The second round of the BDO World Darts Championship gets underway at the Lakeside Country Club on Wednesday when five men’s matches take place over two sessions of action at the complex.
Wednesday is a day which sees the number one seed Glen Durrant in action as well as the former Winmau World Master in Martin Phillips and Martin Adams’ successor Jeff Smith so there is plenty of enjoy in the fifth day of the event.
The opening match of the day sees Wesley Harms taking on Jim Williams in what should be an enjoyable match to watch between two very capable players.
It will be interesting to see how Harms goes here having only come through a bit of an epic against Seigo Asada on Tuesday night. The schedulers have done Harms no favours but at least he won’t have had much time to get nervous about a potential quarter final spot.
Jim Williams played in the opening match of the tournament on Saturday and he’s had to sit and watch since but I don’t think he will have minded that. He wasn’t fantastic in beating Tony O’Shea so he will have had plenty of time to get on the practice board and fine tune what needs sorting.
It is hard to predict this match because we don’t know if Harms will come out flat. Given that I’m on Williams outright I hope that is what happens. I think Williams will win and wouldn’t put anyone off taking him but as I’m on him outright I’ll sit this one out.
After the women’s match comes the game of the day as Glen Durrant takes on Larry Butler in a repeat of the Winmau World Masters final. Durrant won that comfortably and he’s expected to win this one equally as well.
Durrant wasn’t brilliant in the first round but unlike many seeds he got the job done against the dangerous Dean Reynolds. He should go from strength to strength now he has a match under his belt and he’s into the longer formats and we should see some of the best the number one in the world has to offer.
Credit must go to Larry Butler for coming through two deciding sets so far but the fact he has had to go that far against two limited opponents doesn’t bode well for him here. It could be that the worst thing Butler did was beat Durrant in the Grand Slam qualifier. Durrant will want to do a job here and I think he’ll come through comfortably.
Moving into the evening session and the rat-a-tat rhythm of the Wales captain Martin Phillips will be back on the big stage. He takes on Dennis Harbour in a match he should win.
This is a really tricky match to assess. I’m not one to bag Phillips for his first round performance. It is hard to play well against Ted Hankey at the best of times but when he’s shocking and getting involved with everyone and everything it is even worse. I’m sure he’ll be much better here.
Harbour had a good win in the opening round. He did exactly what he knew he had to going into the match which was stick with Darryl Fitton and wait for Fitton to miss doubles and take advantage. That is exactly what Fitton did and Harbour took advantage but he can’t rely on that here. He’ll have to play well.
I think Phillips will win here but he hasn’t played brilliantly on this stage for a number of years so this is one match where I’ll let him win rather than take a handicap where a 4-3 win would be a huge danger.
Jamie Hughes features in the second match of the night. He was involved in a disappointingly low key match against Ross Montgomery in the opening round, a match where neither played particularly well.
We know Hughes is better than what he showed in the first match but I suspect he’ll be comfortable here against the Latvian player Madars Razma who has never been beyond this stage and who isn’t the greatest player in all fairness.
Razma did well to see off Gary Robson in the first round but he didn’t average 80 and anything like that from him here won’t get him very far. Had Hughes played better in the first round I’d have chanced a handicap but as it is I’ll sit this one out because for all his talent Hughes hasn’t yet shown his best on this stage.
I am getting involved in the final match of the night though. It sees Jeff Smith taking on Brian Dawson in what has the potential to be a classic but I feel it could be a bit more of an anti-climax.
All the credit in the world must go to Dawson for his win on Tuesday night but you could see it was an emotional and hard fought win and for that to happen on Tuesday night backing up and playing with such heart and ability the following night won’t be easy.
Dawson isn’t the only one backing up the day after a good win but Smith’s win over Adams was in the afternoon on Tuesday and was so ruthless that it didn’t take much out of him and he didn’t seem overemotional in his interviews or anything like that.
I’m expecting Smith to be in a better place emotionally going into this match and I just sense it could be hard for Dawson to get himself back up for this one so soon after the epic the night before and if he falls behind early there could be no way back this time.
The first round of the women’s event concludes on Wednesday afternoon when Lorraine Winstanley takes on Rachel Brooks. Winstanley is a favourite and she should win but this tournament hasn’t gone to plan for many seeds so far. Brooks has been as high as four in the world and while she’s never shown much on this stage she should be respected. I would expect Winstanley to win but once again I’ll continue to sit this first round out.
Back G.Durrant (-2.5 sets) to beat L.Butler for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Boylesports
Back J.Smith (-1.5 sets) to beat B.Dawson for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfair
Blog darts YTD: +14.38pts
