The opening day of the Players Championship Finals sees the entire first round of the competition being played across two stages over two sessions of play as Butlins in Minehead welcomes the best players in the world on Friday.
We have a race to six with the aim for everyone to make it into the last 32 of the tournament on Saturday afternoon and hopefully set themselves on the way to a deep run with the intention of still being involved on Sunday night.
Afternoon Session
Main Stage
The former world champion Rob Cross kicks things off on the main stage on Friday afternoon when he takes on the Polish youngster Sebastian Bialecki. When they are done Dave Chisnall will look to find some TV form when he takes on Ryan Joyce before the 2024 World Grand Prix winner Mike De Decker faces the rising star Cam Crabtree. Danny Noppert and Ricky Evans both had good Grand Slam of Darts runs but only one will progress from their first round meeting. The last three matches on the main stage in the afternoon sees James Wade meeting Mickey Mansell, Jonny Clayton facing James Hurrell and Ross Smith taking on the last man into the draw in Ryan Meikle.
Stage Two
It is a bit of a slow start to proceedings over on the second stage with Bradley Brooks facing the 2024 Grand Slam finalist Martin Lukeman before a man who has had success here in Andrew Gilding, the former UK Open winner, takes on Dom Taylor. The third match sees the confident Scott Williams facing Ian White before the first of a couple of Dutch players on show in this part of the grounds in the afternoon steps onto the stage as Niels Zonneveld meets Nick Kenny. Kevin Doets faces Callan Rydz in the next match before Cameron Menzies opens up his campaign against Adam Lipscombe. We have a battle of both sides of Ireland taking place when Brendan Dolan meets Daryl Gurney with the last two matches seeing Luke Woodhouse playing Alan Soutar before the session concludes with William O’Connor taking on Ricardo Pietreczko.
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Evening Session
Main Stage
We have a tasty evening session of action on the main stage and it begins with the German number one Martin Schindler facing a revived Michael Smith before Josh Rock takes on another German player in Gabriel Clemens. It is Germans all the way in the opening three matches because Max Hopp meets the number one seed Gerwyn Price in match three. When they are done Stephen Bunting opens up his tournament against Ritchie Edhouse before we see the world champion for the first time this weekend as Luke Littler plays Jeffrey de Graaf. The pick of the first round matches then takes place when Gian van Veen begins his quest for what he hopes will be two titles this weekend when he meets Luke Humphries. The last match sees Karel Sedlacek taking on Nathan Aspinall.
Stage Two
Two Dutch players get the action started over on the other stage when Jermaine Wattimena meets Wesley Plaisier before Ryan Searle will look to make it into the second round when he goes up against Darren Beveridge. Two more Dutchmen follow them onto the stage when Wessel Nijman meets Richard Veenstra before the Dutch legend Raymond van Barneveld gets his campaign underway when he takes on Krzysztof Ratajski. The Dutchmen keep on coming when Dirk van Duijvenbode faces Madars Razma before Gary Anderson begins his tournament with a clash against Mario Vandenbogaerde. The final three matches on this stage see Joe Cullen meeting Peter Wright, Damon Heta facing Justin Hood and Chris Dobey going up against Keane Barry.
Betting
This isn’t my favourite day in the darts calendar I have to admit and I tend to up my level of bets the longer the competition goes on when the format gets a little longer but sometimes you just have to take what you are given and with the video doing the rounds on social media last month that saw Scott Williams struggling to release the dart, the 4/5 on Ian White to beat him feels like an obvious bet, as much as it isn’t nice to see anyone struggling.
I think it is fair to say that White isn’t the force he was five years or so ago but he remains a steady operator who doesn’t do a lot wrong and against a guy who understandably might get frustrated quite easily I think the veteran has to be taken here. Williams can be hit and miss anyway but the swagger and cockiness is what makes him the player he is and if that isn’t there then the monotonous nature of White might just grind him down in the end. One man looks to be struggling here and the other doesn’t so I’ll go with the one with less on his plate.
Tips
Back I.White to beat S.Williams for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
