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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine

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Speaker 1: from News Talk ZEDB.

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Speaker 2: News TALKSB and Weekend Sport. Eighteen away from three, World

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Speaker 2: number one and defending champion Luke Humphries is through to

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Speaker 2: the last sixteen of the World Darts Championships in London,

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Speaker 2: sweeping Welshman Nick Kenny four sets to love in the

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Speaker 2: final match this morning. New Zealand. Time earlier two time

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Speaker 2: champion Peter Wright, who looked pretty ill actually up there

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Speaker 2: and couldn't even really do his postmatch he was coughing

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Speaker 2: so much, claimed a four two victory in the third round.

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Speaker 2: Gwin Price taken all the way to an eleventh leg

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Speaker 2: in the seventh set before advancing past Joe Cullen. Others

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Speaker 2: to go through a night Luke Woodhouse, Johnny Clayton, Stephen Bunting,

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Speaker 2: multimedia journalist here at News Talk ZEDB, darts enthusiast host

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Speaker 2: of the Kiwe Darts podcast. Ben Francis joins us Ben,

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Speaker 2: I saw your tweet just around Christmas time. If you'd

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Speaker 2: told me before the World Champs that fourteen seeds would

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Speaker 2: be out before Christmas, I wouldn't have believe you do

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Speaker 2: What was behind the pre Christmas carnage.

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Speaker 3: Oh gee, Jason, where to start. It's just been absolutely incredible.

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Speaker 3: I think whats of it is just down to maybe

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Speaker 3: just the busyness of the schedule this year, lots of

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Speaker 3: players playing a lot more due to the rise and

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Speaker 3: popularity in the last year due to Luke Lititler, but

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Speaker 3: probably some of it as well as that lots of

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Speaker 3: these lower ranked players are actually playing good darts at

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Speaker 3: the moment and just headed into the tournament with a

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Speaker 3: bit more confidence, playing a lot better, and lots of

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Speaker 3: repercussions as well. With lots of these top seeds are

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Speaker 3: falling out. I said to you in a message like

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Speaker 3: Michael Smith is going to be the biggest casualty because

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Speaker 3: how the rankings are done is that you got your

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Speaker 3: prize money accumulated over two years. As he was at

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Speaker 3: defending champion from two years ago, he's essentially lost half

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Speaker 3: as prize money dropped from world number two. I think

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Speaker 3: he's actually at seventeen at the moment, that could drop further,

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Speaker 3: and that has massive repercussions for tournament tending at a

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty five, So it's going to be an absolute

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Speaker 3: shake up. If more seeds continue to tumble out.

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Speaker 2: The top sixteen essentially guarantees you a spot at all

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Speaker 2: the big tournaments, Is that right?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's usually the top eight. Most of them

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Speaker 3: are top sixteen. They are a couple where it's just

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Speaker 3: the top eight, but top sixteen you're pretty much and

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Speaker 3: without with no having to go through any qualification sort

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Speaker 3: of period. So look, it's going to be massive that.

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Speaker 3: Look those rankings in that sort of area from around

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Speaker 3: ten to eighteen, there's not much in it. So it

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Speaker 3: could take a couple of tournaments for him to kind

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Speaker 3: of jump back into those spots, but jeez, you don't,

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Speaker 3: and you got yourself a big Helder climb.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So the world number two, Michael Smith, that's a

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Speaker 2: massive shock before we look at who's still in there.

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Speaker 2: Anybody else who was a major surprise being knocked out

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Speaker 2: in the early rounds.

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Speaker 3: Oh, it's really hard to say, to be honest, I

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Speaker 3: think Michael Smith was definitely the biggest one. I think

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Speaker 3: Rob Cross probably falling a bit early as well. He

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Speaker 3: lost to Scott Williams just before Christmas. But Scott Williams

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Speaker 3: was a semi finalist from last year. After he beat

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Speaker 3: Michael vangu on in the quarterfinals, one that really plays

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Speaker 3: well on the big stage. But I would say Michael

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Speaker 3: Smith without question. Look, some of these seated players, lots

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Speaker 3: of them that did lose, were on the lower side

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Speaker 3: of the ranks and there's not much between them and

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Speaker 3: the players they face, So I would probably say those

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Speaker 3: two were definitely the big shots.

