The opening day of the UK Open darts tournament will see the first three rounds of the event played out assuming the weather plays ball and everything runs smoothly. We have two sessions of play to kick things off inside Butlin’s at Minehead.
The afternoon session will see the pre-drawn first and second rounds played out over the best of 11 legs while in the evening the big names will all come out to play in the third round over the best of 19. Time restraints will stop us from previewing the third round but we’ll have a look at the first two here.
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First Round
There are some big names in the first round this year. Terry Jenkins would rate as the biggest of them but his first round opponent Paul Nicholson is not far behind. Dimitri van den Bergh lit up the World Championship but had a shocking qualifying campaign so he’s in from the start while we will get to see the return of John Part on the main board.
Elsewhere we have the likes of Cristo Reyes in action while Rene Eidams, who almost shocked Michael van Gerwen in the World Championship a year or two back is on one of the outside boards. Former world finalists Andy Hamilton and Kirk Shepherd are also in first round action as is the Kiwi player Cody Harris.
Second Round
Some big names enter the tournament in the second round too. Once the first round has finished on the main stage we will see the likes of Gerwyn Price, Alan Norris and Raymond van Barneveld all in action while Vincent van der Voort, Danny Noppert and Dave Chisnall are among the big names who also enter at this stage.
Stephen Bunting, Chris Dobey and Joe Cullen will also be looking to win the one match they need to in order to mix it with the big boys but the pressure will be on all the household names in this round with prize money not beginning until the third round.
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Betting
I’ll go with two in the first set of matches. They both come from the opening round of the tournament as it goes. Ryan Meikle should be riding something of a high having got his tour card back this season and he followed that up with a victory over Rob Cross in one of the floor events recently. Cross wasn’t on it at that time but he still needs to be beaten. He takes on Mickey Mansell here who never really impresses me when I see him and his form since the turn of the year has been terrible. I’m always one for the younger man over the fading force, if you can use that term to describe Mansell, and with that in mind it is Meikle for me.
In the big European clash on board two I’m going to take Cristo Reyes to see off Benito van de Pas. Benito is using new darts and a new style to try and avoid the colossal amount of bounceouts that he used to get but the signs are he is still adjusting and that can be perfect for the Spaniard. Reyes isn’t firing on all cylinders but we know he is a big stage player and odds against attracts me enough here.
Tips
WON – Back R.Meikle to beat M.Mansell for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back C.Reyes to beat B.van de Pas for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfred
Back him here:
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