2023 Saturday Players Championship Finals Tips – JP
2023 Saturday Players Championship Finals Tips
James Punt had another solid afternoon at the darts. He landed another five winners to keep things ticking over nicely. More of the same tonight? His Saturday 2023 Saturday Players Championship tips for selected second round matches are below…
Overview
These 3rd round matches are played as a best of nineteen leg format. Yesterday’s first round was remarkable for the lack of high scoring with just two ton plus averages from 32 matches. Today, it was raining record breaking scores and not all winning ones.
Kim Huybrechts vs. Stephen Bunting
I had to miss the Price vs. Huybrechts match but assumed that my computer was broken when I saw the score. A 6-1 win for Huybrechts? That had to be a mistake, but no, here he is in the third round. Price must have been rubbish as he only averaged 85.9, while Huybrechts was hardly on fire with 92.0.
Stephen Bunting looked in great form when he beat Gian van Veen 6-1. The young Dutchman didn’t fire, but he really didn’t have much chance, he was just brushed aside. Bunting averaged 105.6 and he has won eight of his last ten matches and he is playing with a lot of consistency. He will take some beating.
Mental Let Down
There is a good chance that Huybrechts suffers from a bit of mental let down after his big win this afternoon. He would not have expected to have beaten Price and he now has to press the reset button and come back down to earth.
Huybrechts has won six of his last ten matches but is showing very little in the way of consistency. Four of his last ten matches have seen sub 90 averages and only two over 93.
Their H2H record is very firmly in Huybrechts favour. He is 6-1 against Bunting if you strip out their three Home Tour matches. They have not met in 2023 and we have Bunting version 2.0 ever since he switched to a heavier dart.
Bunting is the 1.44 favourite and as this is not a match with the word final in its title, his bottle should hold up.
2023 Saturday Players Championship tip: 1 point Stepehen Bunting to win -2.5 legs @ 2.10 with Betfair
Damon Heta vs. Brendan Dolan
Heta struggled to overcome Kevin Doets 6-4 in a low quality match. He will be becoming concerned with his scoring. It is now six matches since he averaged more than 92 and he will get found out at some point.
Will Dolan be the one to take advantage? Maybe not. Dolan just about beat Maik Kuivenhoven 6-5, averaging 86.3. Dolan has won six of his last ten matches but half have seen sub 90 averages.
Can Heta find himself another opponent averaging under 90? It would seem that there is a good chance he can.
Dolan Leads H2H
Their H2H record is 4-2 to Dolan, but it is Heta who has won their last two, both this season and both very comfortably. There was a 6-3 win on the Euro Tour and an 11-1 thumping at the World Matchplay, their only match on TV. Dolan was terrible on the doubles that day so I don’t expect a repeat of that kind margin of victory.
Heta is the 1.44 favourite with Dolan 2.90. I was tempted to go for over 16.5 legs at 1.91 but over the longer format, one of them could open a big gap if the other is not firing. If they both don’t fire, then it’s a decent bet, but surely one of them will find some scoring form. No bet.
2023 Saturday Players Championship tip: No bet
Michael van Gerwen vs. Mario Vandenbogaerde
Pray for Super Mario. MVG set a new Players Championship highest record average with his 118.5 when thrashing the unfortunate Ross Smith 6-1.
Smith averaged 104.5 but he might as well have stayed in the dressing room. It is very unlikely that MVG does it again but he is a top player and when he is on, he can hit ton plus average after ton plus average.
Super Mario beat Matt Campbell 6-2, but it was a poor match with both players hitting sub 90 averages. These two have only met twice, with MVG winning a floor match 6-2 last July.
MVG is the 1.11 favourite and this is not really a great betting opportunity.
2023 Saturday Players Championship tip: No bet
Gabriel Clemens vs. Niels Zonneveld
It was a very classy performance by Gabriel Clemens to beat Josh Rock 6-3. Rock was giving MVG a run for his money in terms of the highest average, he ended up with a 112.2, but Clemens really didn’t look like losing. He didn’t let Rock dominate despite all the big scores and he just outfinished his opponent. Very impressive.
Niels Zonneveld averaged 98 in his 6-2 win over an under par Jonny Clayton. That is two great results under his belt and he is averaging 99 across his two matches. Can he keep it up? That is the question. He has won six of his last ten matches but his seasonal win rate is just 54% and he lacks consistency.
Clemens’ win rate is just 56% so this season has not been his best. How much of that was mental let down after that World Championship semi-final is hard to say, but I feel it played a part.
Even Steven H2H
These two have only met twice and it is one win apiece. Clemens won the last one, a 6-4 win in September.
