Although the weather is threatening to have its say, the tournament dubbed the ‘FA Cup of Darts’ begins on Friday when 96 professionals and 32 amateur qualifiers head to Butlin’s in Minehead for the UK Open darts event.
Most of the leading players in the world are in this tournament, weather permitting, and they are joined by qualifiers from pubs and clubs around the country in what is always an entertaining weekend which throws up some wonderful stories.
Recent Winners
2017 – Peter Wright
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
2014 – Adrian Lewis
2013 – Phil Taylor
2012 – Robert Thornton
2011 – James Wade
2010 – Phil Taylor
2009 – Phil Taylor
2008 – James Wade
The Format
There have been six qualifying tournaments to build up a money list for this event and the top 32 on the list go into the third round automatically. Those ranked 65-96 have been put in with the 32 pub qualifiers for the first round with the winners of those matches going through to the second round where players ranked 33-64 in the money list come in. The 32 winners from that round join the top 32 from the money list in round 3 a la the FA Cup.
The first two rounds are played on Friday afternoon over the best of 11 legs with the third round of the event through to and including the quarter finals all being the best of 19 legs. The semi-finals and final on Sunday evening are the best of 21 legs. From the third round onwards there is a totally random draw throughout.
The Favourites
Michael van Gerwen will feel he is on for a three-peat this year having been forced to miss the tournament last year. He is the 10/11 favourite which is perfectly fair although we’ve seen in the last month or two that he might not be as infallible as he was 18 months or so ago. Even so it is likely to take something special to beat him.
World champion Rob Cross and Gary Anderson are both 8/1 to win the tournament. Cross is just starting to get going again after a slow beginning to the year while Anderson won one of the qualifying events for this to show that he can still take down tournaments. Whether his shoulder has six lengthy matches in it in the space of 48hrs is a concern though. Cross made a name for himself in this tournament two years ago so will have special memories.
Another man who will have good memories of this tournament is Peter Wright. The defending champion is 10/1 to retain the title and having made the final in each of the past three years he certainly knows what it takes to go the course and distance. He hasn’t looked completely content since the World Championship though which is a concern.
Michael Smith is 25/1 to win the tournament this week and having won a qualifying event and made the final of another he is clearly in good form. That is further highlighted by his record in the Premier League where he tops the table after four rounds of matches. His next step is to win a tournament like this but he might be a touch skinny. It is 28/1 bar.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Main Bet
I’ll go with one main bet this weekend in a tournament where we might see the cream rise to the top if they all avoid each other in the various draws. The man I like is Daryl Gurney who was a semi-finalist here last year and who should be ready to win a second TV major. He is the leading 180 scorer in the Premier League currently so he is scoring well and if the longer format brings out his better doubling he should not be far away. Gurney has a TV title win and a pro tour win last year and copious finals on top. He’s good enough to come through if the draw is kind.
Outsiders
I’ll chuck darts (if you pardon the pun) at a few bigger prices this weekend. This tournament usually throws up a couple of huge priced quarter finalists and semi-finalists and hopefully that happens here.
Krzysztof Ratajski won one of the qualifying events which means he will join the tournament in the third round which is never a bad thing in terms of an outright bet. Although he won the Winmau World Masters last year and an event in the lead up to this event he will still fly under the radar enough to stay away from the main stages unless he lands a plum draw so he should be able to come through a few rounds and then with a head of steam built up he could outrun his three figure price.
Ian White did enough to make it into the third round of the tournament and since then he has made the semi-final and quarter final of a Players Championship event so he’s in decent enough form. White has made the quarter final of this tournament in two of the last four years and it will only take a nice draw for him to push on further. At 150/1 he’s an obvious play at the price.
Jamie Hughes missed out on his tour card so having left the BDO his earning potential is this event, the Challenge Tour and the European Tour events so he will be looking to maximise his return this weekend. Hughes made the quarter final of one of the qualifying tournaments and took care of Robbie Green and Ricky Evans to make one of the European Tour events. He is clearly capable of going deep in this event and with motivation certainly not lacking I’ll pay to see how far he goes.
Paul Hogan has had a couple of decent runs here before and I maintain he would be competent on the PDC circuit. He made it to the last 16 here last year from the first round which is encouraging because he will need to start from the first round again as a pub qualifier. We’ve seen his best game is a match for most throughout his career though and if the draw stays kind he could give us more than a run for our money.
Tips
Back D.Gurney to win UK Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back K.Ratajski to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Ladbrokes (1/4 1-4)
Back him here:
Back I.White to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back J.Hughes to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 251.00 with Coral (1/4 1-4)
Back him here:
Back P.Hogan to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 301.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018
