The European Championship gets going on Thursday and it does so with a bumper session of darts where the 16 matches all take place in the one set of action in what will be one of the longest session the sport has ever seen.
All 32 players get their campaign up and running on Thursday with each of them looking to overcome a best of 11 leg match to make their way into the longer format where the tournament really gets going later in the weekend.
First Eight Matches
The day starts in a competitive fashion with the opening match of it seeing Jamie Hughes taking on Dave Chisnall before a dark horse for the title gets up and running for the weekend when Krzysztof Ratajski faces Steve West. Two classy veterans meet in the third match of this incredible session of darts when Mervyn King takes on Ian White. We then get to the halfway mark of the opening part of the day when the European Darts Grand Prix champion Jose de Sousa faces Jeffrey de Zwaan in a great looking game.
The good action keeps on coming with James Wade picking up the baton from there. He goes up against a Steve Lennon who’ll be representing his country in the World Cup next week before the German Darts Championship winner Devon Peterson takes to the stage to face the former world finalist Andy Hamilton. The Smith derby is up next as Michael Smith faces Ross Smith and then two Dutch stars lead us to the halfway mark when Danny Noppert takes on the World Grand Prix finalist Dirk van Duijvenbode.
Special Offer
Opt in and place 5 accumulators either in a Boylesports shop or online and get an acca free! Click the image below to bet. ALL CUSTOMERS! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Later Eight Matches
The Premier League finalist is the man given the assignment of getting the second half of the session underway as Nathan Aspinall faces the first home man to take to the stage when he goes up against Maik Kuivenhoven before the number one seed Joe Cullen faces William O’Connor. Rob Cross then gets his title defence underway when he meets the dangerous Dutchman Martijn Kleermaker before the German number one Max Hopp takes to the stage to face Jonny Clayton.
The last quarter of this incredibly busy sees Michael van Gerwen beginning his quest for another TV title when he faces Darius Labanauskas before three cracking looking contests finish off the evening. Beaten finalist last year Gerwyn Price faces Kim Huybrechts and then the world champion Peter Wright meets the German star Gabriel Clemens before the match of the round concludes the day when Mensur Suljovic faces Daryl Gurney.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of the day. The first one I’ll take a chance on Jeffrey de Zwaan to beat Jose de Sousa. I think de Zwaan is a big price here in what feels like a more even match than the odds would suggest. De Sousa is in form having won the third of the European Tour events this season but he is yet to showcase his best stuff on the big stage and while we know he is going to score well here in these short races hitting doubles is the priority. If de Zwaan can stay with de Sousa he’ll get his chances to come through and at 9/4 the Dutchman is just a little too big to see off the number three seed here.
We have to wait until the final match of the day for my second bet where Mensur Suljovic looks a good thing against Daryl Gurney. I don’t think Gurney is a bad player by any stretch of the imagination but his slumps in form tend to last longer than most at the top table and Gurney comes in here having lost his last four matches in all competitions. Worse still, he has lost his last four against his opponent Suljovic too who happens to be in great form. He only got edged out in a deciding leg by Michael van Gerwen in the European Tour event at the weekend, the second successive semi-final he has made on that circuit. The Austrian looks in great touch and should be shorter than 10/11 for this one.
Tips
Back J.de Zwaan to beat J.de Sousa for a 3/10 stake at 3.25 with 888sport
Back him here:
WON – Back M.Suljovic to beat D.Gurney for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020
