The third week of the Premier League Darts season sees the tournament head across the Irish Sea into Dublin as the tournament begins to crank up a notch with the league table starting to take shape as the matches come thick and fast.
Steve Lennon gets the honour of being the contender in front of a partisan home crowd this week but there is plenty for the big Irish crowd to enjoy on what should be another evening of exceptional darts.
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Gerwyn Price vs James Wade
The opening match of the evening sees the Welsh player Gerwyn Price taking on the English star James Wade in a contest where both will be eager for the two points to preserve their status of making it into the second half of the campaign.
Price has looked very good in this tournament so far with a great win over Daryl Gurney in the opening week of the season and a draw with Raymond Barneveld last week while Wade has beaten Barneveld and lost to Rob Cross in a match where he certainly wasn’t disgraced.
Wade has the better of the head to head records between the two and I think his more reliable finishing makes him worth a bet here. I would imagine Price will cop plenty of stick once again which won’t help him so on the draw no bet market Wade is worthy of a go in this one.
Steve Lennon vs Peter Wright
The second match of the night is the one the Irish crowds will be right into as their man Steve Lennon takes on Peter Wright. The Irishman will need the fans on his side because while he is a much improved player, I’m not sure he is quite at this level yet.
Wright is heavily odds on to win the match and all things being equal I would certainly expect him to do exactly that, but with the crowd likely to get on his case and his opponent having a free shot at things I’ll just let Snakebite win rather than sweat over a big stake on a short price.
Michael van Gerwen vs Rob Cross
The middle match of the third night of the campaign is a repeat of that epic World Championship semi-final of a couple of years ago when Michael van Gerwen takes on Rob Cross in what is likely to be the match of the night.
Van Gerwen has cruised to victory in both his matches so far despite not being anywhere near his brilliant best while Cross heads into this match undefeated and ready to lay down a big challenge to the world champion. Both men know what it feels like to win the big one and play on the big stages. I expect MVG to win but Cross has averaged more than a ton in both weeks and merits respect.
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Michael Smith vs Daryl Gurney
The penultimate match of the evening will also have the attention of the crowd as the World Championship finalist Michael Smith goes up against the Players Championship Finals winner Daryl Gurney in a good looking game.
Smith goes into the match looking for his first win after a defeat to van Gerwen and a draw with Peter Wright whereas Gurney will be looking to build on his fine win over Glen Durrant last week. If this match was anywhere else I would probably take Smith but the crowd are likely to be right behind Gurney and we saw Smith get agitated when the crowd were against him in Glasgow last week. That makes this one a no bet match for me.
Mensur Suljovic vs Raymond van Barneveld
Two men looking for their first win of the season meet in the final match of the evening when Mensur Suljovic goes up against the Dutch legend Raymond van Barneveld to conclude the third night of action.
Although both have one point from their two matches thus far there is no doubt in my mind that Suljovic has been the better player of the pair to date but he might be getting Barneveld at the wrong place and the wrong time before the Dutchman loves Ireland and the big Irish crowds love him.
This could be the final time that Barneveld plays in front of the Irish crowd who adore him so much so they’ll be right behind him and that could well inspire the Dutch legend to deliver his best performance of the season so far. The even money on the draw or Barney win double chance is too big to ignore.
Tips
PUSH – Back J.Wade to beat G.Price (DNB) for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back him here:
WON – Back R.Barneveld-Draw Double Chance vs M.Suljovic for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with BetVictor
Back it here:
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