The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsDarts continues to ride on a crest of a wave despite many predicting that the bubble would burst soon for a sport that continues to rise particularly for the PDC who continue to churn out top class tournaments on TV.
With the sport continuing to grow, the time has come for many seasoned professionals in the game to either up their game or ship on out to pastures news when it comes to TV events as youngsters embrace the sport and give little respect to the guys who have led the way over the last decade.
Here The Sports Lowdown takes a look at 5 dart players that could face a battle to stay in the World’s top 32 over the next year if their performances continue to drop.
1. Kevin Painter
The ‘Artist’ Kevin Painter has been around the major dart scene for nearly two decades now and the consistency of the Ipswich Town fan has played a major part in his longevity. A former World Championship runner-up in 2004, he had the crown in his grasp until he was pipped to the title by the legendary Phil Taylor in a classic at the Circus Tavern.
He finally broke his major title duck at the Players Championship in 2011 and also played his part in the 2012 Premier League darts campaign. However since then his ranking has taken a tumble and he now finds himself out of the top 16 and recently missed the World Matchplay for the first time in years. Now heading towards 50, Painter, famous for his snarl needs a good burst of form to get himself back into the worlds elite, though with the improving younger generation beginning to make their mark, the ‘Artist’ needs to pick up some ranking points and quick.
He is perhaps helped that he has had a barren couple of season’s on the circuit and is not defending much over the next year, which could help him if he can find that consistency that got him a place in the elite top 16 for a number of years and made him a player, everyone wanted to avoid on the circuit.
