By popular demand (well, some demand, anyway), I’m going through the stats to see what you read on SportsMyriad this year.

Traffic was down just a little year over year, which isn’t surprising even though the blog didn’t operate all 12 months of 2010. In 2010, I was trying to make this a full-service, revenue-generating blog, so I was posting more frequently. This year, I concentrated a bit more on work that actually pays money.

Still, readership wasn’t bad. Here’s what surprised me:

- 2012 medal projections keep getting traffic even without recent activity.

- The Ultimate Fighter recaps really dropped off. Perhaps that’s because Season 13 wasn’t great.

- Single-Digit Soccer started with a bang and dropped to nothing. That might be the biggest disappointment for me. Some of the posts drew less than 20 page views.

- My best MMA writing didn’t do well at all. That included an in-person report on TUF tryouts, my response to a ridiculous Washington Post piece, my take on the media hysteria over an ill-advised kids fight, and the only conference call transcript you’ll ever need.

Here’s what didn’t surprise me:

- Angry Duke-bashers were all over my post on the lacrosse scandal. Angry promotion-relegation backers didn’t bother. And when I angered Title IX critics, I had a thoughtful discussion with them but got little traffic.

- The WPS-Borislow documents and other breaking news all did pretty well.

Here’s the full list (excluding the posts that drew tiny page views), expressed as percentages of my traffic:

Through it’s 21-month existence, SportsMyriad has seen erratic activity — flurries of posts, then very little. I’d expect the first couple of months of 2012 to veer toward “very little.” I really need to sit down and wrap up my next book, and I may still have a few features for espnW along with the occasional sports culture post at Popdose.

But please keep me in your RSS readers (or at least follow me on Twitter) for the following reasons:

1. If some news breaks in WPS, I’m still likely to have some of it here.

2. When I get back to business here, I’ll be really revved up to go. Have to update all those 2012 medal projections, you know.

Happy New Year to all in whatever sports you enjoy.

A full Ashes round-up and set of musings will follow, I promise, but in the meantime all hail Darren Gough, former England fast bowler, ex-Strictly Come Dancing champion, and now humanitarian.

“I woke up early this morning and the footage I saw on television of the Queensland floods really touched me,” he said. “Whatever I can do as a cricketer and as a human being, I’ll do it.”

Gough decided to look into running a charity event, and thanks to the power of social media, the idea has snowballed, with an all-star cricket match expected to take place next Monday January 17 at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground.

“I sent a message on Twitter to Warney [Shane Warne] and since then I’ve got such a response from people – it’s gone round the world. The support I’ve got has been unbelievable – the MCG would love to get involved, Cricket Australia have been in touch, and we really want to strike while the iron’s hot.

“Everyone loves watching Ashes cricket, and after the series just gone Australia might want to see a few of the old guys in action again.”

Warne suggested that the match should be battled out between his XI versus a Michael Vaughan XI, mostly for the attraction of the rhyming surnames, but it makes sense – the former England captain is still in Australia after his media duties during the Ashes series. Players mooted to take part include Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and Adam Hollioake, the former England batsman who now lives in Australia, just a few kilometres from the flood district.

All Gough and his colleagues need now is an airline company to provide flights for the UK-based players, or someone to fund them – if you know anyone who’d be able to assist, you can get in touch with him via, where else, Twitter.

Edit: Also via Twitter, the MCG have confirmed that they’ll be talking to Cricket Australia tomorrow about the game (or later tonight if you’re in the UK) and will send out updates when they have them.

I was too depressed to write this earlier, and even now I’m feeling horribly sad. There are new betting allegations in cricket, this time involving “spot-betting” rather than match-fixing, and centring on the Pakistan side currently touring England.

Scandal and gambling in cricket is, of course, nothing new – we’ve seen South Africa’s Hansie Cronje brought down by match-fixing, for example, and Pakistan’s Qayyum Inquiry ten years ago censured some of their top players.

