Part-y time?

John Part has shown why he is a 3 time world champion and why he infuriates darts fans by winning the North American Darts Championship. To me the guy is quality, steady and when he gets that swagger going, you know he's happy and his darts are devastating. There was a time where he was regarded as the only player to give Taylor a game. He is not a player people relish playing but his consistency has always raised question marks over his standing in the game.

You don't win 3 World Championships by being poor but critics of John will point that 2 of those were virtually handed to him. Beating a handy capped Bobby George in the first tournament after the split then beating Kirk Shephard who must have used every lucky charm in the book to get to the final. The one that cannot be disputed however is his 2003 triumph over Phil Taylor to become only the 2nd player to beat Taylor in a PDC World Final since its inception and ending Taylors 8 year reign as World Champion. Part showed that when he can string performances together, he is a match for anyone and can handle the pressure. He had a 3 set lead over Taylor but Taylor rampaged the next 4 to go from 4-1 down to 5-4 up. Part showed his mental bottle by going 6-5 up and even when Taylor levelled, Part never buckled. Going to 2-0 up in the final set then cooly taking out 77 for the victory.

Part always seems to get bit homesick and frequently travels home to Canada between tournaments. This really doesn't do him any favors and is taking its toll as erratic performances against Mark Webster and Kirk Shephard have recently illustrated. Some will argue that he was able to put in a great performance in the North American Champs as its pretty much on his door step but that doesn't argue against the point that Part is a quality player. Whether he has the drive to re-establish himself in in the top 16 (well 32 for starters) is open for debate however as is whether he can biuld on this recent (and much needed) success.

There is an argument that he has possibly under-achieved in the game but his achivements are on par with Dennis Priestley and there's a man many have huge respect for and wouldn't say he under-achieved. Making 5 finals in 7 years (winning 1) is a great achivement, the PDC was still in its infancy and whilst the quality was higher in terms of them all being former World Champions, it was still a significantly smaller field.

As stated earlier, people question the "validity" of 2 of Parts world titles but you can only beat
what is in front of you and Part has done that on the biggest stage in World Darts 3 times including beating the best player on the planet ever. You cannot take that away from him. As much as I like Part as a player, he won't be ranked up with Lowe, Bristow, Taylor, Anderson et al (no, not Adams) but he definitely be there or there abouts with Priestley.

Form is tempoary, class is permanent - is Part about to show the world his again?