The penultimate night of action in the first round of the PDC World Darts Championship takes place on Wednesday evening on what promises to be a tasty session of arrers inside the Alexandra Palace in London.
The shocks continued to come on Tuesday night when Adrian Lewis was dumped out of the tournament so the three seeded players on show on Wednesday should have their minds fully focused.
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Xiao Chen Zong vs Bernie Smith (P)
China Country New Zealand
19 Age 53
Debut PDCWC Best Debut
N/A Last Year N/A
0 Head to Head 0
The action begins with the final match in the preliminary round of the tournament when the youngster Xiao Chen Zong takes on the more experienced Bernie Smith over the best of three sets for the right to face Justin Pipe in the finale to the session.
Both men are making their debuts in this tournament and looking through the careers of the pair there isn’t much to go on really. It has been a good few nights for the preliminary round of this event but my gut tells me we will drop down a level in class here.
Michael Smith vs Steve Lennon
27 Age 24
QF PDCWC Best Debut
Last 16 Last Year N/A
0 Head to Head 0
The first of three first round matches on the evening is a battle of the next generation when Michael Smith takes on Steve Lennon for a place in the second round against Rob Cross on Friday.
Smith is becoming an experienced campaigner at World Championship level and having made the last 16 or further in each of the last four years he clearly likes this Alexandra Palace stage. Lennon is new to this stage but he has been getting good stage experience the longer the year has gone on so despite this all being new ground for him there’s no reason to think he won’t play his natural game.
Although Smith has a good record in this event he has never won a first round match 3-0 and I don’t anticipate that starting here. His last two first round wins, both against heavy scoring young bucks like he opposes here, have been 3-2 and I wouldn’t be surprised if this one goes the distance either. Both score well enough to hold their throw so the sets should be tight so over 16.5 legs looks the way forward in this one.
Simon Whitlock vs Martin Schindler
48 Age 21
Runner Up PDCWC Best Debut
Last 32 Last Year N/A
0 Head to Head 0
Simon Whitlock begins his tilt at the world title in the second to last match of the evening when he takes on the rising star from Germany in Martin Schindler. If Schindler needed some inspiration for this match he should have got it from his countryman Kevin Munch on Tuesday night.
Whitlock’s record in this tournament is largely decent. He has lost in a final and in two semi-finals but in the last three years he has only won one match here which will be a concern. That said for two of those years his form was terrible and that isn’t the case this year but until he picks up a win I’m sure there will be nerves there.
Up until last night Schindler probably had nothing to lose in this match. Not much is expected of German darts but all of a sudden he has something to live up to and that could add to the pressure that is on him here so it will be interesting to see how he goes.
I would expect Whitlock to win this match but if he has one of those strange days like we saw from him in the Grand Slam then this has the potential to get tricky. I hate trusting Whitlock as such an emphatic favourite so I’ll just watch this one.
Justin Pipe vs Xiao Chen Zong/Bernie Smith
46 Age
Last 16 PDCWC Best
Last 64 Last Year
N/A Head to Head N/A
The final match of the evening sees Justin Pipe taking on the winner of the preliminary match and having not won a match on this stage in his last three visits Pipe may well be thanking his lucky stars that he has a kind draw even if he will face Phil Taylor in the next round should he win.
We’ve seen the last two preliminary round winners win their first round match later in the session and three in total but I would be surprised if that trend continues here. I would expect Pipe to come through but with all the pressure being on him I wouldn’t be rushing to bet regardless of who he faces.
Tips
WON – Back M.Smith vs S.Lennon – Over 16.5 legs for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Betfred
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