PDC Stats Analyst Christopher Kempf lists the top 20 tournament averages of World Matchplay finalists and explores just how good Peter Wright's 2021 victory was...
In the first leg of his first match of the 2021 World Matchplay, Peter Wright failed to get a dart at double from 118 and missed an opportunity to break throw against Danny Noppert.
In his drive to the title that spanned 105 virtuosic legs, the second leg of his clash with Noppert turned out to be the only one in which Wright trailed his opponent.
Wright went on to win every match by at least 6 legs, winning a total of 39 more legs than his opponents over the course of the event.
This campaign recalled to mind Phil Taylor's valedictory effort at the Winter Gardens in the summer of 2017, in which the 16-time champion bulldozed all comers - each one a past or future World Champion - to hoist the trophy for the last time, defeating Wright himself in his only other appearance in the final at Blackpool.
But even Taylor did not win the honour of having posted the highest-ever average against Michael van Gerwen in a televised ranking match, or having a dart at double to complete a nine-dart leg.
It ranks among the most comprehensive victories seen on television, and is perhaps unique in PDC history for its having not been won by either those two men to whom dominance has come naturally, Taylor or Van Gerwen.
Of the 56 appearances by a player in the final of a World Matchplay, Wright's 2021 campaign holds the fifth highest tournament average, with only Taylor's four 105+ averages ahead of him on the list.
Remove Taylor from consideration and Wright's 2021 exploits outrank all others by some distance - he is the only non-Taylor World Matchplay finalist to have found his target with a majority of his darts aimed at treble 20, for instance, and only the second finalist to have thrown more than 0.8 140s per leg (the other being Wright in 2017!).
When throwing for the match, Wright needed only six legs to win his five matches; an achievement equalled, but never exceeded, by Taylor.
Wright will have to dig deep within himself to measure up to this standard again; 'Snakebite' has endured a now five-month long drought of titles, failed to reach the playoffs of the Premier League after losing a straight fight to Joe Cullen and surrendered his #1 position in the PDC Power Rankings to Michael Smith, winner of 23 consecutive Players Championship matches.
As of the beginning of July, if the top 32 players holding a tour card - measured in terms of averages or OChE or even doubles percentage - were to qualify for the World Matchplay, Wright would be excluded on all counts.
There are at least a dozen other players who have a chance to claim the title, but it seems unlikely that any of them could dominate the tournament as Wright did last July on the hottest stage in darts.
Read the full feature in the official 2022 Betfred World Matchplay programme.