With the Christmas turkey consumed and the presents all opened it is time for the PDC World Championship to resume and it does so with two sessions of action at Alexandra Palace on Thursday as the third round continues.
The cream is slowly beginning to rise to the top in this competition now and Michael Smith will hope to continue that trend when he headlines what should be an exciting, entertaining and good quality session of darts.
Devon Petersen vs Steve West
The action begins with a match from the bottom quarter of the draw where we now know that if Steve West does not make it to the semi-final we will have a qualifier making it through to that stage. West’s first opponent on that path is Devon Petersen who rolled back the years in the second round.
Petersen played some really nice stuff against Ian White and fully deserved his victory even if it did take him a while to get going. There is no reason why he won’t play well here but all eyes will be on West. West did enough to come through in the second round but he has all the pressure on him here and how he copes with that will be interesting. I fancy Petersen will be able to throw with a little more freedom but that is only a hunch and not one I’m that keen to act on from a betting point of view. With that in mind I’ll happily sit this one out.
Dimitri Van den Bergh vs Luke Humphries
Two stars of the future do battle in the second match of the afternoon when the quarter finalist of last year Dimitri Van den Bergh takes on one of the best talked about players coming through in Luke Humphries.
Based on their second round performances this should be something of a cracking match. I wanted to see a performance from Van den Bergh before I believed he was more than a one or two tournament sensation and boy did we see it in his destruction of Jonny Clayton in the previous round. Credit where it is due to Humphries though. He was very good in beating Stephen Bunting and there is a sense that this could turn into a right good scrap.
I’ve got to think there is a strong chance of six sets here which means over 12.5 180s has to be a live runner in this one. That is only one per set per player with one on top and both score heavily enough to achieve that. I’m happy to get on the youngsters to deliver here.
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Michael Smith vs John Henderson
The final match of the afternoon sees Michael Smith looking to make it into the last 16 when he goes up against a John Henderson who has seen off some big players on big stages in his career and will be out to do that again here.
Smith played very nicely in beating Ron Meulenkamp in his opening match while Henderson had to battle hard to see off Gabriel Clemens. There was nothing wrong with that performance though and what caught the eye was his scoring because he will need to score well if he is going to come through this one.
I like the 180s here too I must admit. Both these men know where the 60 is and we should get enough legs for 180s to flow quite nicely. Given how relentless Smith can be on them I’m surprised we can get a 12.5 line in this match but I’m happy to take the over. We may only need five sets the way these two score.
Tips
Back D.Van den Bergh vs L.Humphries – Over 12.5 180s for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfair
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WON – Back M.Smith vs J.Henderson – Over 12.5 180s for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with 888sport
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