The opening day of the Players Championship Finals is a busy one inside the behind closed doors setup at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry as the penultimate tournament of the season sees the first round played out in full over two sessions of action.
All 64 players who have made it into the tournament will be in action looking for the six legs that will take them through to the next round on Saturday afternoon. That means we get to see the likes of Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright, Gerwyn Price and the new Grand Slam champion Jose de Sousa in action.
Afternoon Session
Main Stage
The tournament gets underway on the main stage with the recent World Grand Prix finalist Dirk van Duijvenbode in action when he takes on the World Cup play William O’Connor. When they are done another man who was involved in the World Cup earlier in the month takes to the stage when Michael Smith meets Boris Krcmar before his partner in an England shirt Rob Cross looks to find a TV win when he takes on a Jason Lowe who has impressed at times this season.
Joe Cullen edged out Adam Hunt at the Grand Slam of Darts recently and he’ll be looking to come through a little easier on Friday afternoon before the session concludes with three great matches as Devon Petersen goes up against the current World Youth champion Luke Humphries before Ryan Searle meets the World Matchplay winner Dimitri Van den Bergh. The session concludes on the main stage with Adrian Lewis going up against Simon Whitlock.
Board Two
There are some good names over on Board Two in the afternoon session and the action gets underway there with Brendan Dolan facing Luke Woodhouse before Ryan Joyce attempts to overcome the challenge of Andy Boulton. Stephen Bunting is then up to get his campaign back on track when he meets Ryan Murray before we have an Eastern European clash as Krzysztof Ratajski takes on Karel Sedlacek for a place in the second round.
Gabriel Clemens is a dark horse for a lot of people this weekend and if he is to justify those claims he will have to overcome Martijn Kleermaker before one of our outright picks, Ian White, takes on the scene when he meets William Borland. World Cup winner Jonny Clayton has surprisingly been banished to Board Two for his clash against Mickey Mansell before former champion Daryl Gurney takes on Callan Rydz. The last match of the afternoon might be moved to the main stage as Dave Chisnall faces Mervyn King.
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Evening Session
Main Stage
The quality keeps on coming in a tantalising evening session on Friday and on the Main Stage the Premier League finalist Nathan Aspinall gets the action underway when he takes on the former world champion Scott Waites before Gary Anderson will look to show his worth when he goes up against one of the heroes of the pandemic in Keegan Brown. We then see the Grand Slam finalist James Wade back on the stage when he meets the largely unknown Dutch player Niels Zonneveld.
Four huge names finish of the action on the Main Stage on Friday night and the run begins with the world champion Peter Wright on show. He meets Ryan Meikle before the world number one Michael van Gerwen begins his title defence as he faces Darius Labanauskas. Gerwyn Price will look to make up for the disappointment of losing his Grand Slam title when he takes on John Henderson before the evening concludes with Jose de Sousa taking on Mike de Decker.
Board Two
While there is quality on the main board on Friday night the action should be pretty good on the other stage as well as Vincent van der Voort gets thinks started when he meets fellow Dutch player Dirk Telnekes before Ricky Evans goes up against Jamie Hughes. Ross Smith has had a pretty good year and he’ll look to crown that with an opening win over Kim Huybrechts before a man making big strides on the scene steps up as Damon Heta takes on Maik Kuivenhoven.
One of the more even looking matches of the evening sees Jermaine Wattimena going up against Steve Lennon before Madars Razma meets a Chris Dobey for whom the next few weeks are pretty important as he has just started to lose his way a little and needs to get back on track. Premier League champion Glen Durrant will then look to put a terrible few weeks behind him as he faces Wayne Jones before the last man into the field Darren Wenster takes on Jeffrey de Zwaan. The action concludes with Danny Noppert meeting Steve Beaton.
Betting
There are a couple of bets I like on Friday. I’m not a huge fan of betting in these best of 11s as a rule but there are a pair of big names who are showing nothing like their best at the minute and who look vulnerable. Over on Board Two I’ve got to take on Daryl Gurney. His form has dipped to such an extent that he wasn’t even in the Grand Slam of Darts recently let alone underperform in it. Gurney did have a better Winter Series but he’s lost his last five stage matches. He meets a Callan Rydz who also caught the eye in the Winter Series. One reason for that was he beat Michael van Gerwen in one of the events. In another he made a semi-final where he took care of Simon Whitlock, Ian White and a certain Daryl Gurney along the way. This match being on Board Two probably suits the Geordie more than if it was on the Main Stage. At the prices he looks a value bet to see off a Gurney who is under pressure to deliver this weekend to protect the cash he won two years ago.
The last time we saw Gary Anderson he was limping around on the Grand Slam stage and given that it was less than a week ago that was happening we can assume he isn’t going to be in the best nick when he steps onto the Main Stage to take on Keegan Brown. You never truly know what you’re going to get out of Brown but when he’s good he can be pretty hard to stop and he doesn’t have a whole lot to lose in this match so hopefully we’ll see that side of him rather than the dismal one. If we do he is a value shot to see off a Gary Anderson who I’d be surprised if he has much interest in this weekend. I’m guessing he would rather get done up and get home to rest up and prepare for the World Championship next month. At the prices Brown is worth a go.
Tips
WON – Back C.Rydz to beat D.Gurney for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back K.Brown to beat G.Anderson for a 3/10 stake at 3.50 with Coral
Back him here:
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