Phil Taylor will start his bid for a 15th World Championship crown against veteran Colin Monk on the opening night of the 2010 tournament.
‘The Power’ will face Monk on December 18 and must be happy with the draw…..Team Unicorn stablemates Raymond van Barneveld, James Wade and John Part will also be pleased with the way the draw has panned out.
But Terry Jenkins, Jamie Caven and Colin Osborne have all been handed tough 1st Round opponents after the draw was made by Eric Bristow and Rod Harrington in London.
Taylor is already odds-on to win the sport’s first ever £1 million tournament and that winner’s cheque of £200,000.
Barney and Wade will be seen as major challengers…..Wade will face youngster Steve Brown, while Barneveld plays Warren Parry of New Zealand.
Unicorn’s three-times World Champion John Part takes on young Dutchman Toon Greebe and if the Canadian wins, he could face a 2nd Round showdown against Kirk Shepherd in a repeat of the 2008 Alexandra Palace Final!
Shepherd has been drawn against American Scott Burnett.
Adrian Lewis is on course to face Taylor in the Quarter-Finals if the seedings work out and he won’t be complaining about his draw either….Lewis will face either Ireland’s Aodhagan O’Neill or Les Francis of South Africa.
Jenkins, Osborne and Caven will feature in three of THE top matches of the draw.
‘The Bull’ has never won a match at the Ally Pally and he faces a terrific all Unicorn showdown against the hugely talented Paul Nicholson, who of course reached the quarter-finals 12 months ago.
Caven must take on Gary Anderson, who was one player everyone wanted to avoid, while Osborne also faces a really tough test when he plays Australian No.1 Simon Whitlock.
So how did the draw treat the rest of Team Unicorn?
Peter Manley plays Andy Jenkins in another tasty clash….Barrie Bates – who reached the quarter-finals last year – plays Jelle Klaasen and Kevin Painter faces a tricky test against Mensur Suljovic.
Andy Hamilton will play either Phillip Hazel of New Zealand or Slovenia’s Osmann Kijamet, so he will be happy with his lot.
Wes Newton takes on the winner of the preliminary round match between Jarkko Kormula of Finland or Roman Konchikov of Russia….a win for Newton could see him play Lewis in another all Unicorn second round clash!
It is the strongest ever World Championship field, with 25 countries represented in a real darts bonanza in London.
1st Round Draw in full:
Phil Taylor (1) v Colin Monk
Roland Scholten (32) v Steve Hine
Robert Thornton (16) v Per Laursen (Denmark) or Christian Perez (Philippines)
Wayne Mardle (17) v Jyhan Artut (Germany)
Adrian Lewis (8) v Aodhagan O’Neill (Ireland) or Les Francis (South Africa)
Wes Newton (25) v Jarkko Kormula (Finland) or Roman Konchikov (Russia)
Dennis Priestley (9) v Kevin McDine
Jelle Klaasen (24) v Barrie Bates
Mervyn King (5) v Matt Clark
Co Stompe (28) v Steve Maish
Alan Tabern (12) v Ken MacNeil (Canada) or Norman Madhoo (Guyana)
Mark Dudbridge (21) v Andree Welge (Germany)
John Part (4) v Toon Greebe (Holland)
Kirk Shepherd (29) v Scott Burnett (USA)
Mark Walsh (13) v Mark Webster
Peter Manley (20) v Andy Jenkins
Raymond van Barneveld (2) v Warren Parry (New Zealand)
Tony Eccles (31) v Brendan Dolan
Kevin Painter (15) v Mensur Suljovic
Vincent van der Voort (18) v Dylan Duo (Gibraltar)
Ronnie Baxter (7) v Haruki Muramatsu (Japan) or Krzsztof Kciuk (Poland)
Jamie Caven (26) v Gary Anderson
Colin Lloyd (10) v Magnus Caris (Sweden) or Fransisco Ruiz (Spain)
Denis Ovens (23) v Tomas Seyler (Germany) or Shi Yongsheng (China)
Terry Jenkins (6) v Paul Nicholson
Andy Smith (27) v Darin Young (USA)
Colin Osborne (11) v Simon Whitlock
Wayne Jones (22) v Alex Roy
James Wade (3) v Steve Brown
Michael van Gerwen (30) v Peter Wright
Andy Hamilton (14) v Phillip Hazel (New Zealand) or Osmann Kijamet (Slovenia)
Steve Beaton (19) v Carlos Rodriguez (Spain)
By STUART PYKE (Twitter @stuartpykesport)