The penultimate event on the European Tour takes place this weekend when the inaugural Swiss Darts Trophy is played out in Basel as the players in the field will look to enhance their position in the Order of Merit for the European Championship.
In the main all the big hitters have made it through to this weekend and with just one qualifying event for the European Championship left after this we should be ensured a very competitive weekend of darts.
The Format
The format for these tournaments remains the same as before, which means that the qualifiers meet in the first round of the event on the Friday while the last 32 of the tournament is played over two sessions of action on Saturday, with the last 16 on Sunday afternoon and the quarter finals on Sunday night. They are all the best-of-11 legs with the semi-finals also on Sunday evening. They are the best-of-13 and then the final in the same session is the best-of-15 legs. The draw has been pre-determined and is played in a straight knockout format.
Top Half
As ever the halves of the draw are flipped tournament to tournament and it is the turn of the second seed to lead the way in the top half this weekend. That is Ross Smith and if the event goes to the seeding he will face the world champion Luke Humphries in the semi-final. That match will immediately be in danger of happening because Luke Littler is on course to face Humphries in the last 16. The other seeds in this section are Josh Rock, Rob Cross, Stephen Bunting, Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko.
There are some massive names in among the qualifiers in this section of the draw. They include Peter Wright who looks back to form while former world champions Michael Smith and Raymond van Barneveld are also in this half. Dirk van Duijvenbode looks like he is coming back to form as well while Ritchie Edhouse is having a great season. Other names to note are the former UK Open champion Andrew Gilding, Lakeside finalist Richard Veenstra, Mike De Decker, Ian White, Krzysztof Ratajski and Joe Cullen.
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Bottom Half
Dave Chisnall is the number one seed once again this week and he is the main player in the bottom draw. Should the weekend go to the seeded rankings then he will go up against Gerwyn Price in the semi-final but a number of players will be out to stop that from happening. Gian van Veen made the final in Hungary last week and he’ll be looking to go one better from this quarter here. Danny Noppert, Chris Dobey, Damon Heta, Ryan Searle and Daryl Gurney are the other seeded players.
There are some decent players who have qualified for the draw in the bottom half too. Two of them are Dimitri Van den Bergh and James Wade and they have drawn each other in the first round. Jonny Clayton is another player who will be looking to do some damage from this half while Nathan Aspinall continues his return from injury. Callan Rydz, Brendan Dolan, Luke Woodhouse, Wessel Nijman and Jim Williams are all capable of a big weekend too.
Betting
Ryan Searle made the semi-final in Hungary last week and he looks to have a decent draw to go two steps better this weekend. Searle was in decent touch last week and thrashed Peter Wright 6-1 in the last 16 and then Daryl Gurney before he lost to Gian van Veen in the semi-final. I like the fact that Searle skipped the Players Championship events in midweek which means that he’ll head to Switzerland nice and fresh. Searle is one of those players who when he gets into form he tends to stay there and at 25/1 he feels a decent enough price this weekend.
There is no reason why Gian van Veen can’t back up his run to the final last weekend with another decent run in Switzerland. He has largely the same draw with Danny Noppert seeded to be his last 16 opponent once again and the potential to face Wessel Nijman in the quarter final and then it could be Daryl Gurney in the semi-final, although we hope it will be Ryan Searle. Van Veen is certainly good enough to go all the way in one of these tournaments and there is no Michael van Gerwen around this weekend to nail him in the final should he get there. At 50/1 I’ll pay to see how the youngster can back up last weekend.
Tips
Back R.Searle to win Swiss Darts Trophy (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back G.van Veen to win Swiss Darts Trophy (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 51.00 with Unibet (1/2 1-2)
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