The second big piece of silverware in 2016 will be played for in Minehead this weekend when 128 players head to Butlin’s for ‘The FA Cup of Darts’ – the UK Open. This is always a busy weekend which provides thrills, spills and plenty of stories and I expect no different this year.
The beauty of this tournament is the open draw at the end of each round, very much like the FA Cup in football. It means that Michael van Gerwen could run into Phil Taylor or a Gary Anderson in the third round when the big guns come into the tournament and that would open the competition right up. As a result we often see unheralded players going deep into the weekend.
Once the big names enter the tournament on Friday night at the Last 64 stage the tournament is the best of 17 legs up to and including the Last 16 with the quarter finals and semis on Sunday the best of 19 before a best of 21 leg final so this one takes some winning.
When I look at the outright market here I look for two things. Form and scoring power. Form because you need to be going well to come through a weekend like this and scoring power because you have to win six matches in just over 48hrs to be the champion so if you have the scoring power to win a couple of matches comfortably early in the tournament it helps.
I’m going to take one main bet this weekend and then throw darts at a few outsiders if you pardon the pun. The wide open nature of this tournament means we want as much on our side as possible so I’m only going to use the three firms offering four places in this tournament.
My main bet is a man who I’m convinced will win a major title soon and that is Dave Chisnall. The problem for Chisnall is that he keeps on running into van Gerwen early on in TV events these days but he showed at The Masters that he has the rest of the field covered and if someone can get rid of van Gerwen early that could open things up for Chisnall.
We know Chisnall’s in decent touch from that run in The Masters and his performances in the Premier League and we know he has scoring power to burn so I’m expecting a really strong run from Chizzy this weekend at a perfectly acceptable 22/1.
When it is form we are looking for it is hard to look beyond Daryl Gurney. Gurney made a major breakthrough in his career when he made it to the final of the Dutch Darts Masters last month and around then he made the quarter finals of one UK Open qualifier and the last 16 of two others.
Gurney made the semi-finals of the Players Championship Finals at the end of last year at this very venue so we know he is familiar with the set up. He’s a real improver on the circuit and while he’s in this tournament he can do some damage especially if the draw opens right up as it so often does.
Another man in good form is the young Dutch star Benito van de Pas. I’ve been impressed with him for a while but even more so at the minute. He made two semi-finals in the UK Open qualifiers which shows the good form he is in and he also made the quarter finals here in the Players Championship Finals where he produced a scintillating performance to beat James Wade before going out.
Van de Pas fits the criteria of scoring power and a man rapidly going up the rankings has the positive energy to go well this weekend. He fears nobody and if he can avoid the very top names for a few rounds he could be there on Sunday still firing strongly.
I’ve backed Simon Whitlock in a few tournaments in the last six months and so it makes sense to take him again this weekend especially as there are clear signs he is coming back to form even though he’s switched to glasses. We know he can score with the majority of them and we know the big stage is no fear to him.
Whitlock has been very consistent in 2016 with a semi-final and three quarter finals to his name already and it won’t be long before he’s contending for titles again. He was a quarter finalist in the Players Championship Finals here in November so he ticks all the boxes to be in the mix this weekend at 80/1.
Finally I’ll go with a bit of a longer shot in John Henderson. Henderson certainly ticks the scoring power box as he can hit 180s with the best of them when that rocking motion he has is in sync.
Hendo took care of Michael Smith on his way to the semi-final of the first qualifying event for this tournament and he reached a quarter final too where he lost in a deciding leg to Michael van Gerwen after beating Brendan Dolan and Kim Huybrechts. Henderson is very underrated and he looks to be in decent enough nick for me to pay to see how well he goes this weekend.
Back D.Gurney to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Coral (1/4 1-4)
Back B.van de Pas to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Coral (1/4 1-4)
Back S.Whitlock to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Coral (1/4 1-4)
Back them here:
Back D.Chisnall to win UK Open (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 23.00 with Sportingbet (1/4 1-4)
Back J.Henderson to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 201.00 with Sportingbet (1/4 1-4)
