The final day of darting action before Christmas is another double header of sessions on Friday beginning in the afternoon as the second round of the PDC World Darts Championship continues inside Alexandra Palace.
We’ve seen the majority of the big names on show in the competition already but a former winner and the current European champion begin their quests for the title in this session, so the quality should remain high.
Brendan Dolan vs Jimmy Hendriks
The opening match of the afternoon sees Brendan Dolan looking to make it into the third round and begin to make up for what has been largely a quiet year for the Northern Irishman. He takes on Jimmy Hendriks who beat a very disappointing Jamie Hughes in the first round.
Dolan hasn’t really ever done it on this stage and he is in danger of slipping out of the top 32 in the world rankings if he loses here. On the flip side if he can win here he would have a third round clash with potentially Jonny Clayton who isn’t pulling up trees either so all of a sudden a deep run could present itself. It is hard to know what to make of Hendriks in the opening round because Hughes was so poor but the one thing we can say is his 78.33 average needs to be improved on and his first nine average of 85.72 probably needs upping too. Although Dolan has done precious little since he won PC21 in July, his year average of 93.10 on the floor and a few shades under 100 with the first nine darts are way ahead of what Hendriks offered in the opening round. I’ve got to think Dolan wins this with a bit in hand but his poor record here and on TV this year puts me off getting involved in this one.
Chris Dobey vs Martijn Kleermaker
The second match of the afternoon sees Chris Dobey looking to begin a big run in the tournament when he takes on a Martijn Kleermaker who made the last 16 here last year and will want to close in on emulating that this time around.
Gary Anderson awaits the winner of this match in the third round so there is the chance to go deep in this event for whoever comes out on top here. Dobey has had a decent enough season having made the quarter final of the World Grand Prix and the semi-final of the European Championship and he is more than capable of going well here. We probably can’t judge Kleermaker on his first round effort because his Chinese opponent offered next to no threat but a 97.70 first nine dart average was nothing to sniff at but just one 180 suggests he wasn’t quite on point with his game. I think Dobey will have too much here but we’ve seen a few fancied runners in recent days struggle to deal with players who have improved on their first round effort and this has the potential to be another so I’ll sit this one out too.
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Ross Smith vs Darius Labanauskas
The penultimate match of the afternoon sees Ross Smith beginning his quest to add the world crown to his European title when he takes on the Lithuanian number one Darius Lbanauskas for the right to take on Dirk van Duijvenbode in the next round.
Labanauskas can count himself extremely fortunate to still be in the tournament after he trailed John O’Shea 2-0 in the first round but thankfully for him the Irishman died on his backside and allowed ‘Lucky D’ to live up to his nickname to come through. Labanauskas has struggled all season and an 83.78 average isn’t going to get him any further so he needs to put 10 points on that at least. We’ve seen no signs recently that he has that in him at the minute. This match is all about Smith in my eyes. If he can handle the fact he is coming here with increased pressure on his shoulders then I would expect him to have no problems in coming through but we saw Luke Humphries in a similar situation and he struggled to break his best game out so I’m happy to sit and watch and see if the Smith that won the European Championship comes out here. If he does this should be an easy afternoon for the Englishman.
Rob Cross vs Scott Williams
The pick of the matches in the afternoon session looks to be very much the final one on the schedule when the former winner of this title, Rob Cross, takes on a man who certainly looks to have the talent to get his name on this trophy in the future in Scott Williams.
Williams has already been involved in one great match in this tournament when he went toe to toe with Ryan Joyce in a scoring fest in the first round and he might well get embroiled in another here because Cross isn’t going to back down for nobody. Cross was last seen giving MVG all he had in a losing effort in the Players Championship Finals when he took six legs off a man who was unplayable. He should be coming here full of confidence and if he plays to his potential and the Williams of the first round shows up sparks will fly here. If I was pushed I would say the tidier work at the end of legs will see Cross through but the better bet is for this one to get into double figures for 180s. Williams actually hit 10 180s in four sets in the first round and I expect this to go at least that long. I don’t necessarily expect Williams to cover this total on his own but he won’t need to because Cross is a more than competent 180 hitter himself. Were this to go five sets we’d only need one 180 each per set but both can score heavier than that so I like the over here.
Tips
Back R.Cross vs S.Williams – Over 9.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
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