Rising Dutch star Jelle Klaasen caused a huge shock beating defending champion Raymond van Barneveld 7-5 to win the Lakeside World Darts championship.

In a thrilling final, Klaasen made a whirlwind start, winning the first two sets before the four-time champion found his rhythm.

The 21-year-old Dutchman began to exert his authority and led 5-4 with some exciting darts against his compatriot.

He won the crucial 11th set to lead 6-5 and kept his cool for a famous win.

So there you go, the person I tipped to be the suprise package goes and wins it and boy do I regret now not putting a bet on. True it could be said that if I had put a bet on he probably wouldn’t have won but at 100/1 at the start of the Championship (though probably 80/1 or 60/1 after his first round match) a £3 flutter wouldn’t have mattered much. Still I’m happy he’s won I mean he was a qualifier, a wild card if you will, and he’s beaten everyone and no-one can say he played weak opposition. He’s beaten the World #1 in the Quarter Finals and the defending champion in the Final. So fair play to the guy though what is interesting is whether he said yes to his girlfriends marriage proposal as she said she would ask him to marry her if he were to win; so if you did say yes, best ‘o luck to you :)

In project news I’ve progressed. It now has a register page, login page and the beginnings of a treasure hunt create thingemy. My issue at the moment is that the uploaded image doesn’t display and I’m not quite sure at the moment so for now things have stumbled until I can figure this out.

BBC SPORT | Darts | Klaasen sets up all-Dutch final

Jelle Klaasen celebrates his semi-final win
Lakeside BBC coverage schedule
Dutch darts sensation Jelle Klaasen booked his place in the final of the Lakeside World Darts Championship after a 6-3 win over Shaun Greatbatch.

The 21-year-old Klaasen, in his debut week at the competition, recovered superbly from going 3-1 down early on.

He kept his cool for some superb play, sealing the win with double 20.

So there you have it, debut man Klaasen makes it all the way, will my earlier prediction run true? Which also begs the question (if he wins) why the heck didn’t I stick a bet on him! I mean his odds now are something like 7/4 which means a £3 bet would return a little over £8 so not really worth. At the start of the championship his odds were 100/1 and probably after the first round that may have gone down to something like 80/1 so a £3 bet returns.. yup £240. Ah well, a fair point is that maybe if I put a bet on he wouldn’t have done so well but I hate having the feeling that I shoulda gone with my gut. That way if he lost, he lost but I wouldn’t regret not doing it. Still I wish him all the best and would <Keving Keegan mode> “love it, love it” </Keving Keegan mode> if he won.

In other sporting news Man Utd were humbled by our city rivals Manchester City. This meant that not only did City win, so did Chelsea, because if they win tomorrow the gap to the top widens. That said, once Chelsea had their lead, I knew it would just be a race for 2nd. Its fun now though to see everyone bitching that Chelsea are ruining the game with their big money spending and that they’re dominating the sport etc, etc. Not too long ago the same was said and Utd and look at things now. Football clubs go through patches where they are almost unbeatable. Liverpool have done it, Arsenal have done it and Utd have done it and now, Chelsea are on their way to doing it. Its nice for once not to hear people whine that its Utd spoiling our sport but on the other hand if they just used their heads they’ll realise that even though the have the money and right now all their players are playing as a team this will not always be the case. Once the Lampards & Terrys of their team retire or leave the struggle to replace them will occur. Sure they have top money to buy “the best” but that doesn’t mean to say they’ll gel as well as the last did. Given time Chelseas grip on the Premiership will wain and either on of the aforementioned teams will rise again or a new boy will enter the fold. Either way just sit back and wait; it will happen.

Moving on finally saw Jarhead which, if you get the chance, you should go see as imho it’s a very good film. It’s very much in the mold of Full Metal Jacket in the sense its pretty much a one soldiers view of the war they’re in. We go through boot camp (though it’s not quite as harsh as FMJ) and then most of the film is in Iraq during the first war over there. It starts with operation “Desert Shield” and then progress to “Desert Storm.” Now I really don’t want to get in to the meat of the film as I’ll just spoil it for you but I left feeling slightly more upbeat about the film industry in that at least there are still some new, original movies being made. True I said it has hints of FMJ but it’s originial in its own right. Sam Mendes directs this film beautifully and some of the shots and views in this film are breathtaking. The acting as well is great with Jamie Foxx putting in another Oscar worthy performance along with Jake Gyllenhaal. Its a very thinking mans war movie, theres very little action, lots of character building and for me, a lot of thinking on my part. With any luck its success at the box office may provoke Hollywood to make more of these types of movies rather than re-makes, sequals and brain dead movies.

In personal news we had a disappointment today in our search for a new place to live. The place we really wanted was let not long after we said we wanted it. The final say, you see, was down to the landlord and between a couple of students and the manager of a large supermarket we lost out. It’s a shame but unfortunately that’s the way things seem to crumble these days. On the upside there is another house we liked and Catrin will call the agency in the morning to stamp our mark on it to make sure we get it. I really hope we get this one as I looked this evening and pickings in the area we want to live is quite slim at the moment. So lets just see what tomorrow will bring and move on from there.

Update : We decided not to go for the other house for varying reasons but have found another estate agents with plenty of houses in Bradley Stoke so things are looking up

Rising Dutch star Jelle Klaasen defeated top seed Mervyn King in the second round of the Lakeside World Championship in Frimley Green.

The 21-year-old Dutchman lost the first set but hit back to win 4-2.

“I didn’t expect anything from the match. I just wanted to show my best and I did. Maybe I can go on and win the tournament now,” said Klaasen.

Looks like this kid could be the surprise package of the tournament. I mean, he’s just beaten the World number 1! Either way no matter what happens in his next match he’ll now have one massive reputation. His style of darts is interesting though, he’s very quick. Most players I’ve watch are methodical in their approach whereas Klaasen is just 1,2,3 done. Thing is, if his first dart hits treble 20 the other two are likely to follow. If I had money spare to bet I may have been tempted to have a flutter on Klaason winning the tournament; but I don’t and I certainly don’t know enough about darts to confidently place that bet.