The final session of darts before Christmas takes place at the PDC World Darts Championship on Monday evening as the second round of the tournament draws to a close with four more matches inside the Alexandra Palace in London.
By the end of the night we will know the full list of the 32 men who will be coming back after Christmas to battle it out for the biggest title in the sport with Dave Chisnall and Rob Cross among those looking to secure their passage through on Monday.
Gian van Veen vs Ricardo Pietreczko
The opening match of the night sees two European raiders battling it out for a spot in the last 32 when the exciting Dutch ace Gian van Veen goes up against the man who rattled the cage of the eventual winner Luke Humphries on this stage 12 months ago in Ricardo Pietreczko.
Van Veen is yet to win a match on this stage but he arrives here in the sort of form that given the calibre of stars who have exited the tournament so far that could take him a long way in this event. Pietreczko at his best might feel the same way but he hasn’t been hitting anything close to the sort of numbers that van Veen has in the last month or two and in truth he hasn’t hit those numbers very often in his career. Therefore this one would probably be all about whether van Veen has maintained the form since the Players Championship Finals and can bring it to what is the biggest stage in the game. One area of concern for the Dutchman could be that he is 0-2 against the German with their latest battle coming in the penultimate Players Championship tournament last month. I do think van Veen will win this but I would be surprised if Pietreczko doesn’t hang around here and given that he hit four 180s in the previous round, if the German can get this into a fourth set then I would expect the 7.5 180s line to be covered. Van Veen is no stranger to filling the 60 bed while Pietreczko might well improve as an outsider here. This line looks way too low to me.
Daryl Gurney vs Florian Hempel
We have German representation in the second match of the evening as well as Florian Hempel looks to make it into the last 32 when he takes on a Daryl Gurney who has shown in the past that he is more than capable of going deep in TV events.
Gurney has gone well in this tournament in the past and having seen Michael Smith exit his quarter of the draw already, he might quietly be fancying his chances this year too. He could have his work cut out here though because as he so often does, Hempel looked really good in his first match here. There is something about this stage which brings out the best in him and there is no reason to think that he won’t go well again here. Gurney has shown glimpses of really good darts on big stages this year and if we go with the theory that he’ll have his best here after surely putting plenty of work in during the lead up to the contest then we should expect both men to contribute to a competitive game of darts. Gurney leads the head to head 3-2 but they met in a European Tour event back in September and went the distance which suggests this could be close. Assuming that it is these two score more than heavily enough to bring over 8.5 180s in, particularly when you consider that Hempel hit seven of them himself in the first round.
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Dave Chisnall vs Ricky Evans
The crowd will come alive for the penultimate match of the second round when two popular met take to the stage to battle it out when Dave Chisnall gets his World Championship campaign underway against a Ricky Evans who can relax a little more now he has got a foothold into the tournament.
This should be a good contest to watch because both play at a pace which is nice on the eye. All eyes and expectations will be on Chisnall after another solid season but there has been talk in the lead up to the tournament that he has been suffering with illness and a back issue which has affected his throw so I would like to see if that is a problem or not before I get too involved in his matches. Evans visibly struggled in the first round against Gordon Mathers but the longer it went the better he looked and with not so much to lose here we should see him a lot more relaxed and if the first dart starts to play ball he could quickly become a danger for Chisnall. Given the negative issues around Chisnall I’ll watch this rather than play anything in it.
Rob Cross vs Scott Williams
We might have saved the best of the second round for the final game of the session as the two men who were beaten in the semi-finals a year ago battle it out for a place in round three as Rob Cross opens up his tournament against his good friend Scott Williams.
These two met here in this round a couple of years ago and Cross came out on top 3-1 and if you was betting correct scores in this match that would probably be a popular one but I think Williams has kicked on since then and he has the showmanship to really give his pal problems here. It took him a set to find his first dart against Niko Springer in the first round but when he had his range he was ploughing in 180s for fun and we saw last year how impressive he can be with the finishing. One thing we know about Cross is he’ll be up for the battle and he won’t shy away from the peacockery either so we should round off the pre-Christmas action in some style here. There were 13 180s when these two met in 2022 and so I’m surprised the 180 line is 9.5 in this one. This could easily go the distance and if it does these two are more than good enough to hit a 180 per set each on average but the way Williams in particular scores I would expect this to be covered in a four set match. Williams played four sets against Springer in the first round when more pressure was on him there and there will be here and he hit nine 180s. Based on that Cross won’t need to contribute too many to cover this total but however many he needs to deliver I’m confident that he will.
Tips
Back G.van Veen vs R.Pietreczko – Over 7.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back D.Gurney vs F.Hempel – Over 8.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back them here:
Back R.Cross vs S.Williams – Over 9.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfair
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