The second session of the World Matchplay tournament inside the Winter Gardens in Blackpool on Sunday afternoon will see another four first round matches taking place in front of what is likely to be a charged atmosphere ahead of the football.
The PDC have scheduled the opening round of this tournament well and knowing that there could have been a clash with the football the very big names have been placed elsewhere over the weekend. We have four competitive looking matches though with two former world champions headlining the session.
Rob Cross vs Gian van Veen
The first of the two former world champions on show on Sunday afternoon is the previous winner of this tournament in Rob Cross. He goes up against a bright prospect who is making his Blackpool debut in Gian van Veen.
Van Veen will definitely have his big days on this stage in the future but you would have to think he is going to be up against it on debut against a Cross who has been going very well ever since he reached the last four of the World Championship right at the beginning of the year. In the last two months Cross has won a European Tour event, a World Series tournament and made the final of two more World Series competitions so he has a bank of form as good as anything in the tournament let alone van Veen. Van Veen has been delivering the goods on the floor tournaments and the development events for a while but he is yet to really crack it on the big stage so that is something he needs to improve on but players do often need a year or two to get used to the difference in conditions and things. The Dutchman actually leads the head to head 3-2 but interestingly the last four matches have all gone the distance so there is something about these two getting involved in a battle whenever they meet. It is different on stage though so I expect Cross to win this but maybe van Veen just likes playing him enough to keep it close. I’ll leave this one alone.
Joe Cullen vs Brendan Dolan
The second match of the later session sees Joe Cullen looking to find some form on the Blackpool stage when the former winner of The Masters goes up against the Northern Ireland World Cup player in Brendan Dolan.
Cullen made a European Tour final at the end of April but if you include that loss to Luke Littler in the title game, ‘Rockstar’ has now lost 10 of his last 11 matches in all competitions so you have got to think that his confidence will be fragile at best. In two of his last three matches on the European Tour he has averaged less than 90 and he just looks vulnerable. Dolan has won a Players Championship title this season and although he didn’t look brilliant at the World Cup, you can sometimes just get lost in the doubles so I am not going to hold that against him. Dolan is a solid player who took care of Michael van Gerwen in the first round here a year ago and this looks to be a great chance for him to pick up another opening round win here.
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Peter Wright vs Andrew Gilding
Another former world champion and past winner of this tournament will be on stage in the penultimate match of the day when Peter Wright looks to find a rare decent TV win when he meets a potentially dangerous Andrew Gilding.
Wright hasn’t had the 2024 that he would have wanted and his form last week at the two Players Championship events certainly didn’t paint the picture of someone who is rounding into form but he does have the knowledge that he beat Gilding 10-4 in this round last year and walloped him 10-1 at the UK Open back in March. When you looked at the draw you probably thought that Gilding would have a real shot here but if anything his form has been even worse than Wright and certainly there has been nothing like the peaks that Wright has occasionally shown. I’m not expecting to see a classic here and a match between two bang out of form players looks best left alone.
Dave Chisnall vs Krzysztof Ratajski
The final match of a busy day of darts will see the man who has had a lot of success on the European Tour in recent times in Dave Chisnall going up against a player whose star might be fading a touch in Krzysztof Ratajski.
Depending on how long the two matches take prior to this, which could easily turn into lengthy grinds, there will be a bit of an atmosphere building for this one which you would think would help Chisnall but that expectation to get the job done quickly to avoid clashing with the football could also be a hindrance. Ratajski probably won’t care about that. This match is huge for him to arrest the slide down the rankings and the Polish number one will certainly look to draw comfort in the fact that he has won the last four meetings between the two men. This match is in the hands of Chisnall though. If he can avoid all the distractions then his scoring power should be too much but those distractions are enough for me to leave this one alone.
Tips
Back B.Dolan to beat J.Cullen for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with BetVictor
