The evening session of darts at the PDC World Championship on Sunday sees a number of title contenders return to Alexandra Palace as three more third round matches take place inside the iconic London venue.
It is a night where we have two former winners of this tournament on show and the man who many believe will be there or thereabouts when the trophy is handed out this year, along with a couple of dangerous outsiders.
Gian van Veen vs Madars Razma
We open up the evening with an all-European affair as the European Championship winner Gian van Veen goes up against the Latvian number one Madars Razma in what the odds suggest will be something of a mismatch.
There is every chance that will be the case and it certainly will be if van Veen plays like he did in his second round demolition job of Alan Soutar where he averaged over 120 with his first nine darts and more than 108 overall. Razma doesn’t have the scoring power to go with those numbers, although to be fair to him not many do, so he needs to hope van Veen drops off a good few points else this could be carnage for the Latvian. To be fair to Razma, he averaged 97 himself in the previous round but that is probably the top end of his game and there is no guarantee that he’ll be able to replicate that, and even if he does it probably needs van Veen to come off it by 10 points for this one to be competitive. I don’t really see either happening so I’m a little reluctant to get involved here. I had a look at the 4-0 but Razma has taken a set off Stephen Bunting and Michael Smith in this round in the last two years before exiting and despite those high numbers Soutar did take a set from the Dutchman. I definitely can’t see Razma taking two from van Veen but the set odds and everything else pretty much reflect that so this is a no bet match for me.
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Luke Humphries vs Gabriel Clemens
The former champion Luke Humphries is back on the Alexandra Palace stage in the middle match of the evening session when he takes on the German former semi-finalist Gabriel Clemens in what looks to be the pick of the games on paper.
Clemens has been to the semi-final here before but we should remember that he was flattered a little on that run because that was the quarter final where Gerwyn Price was copping it so badly that he wore ear protectors during the contest. The German is a competent operator but whether he has the weapons to beat Humphries on this stage remains to be seen. As with the first game, you would imagine that Humphries will need to have an off night for that to happen and there doesn’t really seem to be any evidence that the 2024 champion is going to offer up that particular gift. He did lose a set to Ted Evetts in the opening round though and we can’t really take too much from his second round outing because Paul Lim always looked to lack the firepower to be competitive in that encounter. I do think Clemens will win a set here at the very least. He has a guaranteed two of them on his throw so I expect to see five sets and that should give us the time we need for the over 12.5 180s to land. Humphries hit eight of them in four sets in the first round and if he scores like that here he’ll go close to covering this line on his own. Clemens is good for maximums though so in what should be a watchable contest for the time it is in play, I think over 12.5 180s is the way forward here.
Michael van Gerwen vs Arno Merk
The final match of a decent looking night of darts sees the man who has won this title on three occasions heading back onto the Alexandra Palace stage when Michael van Gerwen meets the German challenger Arno Merk, who has had a very creditable campaign thus far.
Merk has seen off Kim Huybrechts and Peter Wright as an unknown quantity, although he was given a massive helping had by a quite frankly terrible performance from the latter, but you would think his run ends here. He might have thought he could be a match for anyone in his interview after beating Wright but the numbers suggest otherwise and he’ll need at least another five points on his average to stand a chance here. Van Gerwen started the tournament slowly but I suspect some of that was down to playing someone he knew he wasn’t going to lose to. He was much more at it against Willie O’Connor in what plenty thought could have been a dangerous second round clash and there is nothing to suggest he’ll be beaten here. Merk might be good for a set but I expect a comfortable night at the office for MVG and I hope that is what we get as he is my main outright bet for this tournament.
Tips
Back L.Humphries vs G.Clemens – Over 12.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
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