The second half of the first round of the Players Championship Finals takes place in an evening session of arrers down in Minehead on Friday evening as we get into the real teeth of the penultimate tournament of the year.
The big guns come out to play on Friday night with the likes of Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright and the defending champion Daryl Gurney all going onto the main stage for the first time this weekend, looking to make the next stage.
Main Stage
We get underway with a good looking match between the Polish third seed Krzysztof Ratajski and the World Cup finalist Steve Lennon before the Grand Slam champion takes to the main stage as Gerwyn Price, seeded one here, goes up against the last man into the tournament in Mickey Mansell. James Wade is the third big name on the stage and he has a first round clash with Ted Evetts. We reach the halfway mark with a cracking game as Mensur Suljovic takes on Kim Huybrechts.
The defending champion Daryl Gurney gets his title defence underway to begin the second half of the evening action when he meets Luke Woodhouse while Michael van Gerwen looks to get over his Grand Slam disappointment when he goes up against Luke Humphries. The big names keep on coming on the main stage as Peter Wright faces James Wilson in the penultimate match of the session before the match of the first round between Nathan Aspinall and Raymond van Barneveld concludes the action.
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Stage Two
Former finalist in this event Jonny Clayton leads us off in the other room when he meets Ryan Meikle who hasn’t really kicked on from an encouraging World Championship last year. Joe Cullen will then look to begin his tilt at a TV title when he takes on Kyle Anderson before Vincent van der Voort goes up against Arron Monk in a match which shouldn’t take long whatever the score. German giant Gabriel Clemens then takes on Mark McGeeney to take us to the halfway mark.
There are some big names on show in the second half of the night on this stage as well with Adrian Lewis taking on Josh Payne who has a lot of unfulfilled talent while William O’Connor meets Steve West. Jermaine Wattimena meets Jamie Hughes in the penultimate match of the night on the second board before the action concludes with the World Matchplay and European Championship winner in action when Rob Cross faces Ron Meulenkamp.
Betting
I’ll take just the one bet in an evening session which is loaded with favourites who actually look hard to oppose even though inevitably one or two of them will either be beaten or will struggle through, such is the nature of the format for the early rounds of this competition. As with the afternoon session it is the second stage where my focus lies from a betting point of view.
It comes in the match between Steve West and William O’Connor where the bookmakers are struggling to split them but I’m confident enough that the Englishman will deliver the goods here. West may not have been on our screens much in recent weeks but he has been throwing some decent averages in the qualifying events for them but running into outstanding displays from his opponents which has been unfortunate. He still retains the form that got him to the semi-final of a tour event in September though. O’Connor has been on our screens more recently but in the main he has struggled to produce his best, often averaging below 90 which doesn’t get it done these days. The last we saw of him he was being beaten by Dave Parletti in a match he needed to win at the Grand Slam. O’Connor’s better form came earlier in the year – he has only gone past the last 16 of a solo tournament once since April. Bookmakers might have this 50:50 but I have this one going to West.
Tips
Back S.West to beat W.O’Connor for a 4/10 stake at 1.95 with 888sport
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