The Cazoo European Championship opens up with the bottom half of the draw playing their first round matches out in Salzburg on Thursday evening on a night which sees eight games being played to get the tournament up and running.
We have to wait until Friday to see the world champion Gerwyn Price and Michael van Gerwen are in action but the opening night will see Peter Wright beginning the defence of his title on an evening where the home man Mensur Suljovic will look to thrill the crowds.
First Four Matches
Simon Whitlock has the honour of getting the tournament up and running when he takes on a William Borland who isn’t seen in too many TV tournaments. When they are done two men who certainly are in plenty of TV events meet when Brendan Dolan will look to continue his fine year when he meets Kim Huybrechts. Rob Cross is defending a huge pot of money on his ranking this weekend and he’ll look to get some of that back when he meets Keane Barry. We then head into the halfway mark with the UK Open finalist Luke Humphries taking on Callan Rydz who is having his best year on the circuit.
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Later Four Matches
The Grand Slam of Darts champion Jose de Sousa brings us into the second half of the evening when he takes on Lewis Williams who has qualified for a TV event like this for the first time. Peter Wright then begins the defence of his title in the third to last game of the evening when he takes on Florian Hempel before the home star Mensur Suljovic will be on show. He faces the talented Adam Hunt. The evening is round off with Joe Cullen looking to find some form when he meets Ted Evetts.
Betting
There isn’t a huge amount in these matches that I like. I’m not a massive fan of getting stuck into these best of 11 matches because they are such short sprints, and in these matches there are a lot of seasoned campaigners up against players either new to the TV stage or still inexperienced on it which doesn’t make for particularly competitive offerings. There is one bet I’m happy to go at though and that is for Kim Huybrechts to beat Brendan Dolan.
There isn’t going to be a huge amount between these two but there is something about Dolan that suits the eye of the Belgian as going back over 10 years, Huybrechts has won all seven of their meetings. Sometimes head to heads can be irrelevant or misleading but when they are that dominant over that long you have to take notice of them. Huybrechts needs a big weekend here to get himself back where he wants to be in the game and he’ll know this is a winnable match. I expect him to give it his all to do just that.
Tips
Back K.Huybrechts to beat B.Dolan for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with Coral
Back him here:
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