The Saturday at a European Tour event sees the qualified players taking on a seeded player for the first time in the competition and that is no different at the German Darts Championship in Hildesheim this weekend.
Two sessions of action will see 16 matches being played out either on the PDC live stream or with the bookmaker streaming services where we get to see the likes of Michael van Gerwen, world champion Peter Wright and the defending champion Daryl Gurney for the first time.
Afternoon Session
We get underway with Dave Chisnall gracing the stage first up. His post-lockdown form has been very ordinary by his high standards and he’ll be looking to make up for that when he takes on the home qualifier Lukas Wenig. Jermaine Wattimena then looks to show us why he is a seeded player this week when he faces Mervyn King before Adrian Lewis faces a dangerous opponent in Danny Noppert. We reach the interval with James Wade meeting the man German darts is very excited about in Nico Kurz.
Another solid German player brings us out of the interval when Gabriel Clemens looks to end the title defence of Daryl Gurney before it has begun in one of the pick of the afternoon matches before Nathan Aspinall meets another home player in Dragutin Horvat. We then have a meeting of two former BDO stars when Glen Durrant takes on the man he beat to win his third world title in Scott Waites. Rob Cross then looks to build on a good run in Austria last weekend when he takes on William O’Connor.
Evening Session
We have a very tasty evening session on the horizon on Saturday evening and it gets underway with two of the more competitive looking matches when Jonny Clayton goes up against the impressive Chris Dobey before Ian White faces the leading German player in Max Hopp. Two more crackers follow those to take us into the interval as Mensur Suljovic meets Jeff Smith before Michael van Gerwen faces the dangerous challenge of Steve Lennon for a place in Sunday’s line up.
We come out of the interval with the match of the round when Peter Wright takes on Michael Smith in a clash which should be much later in the competition than this before our outright pick Krzysztof Ratajski takes on Richard North. The last two matches of a busy Saturday sees Gerwyn Price going up against Devon Petersen, arguably the two form men on the circuit right now, and Joe Cullen taking on the competent Adam Hunt.
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Betting
There are three bets which grab our fancy on Saturday, all outsiders and all at decent prices. The first of those is on William O’Connor who just looks a little big for me against Rob Cross. Cross had a great week last week but this is a different weekend and I’d like to see a couple more good weekends from him before I believe he is back to his best. O’Connor seems to like the European Tour scene and a lot of his best darts come on it. That includes a good win on Friday when he averaged just over 97 and played very impressively. If he has that form with him here then he could be more than a match for the former world champion.
Moving into the evening session and I’ll go with Max Hopp who we know from the Home Tour earlier in the year that he has been working hard on his game during lockdown. He takes on an Ian White who hasn’t had a lot of darts recently on the stage having lost to Joe Cullen in the first round of the Matchplay and Damon Heta in the opening round last week. Hopp looked in good order on Friday and what crowd there is in this venue will be right behind him. He has actually won the last two meetings between these two and looks decent value to make it a third successive win here.
Finally I’ll have a nibble at Adam Hunt to see off Joe Cullen at 2/1. That just feels a little big on a man who recently has come through his Home Tour group and had some decent runs at the Autumn Series where Jeffrey de Zwaan and Jonny Clayton were among his victims. He also played well in beating Steve Brown here on Friday. The last time we saw Cullen he was getting wiped out by Vincent van der Voort last weekend, losing 6-0, averaging 83.73 and missing all eight darts at double that he had. Those performances leave scars so Hunt is worth a smaller bet at 2/1.
Tips
Back W.O’Connor to beat R.Cross for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with William Hill
Back him here:
WON – Back M.Hopp to beat I.White for a 3/10 stake at 2.88 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back A.Hunt to beat J.Cullen for a 2/10 stake at 3.00 with 888sport
Back him here:
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