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20th December 2023
10:44am GMT

"You are kidding me!" exclaimed Wayne Mardle, on Sky Sports. "Keane Barry, will be thinking, 'You are kidding me!'"https://twitter.com/OfficialPDC/status/1737234810047693303
"With the finishing I'm pleased and after the first set I felt well and thought I could punish him a bit more," he added. "But my scoring wasn't there yet. I could have done a lot more. I'm a little bit disappointed with my scoring but the most important thing is I won my first game. "I did okay. I'm pleased with my game, the way I threw and I was focused. Don't get me wrong it's my first match and no one wants to lose. There's a lot of pressure on me and the other top boys but most importantly I will see everyone after Christmas again."The message was clear - MVG was through to the next stage after nearly averaging 100 for his three darts and being better than 60% on his check-outs, but convinced he could go up several levels yet.
Michael van Gerwen was asked, following his win over Barry, about Gerwyn Price's recent comments. The Welshman, a former world champ himself, stated that he had been considering skipping this year's event due to boos and cat-calls he received last year.
"What?" replied van Gerwen. "Next question. That's nonsense."
Van Gerwen was told by another reporter than Price had even suggested some of the boos directed at him could be because of how he has been disparaging of him, in the past. He replied:
"With all due respect," the Dutchman declared, "Gezzy can blame himself a little bit for all the boos. And I've told him that."Price is in the top half of the 2024 draw, with No.2 seed van Gerwen in the bottom, so we may have to wait until late in the championship to see them potentially collide. Read more:
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