The PDC World Championship continues on Friday with a double session of action at the Alexandra Palace with the highlight being the world number one Michael van Gerwen beginning his quest to regain the title.
The opening night saw Gary Anderson and Peter Wright cruise into the second round without losing a set while Daryl Gurney came through an entertaining match against Jamie Lewis. They can all enjoy Christmas now while the beaten players will have a less happy festive period.
The afternoon session on Friday sees two former Lakeside champions in action as Christian Kist and Mark Webster take to the stage. They face Justin Pipe and the winner of the match between Qiang Sun and Mick McGowan respectively.
In between the preliminary match and the later matches John Henderson takes on Darren Webster in an even looking contest. Webster has a good record against Henderson but we’ve not seen him on TV much this year and that could be the difference.
Not only has Henderson been on the big stages but he’s performed pretty well on them. He has made the quarter final of the European Championship and a European Tour final where he took care of Cristo Reyes, Michael Smith and Adrian Lewis before losing to van Gerwen.
Henderson is the better scorer of these two and his experience at this level should see him more composed at the key times and I’ll get Friday’s betting underway with a solid punt on the Highlander.
Justin Pipe is Kist’s opponent and he’ll know he’s in for a battle. We’ve not really seen the best of Pipe this year in the big tournaments and he’ll be under pressure to deliver in this tournament.
Darts isn’t Kist’s life so he will always have that little extra freedom and comfort because of that but we’ve seen in his career in the past how he is much better over these longer distances. Kist has wins over Stephen Bunting, Simon Whitlock and Michael van Gerwen among others this year so when he plays well he’s capable of beating anyone.
You wouldn’t think Kist will come here without his A game and with that in mind I think he’s a decent price to see off a Pipe who has never truly convinced on the big stage and who appears just off the top of his game right now.
I’m on Mark Webster outright and there’s no need to get involved in guesswork in his preliminary round winning opponent but whoever he faces it will be a surprise if he loses so I’ll kick on into the evening session.
Thanawat Gaweenuntavong and Rene Eidams kick the night off with the reward if you can call it that of facing Michael van Gerwen in the session finale. In between those two matches Kyle Anderson takes on Brendan Dolan and there’s an entertaining match between Kim Huybrechts and Dave Pallett.
Anderson is a shortening favourite against Dolan and that is a worthy position. Dolan’s game has gone straight west this year. He doesn’t have the greatest record in this tournament at the best of times having never been beyond the Last 32 and having only made one final all year clearly his game is below par because he usually makes more than that.
Anderson is still learning his trade on the pro tour but we’ve seen him go well on the big stages both here last year and in Perth where he beat Stephen Bunting in a World Series event. He also has a stage win over Peter Wright in a European Tour event so the Australian is inspired by the big stages and the big matches.
Anderson’s scoring power is likely to be worth something in this match. Dolan is a consistent plodder like scorer but lacks the genuine power scoring and if he then doesn’t have a good day at the end of legs he’s very vulnerable. I see Anderson creating lots of double opportunities and taking enough to win with a bit to spare.
Huybrechts and Pallett could be a cracking match if it catches fire early. I fancy there to be a few 180s here but the line is just a bit too high at 9.5 should Pallett suffer with nerves and tension like Keegan Brown did on the opening night. With that in mind I’ll leave that and the van Gerwen matches well alone.
Back J.Henderson to beat D.Webster for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Boylesports
Back C.Kist to beat J.Pipe for a 4/10 stake at 2.30 with Paddy Power
Back K.Anderson (-1.5 sets) to beat B.Dolan for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with Betway
Blog darts YTD: +3.14pts
