A high quality opening day of darts in the European Championship has left us with a tasty looking Last 16 draw and that draw will be played out in full across two tantalising sessions of tungsten tossing on Saturday.
The first day of play wasn’t without some big name casualties though as Raymond Barneveld, recent World Grand Prix winner Robert Thornton and Ian White bit the dust before they could get into the tournament but the likes of Phil Taylor, Gary Anderson, Michael van Gerwen and Peter Wright all made it through.
The format increases to the best of 19 for these matches so all 16 players will have the opportunity to relax and settle into a nice groove which is a luxury they weren’t afforded in the sprint of the first round so we should see some really excellent darts over the course of the day.
The afternoon session is absolutely loaded on Saturday. In all we’ve three world champions playing and a couple of world finalists too as Stephen Bunting, Gary Anderson and Adrian Lewis surprisingly play in the afternoon. Dave Chisnall and Simon Whitlock offer a solid looking support cast.
The round begins with the battle between John Henderson and Rowby-John Rodriguez. If you went purely on first round averages then Henderson would be a no brainer pick but I’m not so convinced this will be as cut and dried as that.
Henderson averaged more than 12pts better than his Austrian foe in the first round but if we ignore the first leg or two when Rodriguez was searching for his range their averages probably wouldn’t differ as much as they actually did.
To be fair to Hendo he was excellent in seeing off Thornton and a raft of ton plus checkouts assisted him in that quest. There’s no doubt Henderson has tons of quality behind him but he can throw some right dross mixed in with that so I’m going to take the sustained ability of Rodriguez at odds against here.
Rodriguez is a heavy scorer and he is no stranger to the big, match changing finishes either and in what should be an entertaining opening to the proceedings I’ll side with the European talent here.
I’m actually interested in two more bets in the afternoon and they both come in the side markets. It is good to see Stephen Bunting getting back to his best and it is good to see he takes on Dave Chisnall on Saturday in what looks like the tie of the round.
Both men are phenomenally heavy scorers and I expect both to score well in this match. Chisnall had no rhythm at all against Suljovic in the opening round on Friday but he still managed to bang in six 180s and with the pace Bunting will give him I’m expecting more from Chizzy here. Bunting will contribute to the 180s himself so the over 10.5 180s line looks in reach here.
Finally Adrian Lewis and Justin Pipe are no strangers to lengthy battles. I mean that in number of legs not just because Pipe is one of the slower players on the circuit. They have played 17 times in total and five of those have gone the distance and a further three finished 6-4 so they generally produce tight matches.
At one stage in the opening round Pipe’s average was soaring above 100 and while it dropped off when he went 5-0 up and coasted home we should take notice of that form. Lewis was nowhere near his best against Benito van de Pas and that leads me to think this one will be closer than it might look.
Lewis won’t get a rhythm here so he’ll have to really battle this one out and while I think he will still win I can see Pipe making him work hard and forcing this one to a 17th leg and maybe beyond.
Moving into the evening session and the stars keep on coming as the likes of Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen, James Wade, Peter Wright and the home star Kim Huybrechts are all in action in high profile matches.
In truth only one bet in the evening session stands out to me but that is ok as I have a couple of outright punts running across the night as well so there is plenty to keep us interested.
The punt comes in the form of Michael Smith who is too big at 4/5 to hit the most 180s against Phil Taylor. If we were to keep this simple Smith is a huge 180 hitter and quite frankly Taylor isn’t but looking a little deeper and the bet looks even better.
The two men have met three times on TV away from the quirky World Grand Prix. Smith won their first battle in the World Championship in 2013 and won 6-5 on the 180s that night. Since then he has lost 13-6 in the 2014 World Matchplay but won 7-5 on 180s and then he lost 16-3 in the Grand Slam last year but only lost the 180s 4-3 despite being absolutely awful that night and completely losing his head.
Putting it simply as long as Smith is competitive here, and recent form suggests that is the least he will be, I would be very surprised if the St Helens man isn’t ploughing in the most 180s in this match.
In the other matches on the day it would be a big surprise if Simon Whitlock beat Gary Anderson, an even bigger surprise if Cristo Reyes beat Michael van Gerwen and still fair surprises if Huybrechts beats Wright or if Jelle Klaasen were to see off James Wade. I’m on Wright and Wade in outright bets so I’ll hope they come through and watch the other two matches without a bet.
Back R-J.Rodriguez to beat J.Henderson for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
Back S.Bunting vs D.Chisnall – Over 10.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with Unibet
Back A.Lewis vs J.Pipe – Over 16.5 legs for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Paddy Power
Back M.Smith Most 180s vs P.Taylor for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Ladbrokes
Blog darts YTD: +27.49pts
