The European Tour heads to Belgium this weekend for the Flanders Darts Trophy, the tenth event of the season and the latest in the qualifying competition for the European Championship which is beginning to close in.
This is the inaugural staging of this tournament so we are guaranteed a first-time winner this weekend with all 48 players heading to Antwerp looking for the sort of week which would propel them up their European Order of Merit.
The Format
We are using the now set in stone format for these tournaments which means that the qualifiers will open up the event on Friday when they meet each other for a spot in the last 32. The last 32 of the tournament is played over two sessions of action on Saturday, with the last 16 on Sunday afternoon and the quarter finals on Sunday night. They are all the best-of-11 legs with the semi-finals also on Sunday evening. They are the best-of-13 and then the final in the same session is the best-of-15 legs. The draw has been pre-determined and is played in a straight knockout format.
Top Half
With this being the second European Tour event in as many weekends we have a flipped draw this week so the second seed is the highest in the top half of the bracket. In a strange twist of fate, Dave Chisnall is down to number two seed this weekend and therefore he is the main draw in the top half and if this bracket plays to the seeding then he will face Gerwyn Price in the semi-final. This half of the draw looks loaded this weekend though with Josh Rock in here as well as The Masters champion Stephen Bunting and Martin Schindler. Chris Dobey, Gian van Veen and Michael van Gerwen make up the seeds in this half.
Peter Wright won the tournament last weekend but because the qualification for this event had already been done he is only among the unseeded players in this half this weekend. James Wade is another leading light in this section while Gabriel Clemens is also in this section. World Championship semi-finalist Scott Williams, Robert Owen, Jitse Van der Wal, Kevin Doets and Luke Woodhouse complete what is a competitive section.
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Bottom Half
The world champion Luke Humphries took last weekend off but he is in the field this time around and he is the number one seed too. He returns to the European Tour as the top seed and if everything goes to the rankings and things he will face Damon Heta in the semi-final. Six other seeds will be out to stop that from happening and they include the man who lost in the final in Hildesheim last week in Luke Littler. Danny Noppert, Ricardo Pietreczko, Ryan Searle, Ross Smith and Ryan Joyce are the other seeds.
Dimitri Van den Bergh was going to be the pick of the unseeded players in this half of the draw but he went out in the first round which leaves Raymond van Barneveld as the main man. Dirk van Duijvenbode is beginning to show his better form and he’ll be eyeing up a decent weekend. Andrew Gilding is in good form and he’s in this half while Jermaine Wattimena, Joe Cullen, home star Mike De Decker, Daryl Gurney and Alan Soutar complete a tasty bottom half of the draw.
Betting
There isn’t many places in this draw where you can find a weaker section or a cheap win or two to get a player into the latter stages and things but I think there is one in the part of it which houses Josh Rock. If there is a weak quarter in this draw it is the top one where the other three seeds are Chris Dobey, who I’ve regularly highlighted has a shocking record in European Tour events, Gerwyn Price, who is dangerous but a little inconsistent right now, and Gian van Veen who is competent but it could be much worse.
Rock has a route to the quarter final of Jitse Van der Wal and then the winner of Chris Dobey vs Kevin Doets so as paths to the last eight go that isn’t as tough as plenty of others would have it. Rock didn’t play last weekend so he should be nice and fresh for this tournament and as someone who has already won on the European Tour this season we know he can go through the draw at this level. He beat Gerwyn Price in the quarter final on his way to that success so that bodes well, as does the fact that he won a Players Championship event last month. At 20/1 Rock feels like an acceptable price with the comfortable early draw he has.
Tips
Back J.Rock to win Flanders Darts Trophy (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
