The second night of the PDC World Darts Championship at the Alexandra Palace in London not only sees the continuation of the first round of the tournament but it also involves the preliminary round getting underway.
Peter Wright is the star name on show on Friday evening but he will have to wait to find out who his opponent is as he plays the winner of the preliminary match. Steve Beaton, Gerwyn Price and Devon Petersen will look to entertain the crowds.
Jerry Hendriks vs Warren Parry (P)
28 Age 52
Holland Country New Zealand
199 PDC Ranking N/A
Last 32 WC Best Last 64
DNQ Last Year DNQ
0 Head to Head 0
The first preliminary round match sees two past World Championship participants meeting over the best of three sets to determine who plays Peter Wright at the end of the evening. There is a good few quid at stake in this match as well as the chance to take a major scalp.
By virtue of the fact they are both in this preliminary match we know neither are anything special but in fairness to Hendriks he did at least beat a seasoned campaigner in Jan Dekker to make it here. New Zealand darts is getting better but we’ve never seen much from Warren Parry be it in this tournament or the World Cup of Darts.
Gerwyn Price vs Johnny Clayton
31 Age 42
19 PDC Ranking 60
Last 64 WC Best Debut
Last 64 Last Year DNQ
1 Head to Head 1
The second match of the night sees us head back to the first round of the tournament with an all-Welsh battle over the best of five sets. Gerwyn Price will be appearing here for a third time and he will be bidding to win a match for the first time. In fact he is yet to win a set so that will be a monkey he will be looking to get off his back. Johnny Clayton makes his debut in the tournament.
Experience is likely to be a big thing in this match. Gerwyn Price has been a regular on the TV scene for the last 18 months or so and there is certainly evidence that he is getting used to the big stage. We’ve seen Johnny Clayton go well on the European Tour but how he’ll go on this stage remains to be seen.
On any other stage I’d be confident that Price would win this and win with a bit in hand but this one does weird things especially in the first round. One bet I like though is for Price to hit more than 3.5 180s. He hit five in a 3-0 defeat to Andrew Gilding here two years ago which shows the potential Price has. I’m expecting this one to go four or five sets however it ends up and that is plenty of time for Price to pepper the 60 enough.
Steve Beaton vs Devon Petersen
52 Age 30
27 PDC Ranking 52
Last 16 WC Best Last 16
Last 32 Last Year DNQ
1 Head to Head 2
Two men who have graced this stage a few times compete in the penultimate match of the night when Steve Beaton takes on Devon Petersen in what looks like a fairly even match on the face of things but has the potential not to be that way.
I’m full of admiration for Steve Beaton. He has had a great year in 2016, one of his best ever in fact. He made the final of a floor tournament back in February and was a quarter finalist in the World Matchplay where he was really laying it down to Gary Anderson before a narrow defeat.
Devon Petersen keeps on popping up from time to time and while his talent is clearly there, and we’ve seen it on this stage in the past, his consistency isn’t and that has to be a concern. I think this will be a good match because Beaton is going well but he is someone Petersen will think he can beat. I favour Beaton here but the prices on him are fairly cramped in pretty much every market.
Peter Wright vs Jerry Hendriks/Warren Parry
46 Age
3 PDC Ranking
Final WC Best
QF Last Year
N/A Head to Head N/A
The evening finishes with Peter Wright playing the winner of the preliminary match from earlier in the evening. Although we don’t know who Wright will face we do know it would take something quite extraordinary for either to trouble the Scot.
That said whoever it is Wright plays will have had 30-40 minutes on the stage and we saw with a couple of qualifiers last year how that familiarity can help them later in the evening. We all remember Rene Eidams taking van Gerwen the distance after a good preliminary win earlier in the night. That in itself acts as a reminder that these matches aren’t to get involved in and I won’t here.
Tips
WON – Back G.Price Over 3.5 180s for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
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