It is the final day of action at the Players Championship Finals on Sunday, with two sessions of play determining the outcome and the destiny of the title in Minehead. This is the last day of televised darts before the big one so everyone left in will be eager to lift the trophy.
The quarter finals of the competition will take place in the afternoon session with the remainder of the event in the evening. As ever in these tournaments time restrictions will hamper us when it comes to covering the evening but we’ll get stuck into the quarter finals here.
Gerwyn Price vs Stephen Bunting
The opening quarter final of the afternoon sees the number one seed and Grand Slam champion Gerwyn Price, taking on the former BDO world champion Stephen Bunting over the best of 19 legs for a place in the semi-final.
Price has continued his wonderful form of the last few weeks but actually, although most of it has been done on the second stage, Bunting has actually played the better of the two this weekend. Whether he can continue that on the big stage remains to be seen but the Englishman has shown enough to be respected here and with that in mind I see no value on either side of the fence here.
Raymond van Barneveld vs Chris Dobey
The second quarter final sees Raymond van Barneveld continuing his farewell tour when he goes up against a man who could quite easily replace him in the upper echelons of the game in Chris Dobey for a place in the last four.
Dobey has played well this weekend so far but he’s still been a level or so below Barneveld, who has shown signs of his very best. That may well be down to the fact he is relaxed and not playing for his ranking or anything and that isn’t going to change in this match. It might do in the semi-final as he would then be seeded in the World Championship if he won the title which he would be within two wins of achieving if he comes out on top here.
I’m not sure Dobey is on top of his game at the minute and so over this distance I would expect Barneveld to come out on top. He really is looking very good this weekend and while he might struggle later in the day, he should be fresh enough to come through this one. Both their previous meetings have gone to a deciding leg but over this format I fancy Barney to have enough.
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Michael van Gerwen vs Mervyn King
The penultimate quarter final of the competition sees two men who have been to the final of this tournament in the past doing battle when Michael van Gerwen takes on Mervyn King in what should be a good and fiery encounter.
Van Gerwen showed how well he is playing when he slammed in the nine-dart finish on Saturday afternoon but at the same time we saw that King is lobbing a mean arrer when he took Rob Cross to the cleaners in the evening session. King always lays it down to MVG and I would have backed him on a handicap of some kind but he looks like he’s about to keel over with his back so I won’t be getting involved in this one.
Ian White vs William O’Connor
The afternoon session of quarter finals conclude with what is a big match in the career of Ian White. He has never been beyond this stage in a TV tournament and is constantly getting reminded of it, so victory here will do him no harm whatsoever. He’s up against William O’Connor who is in the same boat.
White has been in terrific form this weekend and has said he has been happy with his game for a while, which bodes well for a big performance here. O’Connor has seen off a couple of seasoned campaigners to reach this stage but this is a step up both in class of opponent and magnitude of the match and I sense we might not see the best performance from him. I still can’t get his loss to Dave Parletti at the Grand Slam out of my head for whatever reason.
I think White will win this and I think he’ll come through a shade easily. He averaged 107 in his win over Michael Smith in the previous round and you’ve got to think over 19 legs if he’s anywhere within sort of 10pts of that he’ll have enough to not just win this but do it no worse than 10-8. O’Connor’s time may well come but this is the day White takes that next step in his career.
Tips
Back R.van Barneveld to beat C.Dobey for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Betway
Back him here:
Back I.White (-1.5 legs) to beat W.O’Connor for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
Back him here:
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