King On The Comeback Trail

Mervyn King says he is getting back to his best as he prepares for a tough first round encounter at the World Grand Prix in Dublin, which starts Monday on Sky Sports HD1.

King has spent the last 18 months struggling with tennis elbow, but he says there's now light at the end of the injury tunnel.
Evidence of King's improved form has been on show in the recent Championship League darts events, when he beat Mark Webster and James Wade on his way to the semi-final in group two of the competition.
"My darts aren't too bad," King told Sky Sports News Radio. "I've been suffering for the last four or five months and that's been hampering my performances. I've had a really bad 12 months but my form is on the way up now.
"It's a good feeling and I can see some good stuff from me in the near future. I'm starting to throw like I used too so it's now a case of head down and see what I can do."

First round

His win over Wade will be particularly pleasing to King with Wade the defending champion in Ireland next week, however to follow in the Machine's footsteps King will first have to get past Raymond Van Barneveld in one of the stand-out match-ups in the first round.
"It's a tough first round for anybody," King added. "Raymond's a cracking player. In the last 18 months he hasn't been the force of a few years ago but that's more down to lack of self-belief than his actual performance.
"He's a very fiery competitor, he's there to win and it's going to be a big hurdle to get over. I like the speed of Raymond. He throws at a nice speed it allows me to throw at my pace. The fact he scores so heavily, much like myself, is something you have to put out of your mind and get on with your own game."
Another hurdle that King will have to jump next week is the 'Double in' start. Starting on the outer ring of the board is something that isn't seen much at pro level but King perhaps has more experience than most when it comes to this format.
"It's something I grew up with. The local league in Ipswich where I grew up is double in so it's not something I'm unfamiliar with. It's a little bit alien to the professional game but you have to finish on a double so why not start on one!"

Double in

Although comfortable with the double start King does admit that if you can't find an early double then you can find yourself in real trouble.

"It's a good feeling and I can see some good stuff from me in the near future. I'm starting to throw like I used too so it's now a case of head down and see what I can do."

"If someone starts with a 180 in a normal game you know you need to respond with a big score. But if your opponent hits a 160 start in this format you know the pressure is really on you to hit a double with your first three darts. If you don't get away in three then those doubles seem to become a little bit smaller."
Mervyn is also aware that to get back to the top of the game and back into the Premier League again he needs to be right back to his very best and he's sure that's to not far away although he can't predict when exactly that will be.
"My game just needs a little bit of polishing as there's still some of the rust there. But it's going very quickly with the amount of practice I'm putting in. I've been able to get on the practice board and play with little pain. Who knows it might come back in the next couple of days or it might take a couple of months."
The Dublin crowd are notoriously raucous and as a regular target of darts audiences you'd forgive 'The King' for being weary of walking out to the oche next week. However he now has a tried and tested system to combat the abuse.
"It's just a case of putting in earplugs in and getting on with it. They're not too bad in Dublin - they're loud but not partisan."