And, some may ask, what does it really matter if poorly-paid Pakistan players are boosting their income by overstepping a few times in a match? After all, that’s what the allegations are – that new-ball bowlers Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir deliberately bowled no-balls at prearranged times, allowing the “fixer” to put money on it.

Yet it has tarnished what has been a fabulous Test series.

18-year-old Amir’s boundless promise has been a huge contributory factor towards its entertainment. When the legend that is Michael Holding enthuses about a young bowler, declaring, “I love what I see,” then his potential is clear. To see Holding on television today, evidently hurt and disappointed about the damage done to the sport, compounded the distress felt by all cricket fans.

Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad broke all known records this weekend with their 332-run eighth-wicket partnership, with Broad marking his maiden first-class century (and surpassing his father’s highest-ever score). Now, much as captain Andrew Strauss might claim it’s not the case, some of the gloss has inevitably been taken off that achievement.

Whether or not the scheduled one-day series, which is supposed to begin next week, goes ahead remains to be seen. “Fixer” Mazhar Majeed has acted as agent to several of the Pakistan players, but he is a property developer and is also the owner of Croydon Athletic. How this incident will impact on his future sporting involvements remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, back at Lord’s, Mohammed Amir won Pakistan’s man of the series award, and Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, refused to shake his hand, or even look him in the face. Amir has had a spectacular few months and is incredibly gifted – there is (as yet) no question that he’s ever given less than his best. Former cricketers have urged understanding, reminding us of the economic situation in Pakistan and suggesting that the consequences for refusing to obey orders would be massive and tragic.

Police investigations are ongoing. And so until some conclusions are reached, those of us who love sport are left wondering once more whether that last-minute miss, that slip from a fielder, that fumble were accidental or whether some shady figure has made thousands off the back of our disappointment.

I was a little preoccupied.

Programming will continue to be irregular over the next couple of weeks while we fiddle around in anticipation of SportsMyriad 2.0. But please do stay tuned.

Phil Taylor’s answers are just as methodical as his darts: thoughtful, measured, precise. When he says something you can be very sure he means it and has chosen his words with intent.

The 15-time champion of the world has just wrapped up his 11^th World Matchplay title. When his form dipped four years ago, he was revitalised by the BDO-to-PDC transfer of Raymond van Barneveld; when winning came just a tad too easily, Simon Whitlock emerged on to the scene to provide another challenge. So does he think any of the younger generation of darts players are going to threaten his dominance any time soon? He considers the question carefully. James Wade is inconsistent,” he eventually replies. “He can play really well, but it depends which James turns up.”

What about Wade’s contemporary and Taylor’s former protégé, Adrian Lewis? Since an apparently amicable parting of the ways in 2007, Taylor has seen Lewis sink down the PDC world rankings and out of the Premier League, and the younger man still has not won a major tournament. For a man as dedicated to excellence as Taylor, it seems that this is a minor frustration for him; it is apparent that he feels he’s done all he can and now it’s up to Lewis.

“I’ve given Adrian more advice than anyone, but it goes in one ear and out the other,” he sighs. “If he had a brain he’d be dangerous.” It’s evident that particular subject is closed.

If Lewis has failed to fulfil his potential and his mentor’s belief in him, who would Taylor like to see on the big stage? This is a much more cheering topic, which Taylor takes to with enthusiasm. “There are a couple I’d love to see do well – Adrian Gray, and Jelle Klaasen.” Klaasen is an interesting case; though he beat the great van Barneveld before their respective moves over to the PDC, again he’s not quite made the big breakthrough. Taylor explains: “He gets frustrated because he doesn’t get the rewards, but they’ll come. He doesn’t go out or drink or stay up late – he lives the right lifestyle.”

