Новости Unicorn

Wade has been named Player of the Year after a stunning 12 months, which saw him reach 13 finals on the PDC Tour – capped by those back-to-back victories in the TV ‘Majors’ when he defeated Terry Jenkins to win both the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix titles.

He beat World Champion John Part to the award at the ceremony at the Dorchester Hotel.

The World No.3 also received the top accolade from his fellow professionals – named the PDPA Players Player of the Year, which is seen by many as the ultimate honour – to be recognised by the other darts stars around the world.

Unicorn youngster Kirk Shepherd was celebrating again after he was named Young Player of the Year after his achievements at the World Championship. Shepherd has now given up the day job as a sheet metal worker, to concentrate on the darts and he has a hard act to follow…..remember last year, Wade was named Young Player of the Year and look what he went on to achieve!.

There was a big accolade for Unicorn’s 13-times World Champion Phil Taylor, despite a poor 2007 by his very high standards. He was named Fans Player of the Year, after a poll on the official PDC website Planet Darts.

Most players would take what Taylor achieved but ‘The Power’ himself was desperately disappointed with 2007 and is already pledging to come out fighting this year….during 2007, he won the Premier League for a third consecutive year, the Grand Slam of Darts, US Open, German Darts Championship and five other titles away from the TV cameras – not bad for most but not good enough for Taylor!

The legendary Sid Waddell received one of the biggest accolades of his life…..the Team Unicorn member was inducted into the PDC Hall of Fame – along with Sky Sports colleague Dave Lanning – for services to the sport. Both have been commentating on darts for over 30 years…..congratulations our Sid!

The other awards saw Raymond Van Barneveld named Best Floor Player after six victories during the year…..Mervyn King named Best Newcomer after climbing into the top 32 in his first year with the PDC and youngster Kevin McDine picked up the award for best TV performance of the Year after averaging 107 in beating James Wade at the GSOD in November.

BY STUART PYKE

Photo courtesy of Lawrence Lustig / PDC