It is the second day of the UK Open on Saturday and at the end of it the 127 men who arrived at the tournament will have been whittled down to just eight as two more rounds of matches take place across the two sessions on the middle day of the tournament in Minehead.
We had to wait a while for the first significant shock on the opening day but it finally came when Gary Anderson was dumped out by the BDO qualifier Paul Hogan. With Michael van Gerwen pulling out on the morning of the tournament this event is wide open all of a sudden.
Saturday afternoon sees the last 32 being played out with the last 16 in the evening session. Sadly time restrictions mean we won’t be able to preview the last 16 but we can cover the round of 32.
Main Stage
Mark Webster and Daryl Gurney will get the action underway in the main arena before last week’s Players Championship event winner Alan Norris takes on Benito van de Pas. Raymond Barneveld then faces Ron Meulenkamp before the tie of the round when Dave Chisnall goes up against Peter Wright.
Stage Two
The first match on this stage is between Gerwyn Price and David Pallett but the support act isn’t too bad. Kim Huybrechts faces Ted Evetts in what is a potential banana skin for the Belgian. Then comes the two fastest gunslingers left in the tournament as Jelle Klaasen plays Vincent van der Voort before the giant killer Paul Hogan takes on Adrian Lewis.
Stage Three
Ronnie Baxter looks to continue his resurgence when he takes on William O’Connor first up on this board before Chris Dobey faces the unheralded Martin Lukeman. Joe Cullen then plays Cristo Reyes who had a bye on Friday before Simon Whitlock meets Dirk van Duijvenbode.
Stage Four
Greece number one John Michael meets a blast from the past in Alan Tabern to open this board up before the youngsters Ryan Searle and Rob Cross do battle. Kirk Shepherd will hope to continue his tournament by beating Ian White and then the finale on this stage sees Jermaine Wattimena taking on Michael Smith.
Betting
The draw was good and bad. It was good in the sense that my four remaining outrights all got winnable matches but it wasn’t the greatest in terms of throwing up great looking bets for this round and given than I’m already involved in four of the 16 matches there really isn’t much I fancy apart from one.
Michael Smith was in excellent form on Friday night when he missed a double for a nine darter. There was word that he did that twice and if that is true then he’s in some touch. He takes on a Jermaine Wattimena who he has beaten in their previous three meetings and in the first two the Dutchman only won one leg.
Smith did win their most recent match 6-5 but that came at the time the youngster was in his slump last year. It appears he is out of that now and with that in mind I expect him to claim and early lead in this match and power clear without looking back.
Tips
Back M.Smith (-3.5 legs) to beat J.Wattimena for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
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