PDC Stats Analyst Christopher Kempf analyses the form players in world darts based on their last 200 legs played, ahead of this week's Premier League and European Tour action...
200 Leg Form Guide Summary
#1 Averages - GERWYN PRICE
#1 OChE* - DIRK VAN DUIJVENBODE
#1 Doubles - DIRK VAN DUIJVENBODE
#1 171-180 - DIRK VAN DUIJVENBODE
#1 99, 101+ Checkout - CLAYTON, VANDENBOGAERDE, PIETRECZKO, SZAGANSKI, GOFFIN
After a bravura performance in the second European Tour event of 2023, Gerwyn Price remains the player with the highest average in darts - his 103.38 tournament average in Leverkusen pushed him up to a 99.17 average across his last 200 legs.
But surviving match darts from Dirk van Duijvenbode in the final made clear that only the narrowest of margins separates him from his rivals.
As the two leading contenders for ProTour money and ranking titles, Price and Van Duijvenbode have supplanted Jonny Clayton and Michael van Gerwen as the in-form vanguard of their respective nations.
Price now outranks Clayton by six points in OChE* and Van Duijvenbode, the leading PDC double-hitter after 51% accuracy in Leverkusen, has recently outperformed his more decorated countryman in all respects (ranking income, doubles, scoring).
But in their head-to-head matchups over the past year, Price and Van Duijvenbode can hardly be separated.
In the 54 legs they've played in that period, the score is 27-27 - but with Gerwyn Price taking both tournament-deciding legs.
Michael Smith may be the World Champion, but it has not looked as though he would hold onto that title if forced to defend it today.
Even after a slight boost in his averages over the past two weeks to 96.58, Smith only holds the fifth highest average amongst English players, and the tenth overall. His doubles accuracy ranking remains in the bottom half of Tour Card holders, a position not aided by his 28% shooting in his last Players Championship weekend.
By far the leader in the ProTour rankings is Luke Humphries, whose 99.10 average is only 0.07 points off Price's lead, though the player who bested him in the first European Tour event, Dave Chisnall, fired off 113 and 117 averages on the Players Championship circuit, giving him a boost of 1.5 points to his average, now the third best in the PDC.
Both men remain far off Smith's Order of Merit lead, but the form advantage clearly belongs to them and not the World Champion.
Chris Dobey may have got the better of both Van Gerwen and Smith in the Premier League, but it has been a lean year for him so far on the ProTour.
Dobey has not advanced beyond the round of 32 in any 2023 ranking tournament, and currently holds the lowest doubles percentage over his last 200 legs (34.9%) of any current Premier League player.
The decline of 2.7 points to his average relative to mid-March puts him at a 93.57 - just barely within the top 32 among Tour Card holders.
23-year old Bradley Brooks had the best weekend of his career by reaching the semi-final of Players Championship 7, defeating Chisnall, Dobey and Gary Anderson along the way, and his effort is reflected in his being the most improved player of the past two weeks.
The boost of 8.23 to his OChE means that he is now playing at a standard that would win 50% of legs on the ProTour, for the 42nd best score among tour card holders, and his 92.07 average puts him ahead of other notable young players Adam Gawlas and Nathan Rafferty.
Since the European Tour gives German players extra opportunities to excel and profit, who is best poised to capitalize?
The number one German player remains Gabriel Clemens (the only German ProTour finalist of 2023), #22 on the list of averages and #27 in OChE (despite his missed match darts to defeat Ian White in Leverkusen), and Martin Schindler joins Clemens among the players with an OChE above 50.
Daniel Klose's 91.47 average is among the highest for new tour card holders, but Ricardo Pietreczko, a surprise quarter-finalist in Leverkusen, is not only tied for the lead with the most ton-plus finishes in the PDC, but also holds the seventh highest doubles percentage, helped in part by hitting 6/8 to eliminate Stephen Bunting.
*OChE (Ordinal Checkout Efficiency) explained:
OChE is a metric designed to evaluate the efficiency at which players convert their averages into legs won.
The statistic is the % of legs a player would expect to win on the ProTour, calculated from a weighted average of 4,5, 6 & 7 visit checkout rates.