The evening session at the PDC World Darts Championship on Friday night looks an appealing one with four very watchable players on show and a couple of lively qualifiers looking to cause an upset inside the Alexandra Palace.
James Wade gets the chance to headline the session of play but we have the last two World Youth champions and the Grand Prix finalist on what is a really decent card to take us into the first weekend of the competition.
Dirk van Duijvenbode vs Bradley Brooks
The opening match of the night sees the enigmatic but much improved World Grand Prix finalist Dirk van Duijvenbode going up against the newly crowned World Youth champion Bradley Brooks for the right to take on the former winner of this event Rob Cross in the second round.
Given the form he has shown in the last three months you would have to make van Duijvenbode a very warm favourite in this match but he isn’t a regular at the World Championship and he hasn’t won many matches there, or even been emphatic favourite for many outings at this venue. That said he has a clear edge over Bradley Brooks but winning titles like the World Youth one can really fill a player with confidence. We’ve seen the likes of Dimitri Van den Bergh and Luke Humphries win that and carry a lot of positivity forward with them so Brooks shouldn’t be discounted in this match. You get the feeling it is all about the Dutchman and it would be a surprise if he loses but he doesn’t really interest me at the price.
John Henderson vs Marko Kantele
The second match of the evening sees two players who have been plying their trade on the PDC Home Tour in recent times in action when John Henderson goes up against the man who has appeared in a number of World Cup events for Finland in Marko Kantele.
Henderson has not had a good year I think it is fair to say. He began the year comfortably inside the top 32 in the world rankings and a contender in the Premier League and if he loses this match he’ll be finishing the campaign outside the top 32 and in the doldrums a little bit. Kantele has offered up signs of life every now and again but he is the one under the most pressure in this match. His two year tour card runs out after this tournament and he’s nowhere near high enough in the rankings to keep it automatically so he has to win this match and keep on winning.
These two met here four years ago and Henderson won 3-0 and while there is certainly an argument to be made that he has regressed since then, there isn’t much evidence that Kantele has improved all that much. Hendo used the Home Tour for some competitive practice for this event and picked up some winning momentum with some good performances in that and that can fine tune him enough to come through here with enough in hand to make it comfortable.
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Luke Humphries vs Paul Lim
The last of the three first round matches on the card sees the aforementioned former World Youth champion Luke Humphries going up against the veteran ace Paul Lim in a match where the winner will progress to take on the World Matchplay holder Dimitri Van den Bergh in the second round.
Lots will be made about Paul Lim qualifying for this tournament once again and so it should be. It is a phenomenal effort at the age of 66 but it would take something special for him to repeat some of the displays we’ve seen from him here in the recent past because we’ve seen all week that the Asian players are just undercooked from a lack of competitive run outs. Lim has it tough here to be fair because once Humphries gets on a roll he can be relentless and if the younger man can handle the slower pace then he should run out a pretty comfortable winner. I’ve enough tied up in ‘Cool Hand’ to not need to be backing him at a tight price though.
James Wade vs Callan Rydz
The one second round match on the schedule on Friday night sees one of the form players of the last three months in James Wade going up against a very dangerous qualifier in the form of the Newcastle man Callan Rydz for a place in the third round.
Wade has made a couple of televised finals over the last couple of months and while he would have been disappointed not to win either of them it at least shows that he is in decent form and primed for a really big run here. Rydz is dangerous though make no mistake about that. He has had a match on the stage and played very well in winning it with a 93.53 average and four 180s but his finishing was suspect and that could be the thing to catch him out here. I think Rydz will win a set but come the true pressure moments in the contest it would be no surprise to see him found wanting. That makes me think the odds against on Wade to win but both players winning a set looks a good thing here.
Tips
Back J.Henderson (-1.5 sets) to beat M.Kantele for a 3/10 stake at 2.15 with Coral
Back him here:
Back J.Wade to win and both players to win a set for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
Back him here:
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