The inaugural Flanders Darts Trophy continues with the last 32 on Saturday as two sessions of very tasty looking action takes place out in Antwerp as the remaining players in the tournament look to secure a spot at finals day.
The middle day of the tournament is always the one where the seeded players enter the proceedings so we will see the likes of world champion Luke Humphries, Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen for the first time this weekend on Saturday.
Afternoon Session
We begin with what looks like being a competitive match between the classy Ryan Joyce, who will be looking to make the most of being a seed this weekend, and Alan Soutar who was good on Friday and will want to maximise his opportunity here. The exciting young Dutch star Gian van Veen then takes to the stage for the second match of the day. He faces Robert Owen before our outright bet then steps up to take on Jitse Van der Wal. We reach the halfway point of the afternoon with the former winner of The Masters, Chris Dobey, going up against Kevin Doets.
The rest of the afternoon looks very tasty indeed and it starts with what could be seen as the pick of the last 32 matches as Damon Heta goes up against Dirk van Duijvenbode before another contender for that honour takes place as Dave Chisnall looks to back up his run to the semi-final in Hildesheim last week when he meets James Wade. The last two matches of the afternoon are likely to contain plenty of 180s as Ross Smith faces Mike De Decker before the session concludes with Ryan Searle taking on Joe Cullen.
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Evening Session
We have a pretty decent evening session to enjoy as well and that gets started with The Masters champion Stephen Bunting meeting the World Championship semi-finalist Scott Williams before Gerwyn Price opens up his campaign when he meets the dangerous Luke Woodhouse. Two Dutch players then take to the stage when Danny Noppert meets Raymond van Barneveld before another Dutch great takes us through to the halfway point of the evening when Michael van Gerwen faces Gabriel Clemens.
The remainder of the evening is full of big names and should deliver some really good darts. It begins with two men who already have European Tour titles to their name this year as Martin Schindler meets Peter Wright. The world champion Luke Humphries then opens his campaign in the next match when he meets Ritchie Edhouse. The penultimate match of a decent Saturday sees Ricardo Pietreczko going up against Andrew Gilding before the action is rounded off with the exciting Luke Littler facing off against Jermaine Wattimena.
Betting
There isn’t a huge amount that gets me going over the course of Saturday but I think Peter Wright is carrying enough form and confidence into his match with Martin Schindler for him to merit support. Wright won the tournament last weekend and he did so in pretty good style with Gian van Veen, Michael van Gerwen, Dave Chisnall and Luke Littler all among his list of victims and if that doesn’t give a player confidence then nothing will.
Schindler won a European Tour event earlier in the season but he has just gone a little quiet again in recent times and he is likely to need to find his best form, especially on the doubles in particular, to come through here. The disadvantage Schindler now has as a seed is that he comes into the last 32 cold whereas Wright overcame a tough battle with Brendan Dolan on Friday night. When these Euro Tour events come along in succession I always prefer to be on the form horse and that is Wright here.
Tips
Back P.Wright to beat M.Schindler for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Spreadex
