The UK Open continues on Saturday with two more rounds of the tournament as the 32 players who begin the day in Minehead get whittled down to the last eight as the ‘FA Cup of Darts’ heads towards the business end of the competition.
We have the last 32 in the afternoon session and then the last 16 is played out in the evening one. Time restrictions will deny us the chance to get involved in the latter session but we can have a good look at the afternoon fayre here.
Stage One
We have four matches on the main stage on Saturday afternoon and we get underway with the form man of 2024 so far in Gary Anderson. He takes on his former protégé in Chris Dobey in what looks like the tie of the round. When they are done the teenage sensation Luke Littler is back on the big stage for a clash against Martin Schindler, who had a good win over Gerwyn Price in the previous round. Nathan Aspinall is a former champion here and he is looking to build on his win in the Premier League in Exeter on Thursday night. Damon Heta is his opponent in the penultimate match of the afternoon before the world champion Luke Humphries rounds off the schedule when he faces Benjamin Reus.
Stage Two
The beauty of this tournament is in the earlier rounds there is always a decent schedule on stage two these days and thankfully that is now streamed with the bookmakers. We get underway with Jonny Clayton taking on Ross Smith in a decent match before Rob Cross goes up against Josh Rock in another very good game, which could have had claims for being on the main stage. The Masters champion Stephen Bunting continues his quest for successive TV titles in the third match of the afternoon. He faces Kevin Doets before the stage two schedule concludes with the defending champion Andrew Gilding taking on Peter Wright.
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Stage Three
We have another four matches taking place over on stage three and there are some popular players competing over there. One of them starts the show off as Ricky Evans looks to make it into the last 16 when he faces Mike De Decker. You don’t very often see Michael Smith in this part of the complex but he is for his match with Luke Woodhouse. The second to last match on this board sees Dave Chisnall taking on Mensur Suljovic, who will be buoyed by his win over Michael van Gerwen in the previous round. The last match on this stage sees Vincent van der Voort taking on Dimitri Van den Bergh.
Stage Four
Usually the weaker matches are saved for stage four but we still have some household names on this stage. Graham Usher isn’t one of those but he beat Ryan Searle in the previous round and he will look to take out the new hotshot Gian van Veen here. Danny Noppert won this title a couple of years ago so he is defending a lot of money so could do with beating Martin Lukeman in the second game while we are guaranteed a younger player through when Keane Barry meets Ryan Meikle. The last match on this stage sees Krzysztof Ratajski taking on a Mervyn King who looks rejuvenated in the early part of 2024.
Betting
Regular readers will know I’m not a massive fan of Damon Heta in the TV tournaments but there is no doubt that he is getting better but I feel I have to back him to beat Nathan Aspinall. This has to be a good time to get with Heta because he has only lost one of his last 12 matches and is on an eight-match winning streak after he won the last of the Players Championship tournaments. He also had a solid win over Simon Whitlock in the previous round here, a win which probably would have been tough given the friendship between the two.
To be fair to Aspinall, he comes in here off a winning run having won the Premier League night on Thursday and his win over Scott Mitchell here on Friday evening was a good one but in TV events this season he has missed a lot of doubles and they always seem to come either when he is a favourite for a match or in a favourable position in a match. Heta will score well enough to keep Aspinall honest here and if those missed doubles creep in the Australian can take advantage. Heta has been to three quarter finals in this venue in the two events held here so it is a place he seems to enjoy and at odds against I think he’s a little too big for me to ignore.
Tips
Back D.Heta to beat N.Aspinall for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Boylesports
Back him here:
