The more things change, the more they stay the same, or something along those lines at least. The PDC World Grand Prix has been and gone, and the shocks predicted by many simply didn’t come to pass. Ricky Evans was a bit of Barney magic away from defeating Raymond van Barneveld, but the only real shock came in how poorly eventual winner Michael van Gerwen played in the opening stages of the final.

Talking points? Oh, there were plenty, don’t you worry. What with the consistency of Mensur Suljović, the grit of Gerwyn Price, the needle between Daryl Gurney and Gary Anderson, the revival of Adrian Lewis and the TV arrival of James Wilson, there were plenty. The biggest story was undoubtedly van Gerwen, or maybe Peter Wright’s struggles in TV finals. Me? I’m here to talk about Chizzy.

Unless something dramatic changes very soon, Dave Chisnall is going to go down in modern history as the best PDC player never to win a major tournament. Chisnall played well in the Grand Prix, but confident wins over Max Hopp and van Barneveld mattered little when he ran into van Gerwen. Chisnall averaged 97.78 in that match, the fifth highest average of the tournament, but Chizzy still found himself on the receiving end of a 3-1 scoreline.

That last fact might well be the eventual legacy of Dave Chisnall. Since making the switch from the BDO in 2011, Chizzy has been recognised as one of the heaviest scorers on the circuit, a veritable 180 machine that is difficult to stop when he gets going. Few players carry as strong a reputation for scoring, yet a major title eludes the man from St. Helens. Why?

If your love of darts extends beyond a couple of weeks over Christmas, you won’t need me to explain this to you. The old axiom of ‘scoring for show, doubles for dough’ rings true with many players, and Dave Chisnall is one. Has his finishing improved enough over the last seven years? The answer is an obvious no. Chisnall moved over with a reputation for big scoring, but seven years and no premier title suggests a lack of improvement at the other end of the 501.

An interesting comparison can be made with Gary Anderson. When The Flying Scotsman made the switch to the PDC in 2009, he brought a big scoring reputation along with him. The problem was that he couldn’t hit a double for toffee, and was in danger of being left behind because of it. Anderson identified this and tightened up his finishing, picking up two World Championships, a World Matchplay, two Premier Leagues, a UK Open, a Players Championship and a Champions League along the way.

I’m not saying that Dave Chisnall would have won a glut of premier tournaments if he had simply improved his doubling. Life is far more complicated than ‘if I had done X then Y would have happened’, we all know that. But Chizzy is coming up to an important and potentially vital crossroads in his career, and what he’s been doing for the last 18 months isn’t going to cut it.

2018 brought his four-year run in the Premier League to an end. Has Chizzy done enough on the tour this season to warrant a recall? That isn’t my decision (obviously), but history tells us that standout performances on TV are worth more for that particular competition than consistency on tour. Gerwyn Price had a decent 2017, but a gutsy performance against van Gerwen at Ally Pally was the final tick in his box. At the end of that same tournament, people were talking about Jamie Lewis and Dimitri van den Bergh performing in the Premier League — Chizzy wasn’t in the conversation.

So the man needs a standout TV performance between now and January 1, but here lies his next problem — Chisnall is somewhat stuck at number eight in the world. That doesn’t sound so bad at all, right? Not in a vacuum now, as being eighth in the world means you are an absolutely elite level darts player. The problem with it is that the way tournaments are usually set up, it means you’ll be in the same quarter as the world number one.

To cut a long story short, it is extremely likely that Dave Chisnall is going to be drawn in the same quarter as Michael van Gerwen at the 2019 World Championships. You need to beat the best to win the tournament (obviously), but Chizzy’s 6-39 record against MVG doesn’t inspire much confidence. That 6-39 somewhat flatters Chizzy too — he hasn’t beaten MVG since the beginning of 2016, and the leg difference in their last five meetings (not including the set play of the Grand Prix) is 30-7 in MVG’s favour.

What I’m saying is that Dave Chisnall needs to beat Michael van Gerwen at Alexandra Palace in order to move to the next level, a level he has been on the cusp of for almost a decade. Chisnall is in grave danger of being bypassed by shinier objects in the PDC world, whether that means younger players like van den Bergh and Cory Cadby or more vocal veterans like Darren Webster and Ian White. Chisnall in 2018 gives a feeling of ‘been there, done that’, and making up the numbers is becoming less and less important in modern darts. The rankings suggest otherwise, but the modern razzmatazz of darts isn’t always about rankings and logic.

Crunch time is fast on its way for Dave Chisnall. Always clad in what must now be considered iconic yellow, Chisnall is one of my personal favourites, but the St. Helens thrower needs to stop the hands of time from working against him. Will he go the way of Wes Newtown, Andy Hamilton and others, or will he come again on the PDC tour? He’ll have to climb the biggest mountain in order to do so.

‘An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery’ is available for purchase, I swear. To pick up a print copy of the book (€15 plus postage), send me an email at miseryslavic@gmail.com. The digital version is available on Amazon at the link linked here , although you can also buy the digital copy through me. That is unless you think Amazon deserves 30% of the work.

There is also a book about Prague on the horizon, a delightful charmer called Via The Left Bank of the ’90s. It’ll be available on October 28, with all the info waiting here.