We are back to two sessions of action at the PDC World Darts Championship on Thursday and we begin in the afternoon where another three first round matches and one second round match take place inside the Alexandra Palace.
The former semi-finalist Gabriel Clemens is the seeded player on show in this session. He will compete in an afternoon where we have the Grand Slam finalist and other players looking to impress across the day.
Chris Landman vs Lok Yin Lee
The opening match of the afternoon sees the former WDF World Championship finalist Chris Landman taking on the Asian Championship qualifier from Hong Kong in Lok Yin Lee with the winner progressing to a clash with Brendan Dolan.
Landman has plenty of stage experience whereas Lok Yin Lee is competing here for the first time. He is probably going to be compared to Man Lok Leung who was excellent here last year but there is little in the statistics to suggest that he is on a par with his Hong Kong compatriot. He doesn’t hit a lot of 180s and doesn’t really have a massive scoring record so Landman looks to have landed on his feet here. He arrives at Ally Pally having made the semi-final of one of the later Players Championship events. This is all about the Dutchman but he won’t have been favourite for a match of this magnitude too often so I’m happy to leave this one alone.
Callan Rydz vs Romeo Grbavac
The second match of the day sees the Geordie star Callan Rydz looking to make it into the second round when he goes up against the Croatian player Romeo Grbavac who is making his debut on the Alexandra Palace stage here.
Grbavac came through the Eastern European qualifier to make it here and he was involved in the Modus Series at the beginning of the month so he doesn’t lack for match practice but his averages were nothing to write home about and it is hard to believe they are going to improve dramatically on his debut on this stage. Rydz goes into this match off the back of seven defeats in his last eight matches so he might not be full of confidence here. He does know what to expect though having played on this stage many times. The one thing that stood out to me was Grbavac didn’t hit a single 180 in his last three matches in the qualifier and that was over 28 legs in total. In 129 matches this year he has only hit three or more 180s in six of them so I think it is fair to say he isn’t a heavy scorer. That is one thing Rydz does do and so it might be that Rydz to cover a 1.5 180 handicap is the way to play this one. It is perfectly possible that three or four might be enough to cover here but Rydz ploughed in six 180s in his opening round loss here a year ago and if he can get to that number again he should be perfectly safe here.
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Martin Lukeman vs Nitin Kumar
The final first round match of Thursday afternoon looks like something of a mismatch on paper when the Grand Slam finalist Martin Lukeman goes up against the Indian qualifier Nitin Kumar with Andrew Gilding waiting for the winner in the next round.
This one is all about Lukeman. Kumar has been to this tournament three times in the past and hasn’t yet won a set. He has only won nine legs in the nine sets he has played here as well so Lukeman should be expected to go through and do it without dropping a set. He has tasted this stage in the past and is full of confidence but the odds are fully reflective of the two players here with Lukeman 1/25 to win the match and no bigger than 4/9 to win it 3-0. The latter might be one for the accumulators but I’m not massively interested in getting involved here.
Gabriel Clemens vs Robert Owen
The one second round match in the afternoon sees the semi-finalist of a couple of years ago in Gabriel Clemens looking to book a return to the Alexandra Palace after Christmas when he takes on the Welsh player Robert Owen.
It felt like Owen would be playing with the house money when he entered this tournament and that is certainly how it appeared to be when he pulled off a betting surprise when he took care of Niels Zonneveld in the first round. He probably needs to go up a notch to come through here but Clemens can sometimes be a vulnerable favourite, particularly here when he is attempting to defend so much prize money. I still think if Clemens plays like he has in the last couple of months he will win this and win it well but Owen showed enough in the first round to just let my outright bet on Clemens ride rather than get too involved here.
Tips
Back C.Rydz (-1.5) Most 180s vs R.Grbavac for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfair
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