The third day of action at the BDO World Darts Championship inside the Indigo at the o2 Arena in London sees the end of the preliminary round and the continuation of the first round in the men’s draw as well as one more match from the women’s competition on a decent looking Monday line up.
There are world champions and contenders everywhere you look on the card on Monday with the defending women’s champion Mikuru Suzuki getting her title defence underway, while there is a cracking looking contest that stands out.
Afternoon Session
The day begins with a bit of history as the first ever Romanian player to compete in these championships takes to the stage when Gabriel Pescaru takes on the BDO qualifier Justin Hood, who saw off Jeff Smith among others in the qualifiers. There are only three games in the afternoon session and the second one sees the preliminary round ending with the Canadian player David Cameron returning to the tournament. He meets the talented Nick Fullwell, who has a decent pedigree behind him.
There is just the one match from the main draw in the afternoon session and it gives us the first opportunity to see the number one seed Wesley Harms in action for the first time. His overall draw is pretty tough and it begins with a tricky little encounter with the Swedish player Andreas Harrysson, who looked in decent touch when dumping out the World Masters winner John O’Shea in the preliminary round to make it into this stage.
Evening Session
There are four matches in the evening session and it all begins with the former finalist in the PDC World Championship, Andy Hamilton, beginning his quest for the BDO title. He takes on the New Zealander, Darren Herewini, who impressed in coming through his preliminary round match earlier in the week. It is after them that the defending women’s champion takes to the stage as Mikuru Suzuki takes on the semi-finalist from last year in Maria O’Brien.
The standout match of the first round is the third match on the evening card when men with five world titles between them collide for a spot in the second round as Scott Waites takes on Martin Adams in a true quality clash. The action concludes with another good looking match as the 10 seed Adam Smith-Neale, with a big point to prove on this stage, takes on Paul Hogan who looked more than useful in coming through against Brian Raman in the preliminary round here on Sunday.
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Betting
I’m looking forward to the evening session where there are some really good matches on the card. Something tells me that the huge gamble on Darren Herewini has made the price for Andy Hamilton a little too big but I’m not sure I can trust the Hammer so I’m going to focus my attention on the final game of the night where there are two bets which catch my fancy in what should be a good contest.
Paul Hogan has been installed as the favourite to beat Adam Smith-Neale but I’m not so sure it will be as cut and dry as that. Hogan played well on Sunday night but only came away with an 88.51 average because of a number of missed doubles. He wasn’t made to pay in that game but he isn’t playing a player who he will naturally outscore here. Smith-Neale didn’t get the chance to show it last year because of injury but he’s a very talented player. He did show that when he won the 2018 World Masters, taking care of Mark McGeeney, Jim Williams and Glen Durrant along the way – the three leading ranked players at the time. 2019 wasn’t great for the Englishman but there’s a class act in there and if he pins the doubles he can certainly win this.
The other bet I like in the match is for there to be more than 6.5 180s. We saw the scoring power that Hogan has on Sunday night when he slammed in six 180s so he could go close to covering this line on his own. Smith-Neale is a heavy scorer himself so he’ll definitely add to the pot and I expect the two to combine for a few 180s. I don’t think this will be 3-0 to either man so we’re looking for less than one 180 per player per set on average and these are two who can deliver that.
Tips
Back A.Smith-Neale to beat P.Hogan for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Betway
Back him here:
WON – Back A.Smith-Neale vs P.Hogan – Over 6.5 180s for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Betfred
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