The Players Championship Finals continue on Saturday in what could be described as ‘Moving Day’ for the tournament when two rounds of the event are played out across two sessions of play inside the Ricoh Arena in Milton Keynes.
In the main we saw the big names all make progress through the tricky first round on Friday and on Saturday they will embark on the last 32 in the afternoon before the winners come back for the last 16 in the evening. We will preview the last 32 here but time restrictions will stop us from covering the last 16.
Main Stage
The action begins on Saturday afternoon with our one remaining outright pick Ian White taking on the German ace Gabriel Clemens before the Premier League finalist Nathan Aspinall will look to make it through to the third round at the expense of Ross Smith. The match of the afternoon session is third on to the stage as Michael Smith meets Gary Anderson before the halfway mark is reached with another decent enough looking game as Joe Cullen goes up against the former world champion Rob Cross.
The newly crowned Grand Slam of Darts winner Jose de Sousa is next onto the Main Stage. He faces the Dutch veteran Vincent van der Voort for a place in the next round before the other standout tie of the round is played out when Michael van Gerwen meets Jonny Clayton in what was the final of this event back in 2017. The last two matches on the Main Stage sees last year’s finalist Gerwyn Price taking on Jamie Hughes while Peter Wright rounds off the afternoon against Simon Whitlock.
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Stage Two
Away from the match spotlight the names might not be as eye catching but the competitiveness should be just as strong. The action gets going out there with Luke Woodhouse taking on Andy Boulton before two Eastern European players meet when Karel Sedlacek takes on Madars Razma before two of the new brigade get the chance to show their qualities as Ryan Searle takes on Callan Rydz for a third round spot. Australian star Damon Heta meets Ryan Murray to take us to the halfway mark of the afternoon on this board.
The second half of the afternoon looks full of entertainment beginning with two former world finalists as Danny Noppert faces off against Mervyn King before Jermaine Wattimena meets Luke Humphries in a match both will fancy their chances of winning. Wayne Jones will then attempt to back up his win over Glen Durrant on Friday when he takes on Jeffrey de Zwaan before the session concludes with Niels Zonneveld facing World Grand Prix finalist Dirk van Duijvenbode in an all-Dutch battle.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of the afternoon with a pair of outsiders liked at decent enough prices. The first of those is Karel Sedlacek who is beginning to throw some nice darts. He takes on Madars Razma who has actually done pretty well on the PDC scene but strikes me as someone whose game is limited. I expected Sedlacek to kick on this season with him having his tour card but obviously the changing world put an end to that but he knocked off Jose de Sousa in one of the Winter Series events and took care of Krzysztof Ratajski here on Friday so he has shown he can mix it with decent company. The confidence of that Friday win should stand him in good stead and if he is cleaner on his doubles as a result here he can win this one.
The other bet I like is on Mervyn King who has been playing well without really being noticed in recent times. He has been playing that nicely that his 105+ average in his win over Dave Chisnall on Friday didn’t really come as a surprise to anyone. What was a surprise on Friday was the ton plus average that Danny Noppert threw against Steve Beaton. Noppert had gone into a bit of a slump in recent times so that was a welcome escape but whether it was down to Beaton offering up nothing in way of competition remains to be seen. One thing we can be sure of is King will be a lot more competitive and I fancy he will be the one to come through here.
Tips
WON – Back K.Sedlacek to beat M.Razma for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with Betway
WON – Back M.King to beat D.Noppert for a 3/10 stake at 2.15 with Betfair
Back him here:
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