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Speaker 2: All right, So as I mean to no trouble for

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Speaker 2: the defending champion Luke Humphreys at all. Really, I sort

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Speaker 2: of had half an eye on his match this morning

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Speaker 2: against Welshman Nick Kenney. Hardly troubled Luke humphreyes. What did

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Speaker 2: you make of his performance?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, Luke's has been playing fantastic and it's been

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Speaker 3: quite an interesting year for him because usually when the

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Speaker 3: world champ wins it, they are the ones that get

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Speaker 3: all the coverage, The are the ones that have to

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Speaker 3: do all the media face everything. But because he say

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Speaker 3: he beat a sixteen year old teenage sensation in his

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Speaker 3: first tournament, he hasn't had lots of that distraction, I

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Speaker 3: would call it probably compared to like other world champions

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Speaker 3: have had. So he's played pretty well all year. He's

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Speaker 3: gone into the tournament, was great as I kind of

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Speaker 3: said to you last week, I don't really see him

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Speaker 3: getting troubled until possibly the semi finals, when it would

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Speaker 3: be a rematch against Luke Letler. But as he touched

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Speaker 3: on before Peter Wright reaching the fourth round, those two

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Speaker 3: meet in the coming days and that will be a

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Speaker 3: very intriguing matchup, especially if Peter Wright does play the

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Speaker 3: way we know he can play because he's a two

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Speaker 3: time world champion. He is known for changing his darts around.

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Speaker 3: But if he six or the darts that he used

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Speaker 3: in this match today, he could really trouble Luke Humphreys.

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Speaker 3: But if I'm calling it today, I think Luke Humphreys

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Speaker 3: will definitely take it out.

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Speaker 2: All right. So Luke Litley you mentioned, as you say,

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Speaker 2: he's just the name on everybody's lips and he gets

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Speaker 2: so much more media coverage and attention than anybody else,

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Speaker 2: and incredible really for a guy's what's seventeen eighteen years

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Speaker 2: old whatever, he is still a teenager. He beat Ryan

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Speaker 2: Meeklin round two. I saw quite a bit of emotion

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Speaker 2: from him afterwards. Do you think he was just finally

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Speaker 2: pleased to get back up there, get a win and

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Speaker 2: then enjoy a bit of time off over Christmas.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's probably some of it due to that. I

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Speaker 3: think part of it as well. He thinks it's been

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Speaker 3: a whole year since that he's been on those will

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Speaker 3: Wind Journey. People that followed d Art to have known

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Speaker 3: the name Luke Letler for a while. I myself was

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Speaker 3: aware of him. I didn't expect him to do as

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Speaker 3: well as he did last year, or even as well

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Speaker 3: as he's done this year. I thought maybe some of

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Speaker 3: the pressure would get to him. But he's handled himself

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Speaker 3: really well, and I think some of it was just

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Speaker 3: that relief I'm back up here, I've got off your

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Speaker 3: good start. Maybe a bit more nervous this year because

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Speaker 3: of all that pressure. You know, he hasn't had much

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Speaker 3: time to relax. He's had that bit of time and

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Speaker 3: it's kind of just hit him. But hit. He's facing

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Speaker 3: a guy, I think it's tomorrow against Dan White, who

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Speaker 3: has been on the tours quite a while, and he

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Speaker 3: actually said he remembers playing Luke Letler's dad quite a

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Speaker 3: few years ago. So you know that that shows you

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Speaker 3: how long he's been in the game.

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Speaker 2: That's amazing. Oh man, that's the way to make somebody

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Speaker 2: feel old and others whose names were I guess more

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Speaker 2: familiar with Michael van Goerwin. He's still there, how do

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Speaker 2: you how do you assist what he you know, what

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Speaker 2: he might or how he might go? Could he go

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Speaker 2: all the way for example? I mean, you know, he's

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Speaker 2: a world champion previously. Could he be there at the end?