Clemens is the 1.57 favourite and I wonder if his greater experience in these big TV matches (albeit that this likely to be played in the dungeon) will be the difference. He has only ever played three best of 19 leg matches on TV and lost two.
Clemens has never gone beyond the third round here but he has a good opportunity tonight.
2023 Saturday Players Championship tip: 1 point Gabriel Clemens to win -1.5 legs @ 1.83 with Betfair
Jermaine Wattimena vs. Ryan Joyce
Wattimena was in typical Wattimena mode this afternoon. He was 5-1 up on Richard Veenstra but it ended up with him checking out a 164 to hit a 12 dart leg and take the match 6-5, with Veenstra sitting on 70. He expended a lot of energy celebrating.
It was a 103 average, very much at the top end of his A game, and he may struggle to get close to that again so soon afterwards.
Ryan Joyce was decent when beating Joe Cullen 6-4. He averaged 96.2 but was helped by Cullen having one of those days on the doubles. Joyce was 54%, Cullen 25% and that was difference.
Wattimena has won seven of his last ten matches, but you have to go back to early September to find the last time he won more than two matches in a row.
Joyce has won 63% of his matches in 2023, compared to 50% for Wattimena. Joyce has won just five of his last ten matches and one of his defeats was a 5-6 to Wattimena three weeks ago.
Their career H2H record is 5-5 and three of their last four have gone to a deciding leg, all this season. Another close one?
Joyce is the 1.62 favourite which is a bit short for me, but no I shall not be backing Wattimena. Once a year is more than enough.
2023 Saturday Players Championship tip: 1 point over 16.5 legs @ 1.80 with generally available
Dave Chisnall vs. Luke Woodhouse
Chizzy is one of only two of the top 6 seeds remaining in the tournament. I wonder if at some stage, he might get ahead of himself and think, this is the one?
He played really well to beat Chris Dobey 6-4. Chisnall averaged 110 to Dobey’s 103. He has won eight of his last ten matches and the two he lost were 4-5 defeats in the Grand Slam. This long format should be more to his liking.
Woodhouse is having one of his little runs in a major that brings in some nice ranking money that keeps him safely in the Tour Card holding ranks but without ever threatening to win anything.
He is having his best ever seasonal win rate, now at 61%, and it is also his most lucrative season having banked £93K already. He has won six of his last ten matches and is not showing the sort of fire power that he is likely to need this evening.
Needs Chizzy To Falter
Woodhouse’s best chance is if Chizzy has one of his TV moments and just dries up. He played him in the first round of the World Grand Prix and won that 2-0. Woody averaged 102 in that match and he was in a bit of good form around that time. He hasn’t shown anything like since. He only averaged 90.7 when beating a very poor Rob Cross earlier.
Their H2H record is 5-3 to Chisnall and he is 2-1 up in 2023. Chizzy is the 1.49 favourite with Woodhouse 3.25. I find it hard to trust Chisnall at short odds on TV, but he should win. No bet.
2023 Saturday Players Championship tip: No bet
Luke Humphries vs. Ryan Searle
The two friends go head to head on TV yet again.
Humphries beat Searle 10-7 at the Grand Slam last week and he is 9-5 in their H2Hs. On TV it is a more emphatic 4-1. In best of 19 leg matches Humphries has won all three 10-6, 10-7 and 10-7.
Both players have scored really well so far and we should have a great match. Humphries is the 1.35 favourite, which is a fair reflection of how he is playing right now. Searle is the 4.00 outsider.
Two of their best of 19 leg matches produced over thirteen 180s, including last week which had fifteen.
2023 Saturday Players Championship tip: 1 point over 9.5 180s @ 1.70 with Ladbrokes
2023 Saturday Players Championship tip: 0.5 point Luke Humphries to win 10-7 @ 8.00 with Boylesports
Dimitri van den Bergh vs. James Wade
Wade beat Lennon 6-2 to close the afternoon’s entertainment, but despite the easy win, he was poor on the doubles, checking out at just 26%. Lennon was even worse, of course, at just 15% and he couldn’t squeeze another leg to land our 6-3 bet.
Van den Bergh beat Gary Anderson 6-5. Anderson was poor, averaging just 88. Dimitri averaged 93.7 and he was OK. Van den Bergh has won just four of his last ten matches and he hasn’t been in great form all year.
Wade has been in much better form, winning six of his last ten matches, and he made the final of the European championship and semi-final of the Grand Slam.
Their H2H record is 3-3 with three draws, but Van den Bergh has not impressed me much in 2023. Wade has turned his season around and is the 1.80 favourite to win this. His poor doubling this afternoon is a concern, but so long as he picks that up, he should be good enough to justify the odds.
