The opening day of the Gibraltar Darts Trophy sees the 32 qualifiers battling it out over two sessions of play on Friday with the aim of each to win their match and book a date with a seeded opponent on Saturday.
This is a day where the picture for who will qualify for the European Championship could become a little clearer. It has to be said that this isn’t the strongest looking schedule we’ve had on the European Tour this season but hopefully we get some competitive action.
Afternoon Session
We open up with the Belgian player Mario Vandenbogaerde looking to make it through to the second round at the expense of the first of the home players on show in Craig Galliano. The second match of the afternoon is a very big one as Jim Williams meets William O’Connor. Both these men are outside of the qualifiers for the European Championship looking in so one of them will see their hopes of playing in that disappear. Jason Lowe is third onto the stage to take on Manuel Vilerio while another home player takes us into the break as Sean Negrette meets Kenny Neyens.
Steve Beaton has qualified for the Gibraltar Darts Trophy and he meets a home man in the first game of the second part of the afternoon in Justin Hewitt. John Henderson hasn’t had the season he would have wanted but he has the chance to progress at the expense of Ritchie Edhouse. The penultimate game of the afternoon sees Jeff Smith taking on Wesley Plaisier before we conclude with Marko Kantele taking on Rusty-Jake Rodriguez.
Special Offer
OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH 888SPORT AND BET £10 TO GET £30 IN FREE BETS PLUS A £10 CASINO BONUS! PERFECT OFFER TO USE ON THIS TOURNAMENT! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO JOIN. USE CODE 30F. NEW ACCOUNTS ONLY. 18+ T&Cs apply (See image for significant terms). Gamble Aware.
Evening Session
The evening begins with the other Rodriguez brother on the stage when Rowby-John takes on the Irish youngster Keane Barry before the first of the home players in the evening begins his campaign as Dyson Parody takes on Ryan Joyce. The match of the opening round will be on stage third in the evening session when Stephen Bunting meets Daryl Gurney and we go to the break with Chris Dobey, who is ranked 33 on the Euro Tour Order of Merit and needing to overtake someone this weekend to make the European Championship, going up against Dylan Duo Jr.
Josh Rock is one of the most exciting players in the game at the minute and the World Youth Championship finalist will look to make progress in the first match after the break. He takes on another former Development Tour star in Ryan Meikle before Martin Schindler takes on a Vincent van der Voort who is currently the last man into the European Championship field but faces missing out if he loses this match. The last two games sees Keegan Brown taking on Mensur Suljovic and Gabriel Clemens facing Adam Hunt.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of this opening round. The first one is on Wesley Plaisier to take care of Jeff Smith. Smith goes into this match having lost six of his last seven games and you have to think his confidence is going to be a little on the low side. He isn’t the heaviest scorer which puts a lot of pressure on his finishing and when you are lacking a little confidence that isn’t a good place to be. Plaisier isn’t on the tour so he doesn’t compete as often as Smith but it means he doesn’t have the mental scars of losing regularly. He has gone well on the European Tour this season with wins over Joe Cullen, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Jose de Sousa to his name and I expect him to add Jeff Smith to that resume.
The other bet I like is on Stephen Bunting to beat Daryl Gurney. Bunting looked really good at the World Grand Prix but ran into Michael van Gerwen in the second round. Bunting only lost out in a deciding set so he got as close to beating the eventual champion as anyone did. Bunting scored really well in Leicester. The thing which cost him was the starting double but he doesn’t have any issues on that score here. Gurney did well to beat Rob Cross in the first round of the Grand Prix but never really looked like he was spot on with his game. He’ll need to be to contain Bunting here but the way the former world champion is scoring I like Bunting in this one.
Tips
Back W.Plaisier to beat J.Smith for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back S.Bunting to beat D.Gurney for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back them here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2022
