday seeing your chances of success dwindle with every passing hour. Current World Champion Michael Smith and former World Champion Gerwyn Price both lost narrowly during the afternoon session. Yet more big names fell in the evening as Scotsmen Peter Wright and Gary Anderson, along with regular major contenders Jonny Clayton, Luke Humphries and Joe Cullen, all lost their sixth-round games.
This was beginning to look like a formality for the overseas contingent, headed as always by Van Gerwen. A three-time former winner of this event and unquestionably the most consistent player on the circuit, he was making light work of a tricky series of games against the likes of Dave Chisnall, Humphries and Nathan Aspinall. In the semi-finals he then brushed aside the Belgian Dimitri Van den Bergh with ease to face Gilding in what looked like a mis-match of a final.
Gilding is a former butcher and factory worker who has never won a PDC ranking event, let alone one of the majors, during his time on the tour. He was ranked number 41 in the world prior to the weekend. In direct contrast to MVG’s quick and rhythmic throw, Gilding has an incredibly idiosyncratic approach to the oche and delivers a cheeky thumbs-up to the crowd whenever he hits a 180. The Butlin’s masses began to take him increasingly to their hearts as the tournament progressed, regularly delivering renditions of his Spandau Ballet walk-on song ‘Gold’ whenever he won a leg. His smooth progress to the Final was surely going to come to an end though against such a renowned winner. Gilding had never beaten Van Gerwen in tournament play before.
Whilst he was behind for most of the contest, Gilding crucially never let MVG get more than a two-leg lead. Breaks in throw were traded at regular intervals and Gilding struck a couple of timely ton-plus finishes to keep within touching distance of the Dutchman throughout. MVG remained in relative control at 9-7 ahead in the race to 11.When Gilding suddenly drew level MVG responded in characteristic style to Gilding with a sublime 170 checkout to make it 10-9. That sort of finish is normally a knockout blow to plucky opponents but Gilding was unperturbed, pinning double 9 under immense pressure to force a last-leg decider. Van Gerwen had the darts but missed double 16 for the title and Gilding stepped in. with aplomb, sealing a fantastic 13-dart leg on double tops to clinch his maiden televised title. The tournament certainly has a history for shocks but this might well be the biggest.
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