World Seniors Masters 2023 | Day One Preview and Order of Play
The 2023 World Seniors Masters gets under way on Saturday as a host of darting legends take to the stage in Yeovil.
The second staging of the over 50s tournament sees 16 players battling it out at Westlands from June 24-25.
Day One features the First Round ties split across two sessions as the big names bid to avoid an early exit in the third televised Seniors event of the year.
The afternoon session commences with a clash between two-time BDO World Championship semi-finalist Chris Mason and ten-time Women’s World Champion Trina Gulliver MBE.
Mason will make the short journey from Tiverton in search of his first win in the World Seniors, having narrowly lost 3-2 to Terry Jenkins in February’s World Seniors Championship.
Gulliver, 53, is also vying to register her first win in the Seniors but was impressive during the Champion of Champions in Blackpool earlier this year, narrowly going down 10-7 to Martin Adams after leading 7-6.
Three-time BDO World Champion Adams starts his campaign against his close friend and Cambridgeshire team-mate Dennis Harbour.
Adams finished runner-up in last year’s World Seniors Championship before losing in straight sets to Leonard Gates in this year’s Second Round.
Harbour made his televised Seniors debut at The Circus Tavern in February, brushing aside Gulliver in straight sets before bowing out at the hands of Kevin Painter by the same scoreline.
Painter, who went on to reach the Semi-Finals of that event for the second successive year, opens up against three-time World Champion John Part.
Part famously defeated ‘The Artist’ in the 2003 and 2008 PDC World Championship Semi-Finals, going on to lift the title on both occasions.
Bob Anderson is making his final televised tournament appearance after a career spanning more than five decades, and the 1988 World Champion looks to defy the odds when he faces Richie Howson.
Anderson, the oldest player in the field at 75, is yet to win a match in four previous Seniors appearances but will be cheered on as the home favourite as he bids to bow out on a high.
Howson has proved one of the stand-out stories of the World Seniors tour so far, coming through the qualifiers to reach two finals this year – the World Seniors Championship and Champion of Champions – but remains in search of maiden silverware.
The evening session includes a show-down between 16-time World Champion Phil Taylor and former BDO World finalist Mark McGeeney.
Taylor was denied glory in last year’s World Seniors Masters final at Lakeside and remains without a Seniors title to his name, having suffered Quarter-Final exits at the hands of Howson and Gates in Purfleet and Blackpool respectively this term.
The Power, who has failed to average above 84 in any of his four televised matches in 2023, comes up against World Seniors debutant McGeeney – the former PDC Tour Card holder who came through the qualifiers in April to secure his spot.
Elsewhere, reigning champion David Cameron launches the defence of his title with a clash against current WDF World Champion Neil Duff.
Canadian ace Cameron enjoyed a dream triumph at Lakeside last year, defeating Painter, Robert Thornton, Colin Monk, Howson and Taylor en route to his first televised title.
Semi-finalist in this year’s Champion of Champions, ‘Excalibur’ faces a formidable opener against Northern Irish star Duff – winner of Seniors Target Open Series 2 earlier this year and quarter-finalist at The Circus Tavern.
Reigning Seniors Champion of Champions Gates begins his bid for back-to-back titles when he takes on former PDC World finalist Mark Dudbridge.
American star Gates reached the Semi-Finals of February’s World Seniors Championship before going on to defeat Taylor, Adams and Howson for glory in Blackpool a month later.
Dudbridge impressed on his Seniors debut at the Circus Tavern, thrashing Glen Durrant in three straight sets and defeating Terry Jenkins 3-1 before eventually going down to Painter in the Last Eight with a tournament average of 89.
Reigning and back-to-back World Seniors champion Robert Thornton starts his quest for a fourth televised Seniors title with a tie against Northern Ireland’s Colin McGarry.
Thornton has been the dominant force on the Seniors circuit so far with a World Seniors Matchplay title sandwiched between his two triumphs at the Circus Tavern.
McGarry was narrowly edge out by Taylor in a tie break set in this year’s World Seniors Championship but heads to Yeovil as the Seniors Order of Merit leader.
The action gets under way from 1pm BST, with First Round matches to be contested over the best of seven sets (best of three legs per set).
WATCH THE WORLD SENIORS MASTERS STREAMED LIVE HERE (18+)
World Seniors Masters 2023 Day One Schedule
Saturday June 24
Round One
Afternoon Session (1pm-5pm)
Trina Gulliver v Chris Mason
Martin Adams v Dennis Harbour
John Part v Kevin Painter
Bob Anderson v Richie Howson
Evening Session (7pm-11pm)
David Cameron v Neil Duff
Robert Thornton v Colin McGarry
Phil Taylor v Mark McGeeney
Leonard Gates v Mark Dudbridge
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