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Speaker 3: Oh, he could easily be there in the end. Unfortunately

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Speaker 3: was that Well, he's on the other side of the draw,

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Speaker 3: so that kind of opens it up for him. One

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Speaker 3: of the quite a few messages came through after our

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Speaker 3: chat last week about Gary Anderson possibly tripping up that

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Speaker 3: Gary Anderson of course lost his game and the drawer,

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Speaker 3: you'd say, is quite open for Michael van girl And

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Speaker 3: at the moment. So if he wins his next match

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Speaker 3: against Brendan Dolan, he's going to face either qualify from

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Speaker 3: the Philippines or an unseated man from Sweden. So he

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Speaker 3: has got quite a friendly run. The problem is if

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Speaker 3: you have quite an easy run in when you do

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Speaker 3: those those tougher games, you haven't really had that kind

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Speaker 3: of adversity and up on the stage at this particular tournament.

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Speaker 3: So and Mike was a bit of a shot that

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Speaker 3: look Van Girl, and we all know what he's capable of.

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Speaker 3: He's an outstanding player and on his day he obviously

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Speaker 3: can be anyone. But I would say he's probably going

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Speaker 3: to be the favorite to come from the bottom side

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Speaker 3: of the draw, no doubt.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Michael van Goerwin then

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Speaker 2: it's probably a gap back, hasn't it been? Who else

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Speaker 2: could possibly be in this in this conversation as an

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Speaker 2: outsider to go all the way?

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Speaker 3: Oh? I mean, that's a really tough question because you

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Speaker 3: could look at someonelike Dmitry Vandenberg, who's a former World

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Speaker 3: youth champion, who's been there, who's played in lots of

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Speaker 3: big tournaments. He's been to news yelling quite a few times.

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Speaker 3: He's on the bottom side of the drawer with Michael

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Speaker 3: van Girl and to those two could potentially meet in

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Speaker 3: the quarter finals. He's one person keeping alone on I

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Speaker 3: actually kind of look at Gerwin Price and after today,

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Speaker 3: he's showing signs of the player that he was when

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Speaker 3: he won the world title. He's to come in a

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Speaker 3: really tough battle against Joe cullensday and the fact he

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Speaker 3: came through it, I quite fancy him to make a

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Speaker 3: bit of a run as well, but I don't really

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Speaker 3: think he's much of an outsider. But he's one player

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Speaker 3: who I think is definitely going to have something to

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Speaker 3: say later on in the tournament.

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Speaker 2: Good Man being great to get your analysis. Might I

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Speaker 2: know you're on holiday, so get back to that. Well,

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Speaker 2: might get you on the radio next weekend as we

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Speaker 2: wrap the final. I think it's scheduled for I think

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Speaker 2: is it Friday night over there? Saturday morning? Here? Is

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Speaker 2: that right?

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Speaker 3: Well, like you said, Jayson on holiday, so I don't

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Speaker 3: even know what day.

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Speaker 2: I'll check. I'll check the details and my people will

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Speaker 2: be in touch with your bed. All right, Jason, you

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Speaker 2: too made all the best. Ben Francis there, host of

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Speaker 2: the Kiwi Darts podcast, a colleague of ours here at

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Speaker 2: Newstalk ZB, multimedia journalist and darts enthusiast. Yes, I've just checked.

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Speaker 2: The final is Friday evening that's in the UK, which

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Speaker 2: makes it Saturday morning New Zealand time, So you will

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Speaker 2: get Ben on next next Saturday, provided of course he's

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Speaker 2: not still on holiday. It probably doesn't matter. He joined

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Speaker 2: us on holiday today, so we'll get the wrap a

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Speaker 2: week from now. Luke Littler is involved in the evening

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Speaker 2: session Saturday UK time, so that's tomorrow morning, New Zealand time.

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Speaker 2: Chris Dobie and Josh Rock kick proceedings off. In the

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Speaker 2: evening session, Michael van Gowin up against Brendan Dolan and

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Speaker 2: then Luke Littler against Egan White, who has been Francis

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Speaker 2: just said played against Luke Littler's dad. He's so young,

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Speaker 2: this kid, Luke Littler, but so amazingly talented with the

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Speaker 2: arrows in his hands.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talk zed B weekends from midday, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio