The Gibraltar Darts Trophy draws to a conclusion on a busy day of darts on Sunday with the Last 16 stage of the tournament played out in the afternoon session and the quarter finals onwards in a packed evening session.
After the first two days of competition we are left with a pretty strong field so the darts on display on Sunday should be of a really high quality which should make for a good watch. The tournament is played out in draw order from here on in.
Top half
The opening match sees Michael van Gerwen taking on Mervyn King. If King played like he did on Saturday where he averaged over 105 he will make this a close game but whether he can back that up is always a big question. I’m never keen to take on MVG anyway so I’ll sit and watch this one.
The two surprises of the tournament so far meet in the second match when Max Hopp takes on Dyson Parody. Hopp never needed to play on Saturday after his potential opponent Adrian Lewis pulled out of the competition while Dyson Parody surprised Jelle Klaasen in a deciding leg.
You’ve got to hand it to the man from Gibraltar. He is enjoying playing in front of his home people and is going well but I expect Hopp to have too much for him here although that is reflected in the prices where Hopp is very short. No bet for me.
Kim Huybrechts and Benito van de Pas meet in the next game and their matches on Saturday could barely be any different. Huybrechts went 4-0 down to the relatively unknown Michael Rastovits before coming back to win 6-4 but the thing I noted from that match was that the Belgian never won a single leg in less than 15 darts which isn’t winning many matches at this level.
If we contrast that to van de Pas he had a stonking win over Stephen Bunting. He won 6-1, averaged over a ton compared to Huybrechts’ 84.4 average and he won four of his six legs in 15 darts or less so he looks in much better form at the minute.
That is reflected in the tour results too where you have to go back to February for the last time Huybrechts made a tour quarter final. Again contrast that to the Dutchman who has won a tournament, made the final of another and lost in three semi-finals in that time.
Van de Pas is clearly the form horse of these two and he holds a 5-2 head to head lead over his Belgian counterpart. All things being equal that should be extended to 6-2 once the final double has landed in this one.
Potentially the match of the afternoon is the one between Gary Anderson and James Wade. Anderson took Alan Norris apart on Saturday night while Wade saw off Justin Pipe. I’m expecting Anderson to win there but he’s little value especially if Wade turns up at full capacity.
Bottom half
My outright bet Dave Chisnall still remains in this half of the draw although he faced the exit door squarely in the face on Saturday when he trailed Steve West 5-2 but he won the last four legs to set up a clash with Robert Thornton in the penultimate match of the afternoon.
Thornton was really poor in a deciding leg win over John Henderson on Saturday so I’m hopeful that Chisnall comes through there and then the tournament is anyone’s really.
Peter Wright looks in good nick at the minute and he faces Simon Whitlock, who thrashed Gerwyn Price on Saturday, much to our annoyance. That should be a good match. I expect Wright to win but so do the bookies.
An interesting match is the final game of the day as Michael Smith faces Mensur Suljovic. Smith has had problems with the Austrian in the past and he hasn’t been in fantastic form recently so this is a banana skin for sure.
I liked how Smith went on Saturday though and I would back him to come through the match but at odds on he’s no betting proposition with him likely to lack a rhythm throughout the game.
The other match sees Ian White facing Joe Murnan. Murnan was involved in a high quality tussle with Terry Jenkins on Saturday and if that Murnan turns up White will have his work cut out but I fancy we’re going to see the best form of the ‘Diamond’ in the weeks to come and he should have enough there.
Tips
Back B.van de Pas to beat K.Huybrechts for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with 888sport
Back him here:
