The opening night of the PDC World Darts Championship takes place inside Alexandra Palace on Wednesday when three first round matches and the start of the second round is played out on what promises to be a wonderful night of darts.
This tournament missed the crowds last year and with them back for this opening night the anticipation is about as high as it could be and with Gerwyn Price beginning the defence of his title the quality should be guaranteed too.
Ritchie Edhouse vs Peter Hudson
The opening match of the tournament is a first round clash between Ritchie Edhouse and Peter Hudson where the reward for the winner is a return to the stage later in the evening to take on the defending champion Gerwyn Price.
Edhouse has made it into this tournament courtesy of his exploits on the pro tour this season whereas Hudson is a surprise entry as he missed out completely but has got in as the third reserve when visas have put paid to a couple of the overseas players. Edhouse has plenty of experience in the game and while Hudson has been on the tour for a while, he hasn’t set foot on this stage since 2013. I think Edhouse will win this match but if you watched him in all the online leagues during lockdown you’ll appreciate that he misses a lot of doubles. If Hudson knew he was in the tournament a few weeks ago I might have chanced him here but the fact he only got in at late notice puts me off him. This is an easy one to swerve.
Ricky Evans vs Nitin Kumar
The second match of the night sees one of the fastest throwers in the game back on the big stage when Ricky Evans takes on Nitin Kumar of India who is appearing at the tournament once again. This will be his third appearance in the last four years so he has tasted the stage which is never a bad thing.
Evans is very erratic. He’ll be either brilliant for a spell or average and often that can come in the same leg so he is very hard to predict. In saying that, unless he has a very bad night at the office he should be too good for the Indian qualifier, who shouldn’t be overawed by the occasion or anything like that but whether he has the quality to get the better of someone of Evans’ ability remains to be seen. Evans is plenty short enough but there is a chance this could be closer than the odds suggest so I’ll sit this one out.
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Adrian Lewis vs Matt Campbell
The last of the first round matches on the opening evening of the tournament sees the former champion Adrian Lewis looking to secure a second round date with Gary Anderson when he takes on Matt Campbell, who is one of the more competent international qualifiers.
Lewis hasn’t had the best year in 2021 but there have been signs towards the back end that he is starting to catch fire at the back end of it and he’ll suddenly be feeling good about things here. Campbell is on a bit of a free roll here as he is on the tour next season and can give this a good go. I think this could be one of the closest matches of the night, one which will have four if not five sets. That means we’ll get to see plenty of the scoring power of Lewis which returned at the Players Championship finals last month. Campbell is a decent enough scorer too so over the course of however long this one goes on for I think we’ll go beyond 6.5 180s.
Gerwyn Price vs Edhouse/Hudson
The final match of the evening sees the second round of the tournament getting underway when the defending champion Gerwyn Price meets whoever comes through the opening match of the night in Ritchie Edhouse or Peter Hudson.
Whoever that is will have the significant advantage of having already been on the stage that evening but whether either will be good enough to make the most of it remains to be seen. Price is a class act but he has laboured in the early rounds of the last few TV events and will naturally be nervous with this being the start of his title defence. He might well be the pantomime villain once again too which is a concern. We can’t bet on this match until we know who it is that Price is facing but I’m not sure I’d be rushing to take the Welshman on a handicap regardless of who it is.
Tips
Back A.Lewis vs M.Campbell – Over 6.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
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