The second round of the World Matchplay tournament concludes inside the Winter Gardens in Blackpool on Wednesday evening when the bottom half of the draw plays down to the quarter final stage of the event.
With every passing day the draw is opening right up and there is no reason to think that won’t continue to be the case with a very competitive session of action over the course of Wednesday evening.
Brendan Dolan vs Damon Heta
The opening match of the evening could have been Michael van Gerwen vs Josh Rock but Brendan Dolan and Damon Heta didn’t get that script and it is they who will meet for a place in the quarter final to get Wednesday up and running.
Dolan took care of an out of sorts van Gerwen but what was impressive in that win was how he held himself together when the finish line arrived. That isn’t easy to do when you are about to claim a major scalp so that was very much to the credit of the Northern Irishman, who might be inspired by seeing his World Cup teammate Daryl Gurney already reach the last eight of this event. Heta produced one of his better TV performances to take care of a below par Josh Rock in the first round and you sense that after a few wins on the European Tour stages this year, the Australian is beginning to find a comfort level on the big stage. The one concern now is that he seems to want to take up the role of the pantomime villain and that just never works well over a long period of time. This one feels like an obvious one to leave alone. I fancy Heta to get the job done but him riling up the crowd isn’t for me.
Jonny Clayton vs Dimitri Van den Bergh
The second match of the evening looks like a cracking contest between two men who were part of the eight-man field in the Premier League earlier this year when Jonny Clayton goes up against the former winner of this event in Dimitri Van den Bergh.
You have to respect the record of Van den Bergh in this tournament. He has gone winner, finalist, semi-finalist and he looked ominously good in a very strong win over Ross Smith in the opening round. Clayton doesn’t have anything like the same record in this event and he was bang average in the first round. The Welshman will be looking for a first quarter final at Blackpool and will need a serious improvement if he is going to get there. These two met three times at the Premier League with Clayton coming out on top in two of those matches but you would imagine this will be a tight tussle throughout, as long as the Welsh ace delivers the sort of form that we know that he can. Hopefully we see the best of these two and it is another Matchplay classic and then hopefully Clayton can find a way to win to keep my outright bet on him alive with the bigger names starting to fall to increase his chances of success.
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Peter Wright vs Ryan Searle
The penultimate match in the second round of the tournament sees the 2021 champion Peter Wright looking to make it into another Matchplay quarter final when he meets arguably the most impressive first round winner in Ryan Searle.
Searle scored like a dream in a very convincing win over Raymond van Barneveld in the opening round to end with a 105 average and if he has that form with him in this match then he is entitled to be very tough to beat. Wright may not have been as impressive as far as the numbers was concerned in his win over an Andrew Gilding who never really showed up, but the fact that he hadn’t played for six weeks and isn’t having a great season, the performance that he did deliver in that match was encouraging, albeit under no pressure. I always think Searle competes hard against the better players on the biggest stage but doesn’t quite get over the line and I can see the same thing happening here. You would expect Wright to come on a little for the run and Searle is probably going to drop off slightly on his first round performance but I’m not yet at the stage where I trust Snakebite so I’m happy to leave this one alone too.
Luke Humphries vs Dirk van Duijvenbode
The pick of the second round matches could well be the one which closes out the action when Luke Humphries takes on Dirk van Duijvenbode in a clash which sees two men who have excelled on the European Tour over the last 18 months battling it out on a bigger stage.
These are two of the more exciting players in the game to watch. It was hard not to be impressed with the Humphries win over Jose de Sousa in the first round. It wasn’t just the margin of the win which was impressive but the scoring power he displayed and the pretty reliable looking doubles. In a weird way the van Duijvenbode win over Kim Huybrechts was equally as appealing even though he had to dodge match darts before coming through. He was battling his first dart all match and it took away a chunk of the scoring power that he is famed for hence why he only hit four 180s in 22 legs of darts. Even though he didn’t have that with him, he utilised the T19 very well to keep him in the match and when the chance came he took it. If he has found his first dart in or above the 60 in the three days since then you would imagine the Dutchman will be a real threat here. These two have met on four occasions this year and three of them have gone to a deciding leg and the other finished 6-4. Humphries won their three European Tour meetings with van Duijvenbode the floor one but it is the 180s which interests me here. Those four meetings have yielded eight 180s in 10 legs, nine in 13 legs, six in 13 legs and 11 in 15 legs so with the exception of one match the 180s come regularly when these two meet. That, coupled with how close matches between the two tend to be, makes me think that over 12.5 180s is a serious runner here.
Tips
Back L.Humphries vs D.van Duijvenbode – Over 12.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with William Hill
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