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By Stuart Gower

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The Darts European Championship takes place thisweekend in the German city of Dusseldorf with thecompetition boasting an incredibly talented field.Having won the European Championship on fiveoccasions, the fifteen time World Champion Phil 'ThePower' Taylor is still the man to beat. ESPN pundit Ray Stubbs points towards Taylor asthis year's favourite to take the honour of EuropeanChampion on the basis that it is impossible todiscount the man when it comes to this event.

Stubbs said, “Whenever Phil Taylor is in the field you haveto point to him as the favourite. The man has won theWorld Championships on 15 occasions and this

competition 5 times in its 5 years of existence."

What maybe different this time is that Taylor is facing an array of talent in the top eight seeds who are all in great form.

Stubbs cannot see 'The Power' getting in anyway complacent ahead of this weekend's tournament and points towardsAdrian Lewis, the reigning World Darts Champion, who has battled it out with Taylor in two of the last four finals.

Stubbs said, “I'm sure he as is aware as am I that if you look at the talent below in the seeds, you have the reigningPDC World Champion Adrian Lewis, as well as James Wade, Andy Hamilton, and Simon Whitlock who won atournament at the weekend in Wales, alongside Terry Jenkins and Mark Webster.”

Taylor and Lewis will undoubtedly be the two favourites for the title, but it would be foolish not to anticipate a challengefrom the other top seeds.

James Wade is the third seed for the event, and he will be extremely happy with his performance in the year so far. Hereached the final of the World Matchplay and the semi-final of the Premier League, and pushed Taylor close in both,before eventually missing out. There is no shame to losing to the greatest ever darts player in the late stages of twomajor events, and Wade should acquit himself well again here.

The one major negative against him is that he has an extremely tough draw, with a possible quarter-final againstSimon Whitlock, a potential semi-final against Lewis, and Taylor likely to be waiting in the final should he make itthrough. Whitlock has an even tougher draw and could face Wade, Lewis and Taylor consecutively, and although hewon his first ranking tournament in two years earlier this month, that is a hard draw for anybody to progress through.

Due to the format of the first round and the level of competition at the European Championships, Stubbs believes thatit is imperative for the players to come out of the blocks quickly or they could be facing an early exit.

The ESPN pundit said, “The field is packed and packed with talent and it's a sprint early on, if you don’t start well youcould be out, its the first to 11 legs in the first round so you have to be on your game early. This is a tournament whichwill create drama and surprise as well.”

It is expected to be quite a weekend in Dusseldorf, full of excitement and drama with the German crowd likely to makethe event quite a spectacle, “The German crowd generate a terrific atmosphere,” said Stubbs, who, given the tone ofhis voice, cannot wait for the action to get underway on Thursday night, live on ESPN.

ESPN and ESPN Classic are broadcasting live and exclusive coverage of every session of the PDC European DartsChampionship from 20th to 23rd September. For full details visit ESPN.co.uk/tv

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