The quarter finals of the World Matchplay tournament get underway inside the Winter Gardens in Blackpool on Thursday evening when we return to the top half of the draw as four top class operators look for a semi-final spot.
After the world number one and defending champion Luke Humphries bit the dust on the opening night of the competition, this half was wide open for someone to go deep in the tournament and that should ensure two very competitive quarter finals.
Gian van Veen vs James Wade
The first of the two quarter finals on Thursday evening sees the man who took care of Humphries, Gian van Veen, competing in his first match at this level of the tournament against a James Wade for whom quarter finals in this event are regular as clockwork.
Van Veen put in a brilliant performance against Humphries in the opening round. He was a little weaker than that against Danny Noppert in the second round but that was probably always going to be the case. Wade has been very impressive so far. He might not have a name like Humphries on his victim list this week but his two wins have come with 100+ averages which he made to look very easy. With all that in mind, it could be a surprise that Wade is the outsider in this match. I certainly don’t see him as a huge underdog as experience could be key over this format of the game. I don’t need to back Wade here though because I’m effectively on him at just over 16/1 for this match having backed him outright to four places. I’m happy to let that ride and can’t really find a route in on the other lines here. Van Veen doesn’t have enough experience over the extended formats to form an opinion and I’m perfectly happy if Wade covers all the major lines anyway so I’ll leave this match well alone.
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Stephen Bunting vs Jonny Clayton
The second quarter final is the pick of the four on paper as the only match with two seeded players in it sees the former winner of The Masters, Stephen Bunting, going up against a Jonny Clayton who is making a good fist of defending the money he made when making the final here a couple of years ago.
If both men play well here then we should be in for an absolute cracker of a contest but they have both struggled at times this week. Bunting has beaten Ryan Joyce and Gary Anderson but he started both matches quite poorly whereas Clayton has looked better for longer but now and again keeps on throwing loose darts which set him back a little. You would imagine that the extended format will ensure a better start for Bunting and that Clayton relaxes to play his best game so we should be in for something special. I wouldn’t like to say who will win this one. I’d probably favour Clayton as I think he is slightly more reliable on the doubles but in truth I’m struggling to pick the winner as much as the bookmakers are. The one thing which has been evident this week is that when he has got it right, Clayton has been scoring big this week. He nailed eight 180s in beating Martin Schindler in the opening round and then nine in the second round win over Mike De Decker. The latter was in 19 legs but you’ve got to think we’ll be seeing into the high 20s if not 30 legs in this match so I am a little surprised that Clayton has a 180 line of 9.5. One more 180 over an extra bunch of legs in a match where he will be forced to score well feels likely. Clayton isn’t the most devastating of 180 hitters but he has been excellent on the 60 this week and him to get to double figures for 180s here feels right.
Tips
Back J.Clayton – Over 9.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Coral
