The qualifiers have played out the Dutch Darts Masters down to the Last 32 stage and the 16 seeds come into the tournament on Saturday to play one of those Friday winners for a place in the Last 16 on Sunday afternoon.
The opening day of action was fully of top quality tungsten and plenty of tension as so fewer than six of the 16 matches went to a deciding leg. Most of the matches were competitive and I’m expecting no different on Saturday.
Once again we have two sessions of play on Saturday and the real big names are all in action. Every match is the best of 11 legs so all players need to be on form right from the start.
The afternoon session contains just seven matches on Saturday due to Robert Thornton pulling out of the tournament through illness but we still have a couple of world finalists on show and a multi-time TV tournament winner with Simon Whitlock, Dave Chisnall and James Wade all toeing the oche.
There are two bets I like in the afternoon session. I was close to pulling the trigger on Simon Whitlock too but given that he’s still getting used to the bins and the fact two other bets stand out I won’t get involved in a 50/50 match between him and Ian White even though I fancy with a match under his belt he might win.
The first bet opens the session up as Jamie Lewis plays Justin Pipe. I never like feasting on someone’s struggles but I guess it is the game we’re in and Pipe’s misery has been clear to see for a while now.
He looked so out of touch, lacking interest and really down with the game at the World Championship and just one match win in three attempts in the UK Open qualifiers last weekend isn’t likely to have changed too much.
Jamie Lewis is the opposite. He’s enthusiastic, improving all the time and has plenty of momentum behind him having made a semi-final in one of the events last weekend and not only qualifying for this tournament but thrashing Andree Welge 6-0 in the first round with a 98 average.
If Lewis plays that well here he will have much too much for Pipe but even if he doesn’t I think the confidence that he carries into the match will see him through and potentially through with a bit to spare.
The other bet I like comes in the all-Northern Irish clash between Brendan Dolan and Daryl Gurney. These two will be World Cup partners later in the year but they are rivals here although how much of a rivalry Dolan will be able to create remains to be seen.
I really like what we’re getting from Daryl Gurney these days. He used to be inconsistent but over the last 2-3 months that hasn’t been the case at all and he followed up a World Championship where he did nothing wrong with a solid effort in the last UK Open qualifier last weekend and by averaging 98 in a high qualify first round match with Jyhan Artut here.
Dolan did what Dolan does last weekend which was make the Last 32s and plod his way through but you can only plod so far and against a heavy scorer like Gurney I think he might get found out unless Gurney misses a lot of doubles, which he hasn’t been doing recently.
Gurney won the only meeting between the two last year and I think based on what we saw on Friday that he can come through and win this one too.
There are world champions galore in action in the evening session as Michael van Gerwen, Adrian Lewis, Stephen Bunting, Gary Anderson, Jelle Klaasen and Mark Webster all take to the stage and it is the latter I like from a betting point of view.
Webster faces Benito van de Pas in this round and while I’ve nothing against van de Pas I don’t think he’s quite got that all round sustained consistency which Webster has. I don’t think at his best against Webster’s best he’s quite good enough yet either and that is what I like here.
I say that because there have been signs over the last 2-3 months that the real Mark Webster is back and that is a very solid player, as he showed on Friday when he averaged over a ton in a 6-2 win against Jermaine Wattimena.
We get the odd performance like that from van de Pas but given that they come nowhere near as often I’m happy to take Webster to come through this one and book a Sunday afternoon showdown with either James Wade or Ryan Harrington.
Of the other matches in the evening session the obvious one which jumps out is the Peter Wright vs Stephen Bunting match. With Wright changing his darts by the day that isn’t a match I want to bet on but I’ll certainly be watching, as I will all the games but that one stands out.
A shock could come in the form of Devon Petersen against Kim Huybrechts but that’s a bit hit or miss for me so I’ll stick with a bet on Webster to see me through the evening session.
Back J.Lewis to beat J.Pipe for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with BetVictor
Back D.Gurney to beat B.Dolan for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Paddy Power
Back M.Webster to beat B.van de Pas for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Sportingbet