Ah, living the right lifestyle. That’s a bugbear of Taylor’s, who’s always stressed the importance of taking the sport seriously, training hard and not indulging in too much food or drink. Those players less dedicated than him earn his scorn, but perhaps more importantly eliminate themselves from his list of rivals. Yet the list of players who can prove themselves a real contender to the greatest darts player who has ever lived is by necessity short – a resurgent van Barneveld, Whitlock, an on-form Wade…

“There’s always a rivalry with Mervyn King, but we’re still friends underneath it all,” he assures me, though I am obviously unconvinced bearing in mind the multiple episodes of needle between the pair. Taylor tries to persuade me that this is the absolute truth: “There’ll always be rivalries because you’re trying to stop other people from earning a living. It’s a competitive world, and you don’t like it when anyone beats you, but there’s no nastiness.”

Treating darts as a job is one of Taylor’s other hobby horses. He’s earned a fine sum of money from the sport and sees no reason to feel guilty about it. “I get a footballer’s wages!” he declares with glee. What about his colleagues, who have earned significantly less in prize money and endorsements? “The rest of them? Couldn’t care less.”

In football, significantly less gifted players have earned tens of millions of pounds, and the quality of the sport is not obviously better than before the injection of cash. “I think that yes, too much money can ruin the game,” admits Taylor. “But money isn’t a motivation. You have to do that yourself.”

Taylor is one of the most self-motivated sportsmen around. When it’s just you at a darts board practising for hours every day, you have to be. Yet he remains inspired by the achievements of others. “Daley Thompson, Pete Sampras, Nigel Benn, Stuart Pearce – these are the sportsmen who inspire me.”

No mention of any women there, so I ask him what he thinks about players like Anastasia Dobromyslova competing alongside him in PDC events – Wayne Mardle, in a fit of macho panic, has been very vocal about his opposition to mixed events, whereas John Part, as calm as ever, has been supportive of it. Taylor, on the other hand, seems vaguely surprised to be asked. “I’m fine with her. I think she’s found her first year very difficult. If she does well, she deserves it.”

Time for some predictions, then. What should we expect from the European Championships this weekend? “You mean am I going to win it?” asks Taylor, mind on only one thing as ever. “Yes.”

Phil Taylor won his 11th World Matchplay title at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens tonight, beating Raymond van Barneveld by 18 legs to 12.

Though van Barneveld led 3-2 at the first interval, with all the legs going with throw, Taylor broke shortly afterwards and began to extend his lead. Despite falling four legs behind, van Barneveld refused to give in, pushing Taylor and retaining his throw to close the deficit back to three with the scores at 15-12 with an incisive double 20. Taylor reclaimed the advantage immediately, though, and cruised his way to the title as the Dutchman lost his nerve, missing the 25 he needed to leave him with a double-top to take the 28th leg.

Both players finished with a doubles-conversion rate of just about 50 per cent, but It was the treble 20s that made the difference – Taylor ended the match with nine to his credit, with van Barneveld lagging behind with just two. As Taylor hit his last 180 of the evening, van Barneveld responded with three single 20s followed by a bounce-out, which summed up his evening.

The two players embraced at the end, and despite the crowd chanting, “Easy! Easy!”, this evening’s match was in fact the toughest either of them had played throughout the week. Van Barneveld had been tested by his compatriot  Co Stompe in the quarter-finals but still won 16-12, and Taylor’s hardest opponent had been the effervescent Barrie Bates in the first round, who he beat 10-6.

“It’s good to have Barney back,” said Taylor afterwards. “I’m over the moon that Barney is playing like Barney can, and is putting me under pressure.” Having emerged from a two-month hiatus in a season where he has suffered from off-the-oche distractions and health problems, Van Barneveld accepted his number two status behind the greatest player the sport has ever seen. “There’s nothing wrong with that,” he said ironically, and added ominously, “He’s too good for me at the moment…but I still had the nine-darter!” referring to his spectacular performance against Denis Ovens in the first round.

The PDC tour now moves to Dinslaken, Germany, for the European Championships next weekend.