The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsSince his World Championship win earlier this year at the Alexandra Palace, beating Phil Taylor in a last set decider, Gary Anderson has been threatening to take the number two world ranking off Phil Taylor, and it could happen as early as this weekend.
The players travel to Barnsley this week for another two Players Championship qualifying events, the eleventh and twelfth of the year, and it could be in one of those that Gary Anderson overtakes ‘The Power’ in the world rankings.
Phil Taylor very much picks and chooses his events to play in at the age of 54, and we must make the assumption that he will not be playing this having already won one of these events in Crawley, and has now secured his spot in the finals at Minehead in November.
It remains to be seen whether Gary Anderson will play in this weekend’s events fresh from a Premier League triumph, scooping the trophy and the £200,000 cash prize too after beating Michael van Gerwen 11-7 in the final.
If Anderson does play then he has a good chance of clinching that second spot in the World Rankings, and sits just £14,250 off the sixteen times World Champion in the PDC Order Of Merit. Anderson will be confident that he can clinch a win if he decides to play, and that would mean another £10,000 to be added to his total.
However, Phil Taylor could end up losing money from his total if he decides not to play as the total is running over the last two years, and ‘The Power’ may end up losing a few thousand pounds by not doing anything at all.
It remains to be seen if the World Numbers two and three will be playing this weekend in Barnsley, but will Gary Anderson overtake Phil Taylor in the rankings this weekend?
