The second round of the World Grand Prix begins inside the Mattioli Arena in Leicester on Wednesday evening when the top half of the draw is back on show to determine the identity of the two quarter finals for later in the week.
All four seeds made it safely through to the second round of the tournament which ensures we have some star quality on show and with a couple of form unseeded players taking to the oche as well it should be a decent night of darts.
Nathan Aspinall vs Ryan Joyce
The second round gets underway with a clash between the former World Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall and the underrated Ryan Joyce with a spot in the quarter final against either Rob Cross or Martin Schindler the reward for the winner.
These two men made it through to this stage in very different ways. Aspinall needed to deliver a 12 dart leg to break the Ryan Searle throw in the deciding leg of their first round match while Joyce cruised past Josh Rock and it will be interesting to see if that form continues or whether we get another Aspinall cliffhanger. To be fair to Aspinall, he played well in that match against Joyce but he was guilty of missing a few doubles at the end of a leg and his finishing has concerned me for a while. Joyce will stick at it here and if he can have enough of an edge on the doubling to make up for any scoring shortfall he has a chance here. I hope he does anyway because he is my outright bet in this half and I’m happy to ride that for interest here.
Rob Cross vs Martin Schindler
The second match of the night will see Rob Cross looking to make the quarter final of this tournament for the first time in his career when he takes on a man who is looking to reach the last eight for a second year in succession in the shape of Martin Schindler.
Schindler arrived here in excellent form having won a European Tour event in Switzerland two weekends ago and he cut the figure of a confident man in dispatching Brendan Dolan with the minimum of fuss in the opening round. Cross came through the nasty draw of Luke Littler in round one but there wasn’t much in the opening two sets of that match that suggested he is comfortable in this format. To be fair to Cross his finishing was very good but his scoring was a work in progress. Schindler hit the doubles at both ends of the leg really well against Dolan and having taken care of Barney and Stephen Bunting on his way to the last eight here a year ago he clearly has no issues with the format. There might not be much in this one but the open dislike Cross has shown for the format makes me think Schindler is a more than fair price here.
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Luke Humphries vs Ricardo Pietreczko
The penultimate match of the night sees the world champion Luke Humphries continuing his title defence when he takes on the German debutant Ricardo Pietreczko, who shocked Raymond Barneveld on the opening night and will be eyeing up a major upset here.
Humphries is extremely fortunate to be in this second round as Stephen Bunting had a dart to beat him in the previous round but having taking everything ‘the Bullet’ could throw at him, the world number one came back with a barrage of his own to make it through. You wouldn’t expect he will face anything like the artillery that Bunting had from Pietreczko, who was the only player so far to forget he had to start on a double during his win over Barneveld. When he did remember he was only 30% on the starting double and while he was able to surrender an early advantage in legs against the Dutchman and catch him up if he keeps trailing Humphries from the starting double he won’t be outscoring him enough to catch him. This feels like a potential comfortable night at the office for the defending champion but the odds are fully reflective of that with Humphries no bigger than 1/7 to win. This isn’t a format to be backing things like 3-0 because one bad leg on the starting double in the wrong set and that is done for. I’ll sit this one out.
Jonny Clayton vs Ross Smith
The final match of the night might well be the pick of them, at least as far as it containing two men who have previously won TV events is concerned. The former champion Jonny Clayton takes on the most impressive performer on the opening night in Ross Smith.
Smith averaged over 100 in his demolition of Gian van Veen and the first question would be whether he can back that up. If he can you would imagine he will have every chance here. I think we can relatively safely assume that Smith will outscore Clayton. While Clayton did well to see off a potentially awkward challenge from Ritchie Edhouse in the first round, some of his scoring darts were incredibly loose with them drifting into the one and five quite regularly and Smith will jump all over that. That means that Clayton is going to be under real pressure on the doubles here and sometimes that can catch him out a touch. These two met here last year when Smith won 2-0 in the opening round and with Clayton having faded a bit since then I’ve got to think that Smudger will get the job done here too. At 8/11 though I’m happy to let him win if he is good enough.
Tips
Back M.Schindler to beat R.Cross for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with Bet365
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