With the opening round of eight matches to determine the last 16, we have some cracking matches, which should set the standard for the evening session.
- Kyle Anderson/Dave Chisnall – (Head to head: 0-3)
- Simon Whitlock/Rowby-John Rodriguez – (0-2)
- Benito van de Pas/Jamie Lewis – (2-1)
- Max Hopp/Dimitri Van den Bergh – (0-0)
- Keegan Brown/Ian White – (0-0)
- Terry Jenkins/Chris Dobey – (0-0)
- Michael Smith/Mark Webster – (1-2)
- Devon Petersen/Robert Thornton – (0-0)
As you may have noticed there are a number of fixtures where players are meeting for the first time. Interesting that Rowby has beaten Whitlock twice on back to back European tour events in September. The Aussie is priced on reputation in the best of eleven at 8/13.
The closest priced tie is Big Ben playing Jamie Lewis, with the Dutchman and the Welshman closely matched with a chance to boost their profile before the World Championships.
Benito is reasonably priced at 4/5 and is worth taking, as BIG ben will want some form going into next weekend’s players championship finals as 13th seed. With both players heading to Minehead looking to hold throw will be the determining factor in this, with a key break possible after the games mini session break at five legs.
My valuation on evens for ten or eleven legs is not quite bet with compiler prices, but do think Benito is able to edge this game and book his place against James Wade later in the day.
Michael Smith, last week’s grand slam semi-finalist will square off against resurgent Mark Webster, who himself made the quarter final to solidify his position inside the top 32 order of merit. Smith climbed to 8th in the rankings, which will put him in the same bracket for the World Championship as a seeded quarter final at Ally Pally and is fairly likely to keep this position when the cut off is following next weekend’s player championship finals, where bullyboy is second seeded for the event.
For Smith to head off at 4/7 is a bit short for us in a race for six, and we have seen Smith open up slowly in similar formats, so I would not mind looking at a close encounter which is evens for over 9.5 legs, and I do like this.
Terry Jenkins is a good price to overcome a two leg deficit to beat Chris Dobey on Saturday. Jenkins, who has been playing well in 2015 and an outside chance for the Premier League, if he continues his great spell into the World Championships. Terry can overturn a 10/13 shot with Marathonbet to win by two or more legs versus the vastly inexperienced Dobey on TV. I did look at the under 9.5 leg market at 8/11 and cannot make a case for Dobey beating Jenkins, let alone him winning more than three legs, so would not put you off being greedy backing the TV veteran at 5/4 to win by three or more.
Recommendations:
- Benito van de Pas to beat Jamie Lewis – 4/5 Unibet
- M Smith/M Webster – over 9.5 legs – 1/1 Boylesports
- T Jenkins -1.5 legs Vs Dobey – 10/13 Marathonbet
Did you also catch @lockuptipster's pre-tournament World Series of Darts Tips?
