2024 WC Darts Wednesday Afternoon Tips – JP
2024 WC Darts Wednesday Afternoon Preview & Tips
James Punt (and Ricky Evans) ensured we had a merry Xmas with a superb 12/1 winner in his final preview before the break. Check out his 2024 WC Darts Wednesday Afternoon match previews and tips below.
Overview
We are into the third round now and the matches are longer, with the winner being the first to win four sets. The longer the match, the more likely that the better players win. We saw eleven seeds losing in the second round, some not so surprising, but Rock and Wade were shocks.
The big guns are still there but we have a new favourite. MVG is now the 4.33 favourite, Luke Humphries has drifted to 4.75 and the biggest market mover is of course, teenage sensation, Luke Littler who is now the 11.00 fourth favourite.
The draw has definitely opened up for Littler with Wade out, but the bottom half of that quarter still has Anderson and Price heading for a fourth round clash.
Scott Williams vs. Martin Schindler
The many German fans have had plenty to cheer about and here they have a good chance to get a German into the fourth round.
Schindy averaged just under 97 when beating Wattimena 3-1 in the second round. That was a nice opening match for him and a 52% checkout rate was impressive. He has lost six of his last ten matches but he is playing with a reasonable amount of high scoring consistency.
Schindler has only won two matches here, so he is no Ally Pally specialist, but he took Michael Smith to a deciding set in last year’s third round.
Important Win
Scott Williams just missed out on a nine darter in his second round match against Danny Noppert, but the 3-0 win was more important. Williams was not in great form coming into this and he has lost five of his last ten matches.
His seasonal average is 91.29 and while he bettered that against Noppert with a 94.0, it looks likely that Schindler will have more firepower. Both were good on the doubles in the previous round, Williams has checked out at 57% across his two matches, and more of that will win him legs.
It has the look of a close match. Their only previous meeting was back in June, and Williams won that 6-5.
2024 WC Darts Wednesday Afternoon Tip: 1 point over 5.5 sets @ 1.67 with generally available
Dave Chisnall vs. Gabriel Clemens
The outcome of the game above may have some bearing on this one. The German fans could be in full voice if Schindler wins the first match of the day.
Dave Chisnall was far from impressive in his 3-1 win over Cameron Menzies in the second round, averaging 90.9 and a 31% checkout rate. He will need to play better here against a very dangerous opponent.
Chizzy must lose sleep before he plays third round matches at Ally Pally as he has gone out at this stage on six previous occasions, including three of his last four. He lost 4-2 to Bunting last year, had to withdraw in 2022 with Covid, won in 2020 but lost 3-4 to De Zwaan in 2019.
Chisnall has won six of his last ten matches but on TV he has played thirteen and lost eight. He will be feeling the pressure to get the major monkey off his back and that pressure just makes the monkey stronger.
Below Par Clemens
Clemens was not at his best when beating Man Lok Leung 3-1 in the second round. He struggled with his scoring but he checked out at 52% and that was enough to win the match fairly comfortably.
He has won seven of his last ten matches and he had been scoring very well for a while before that substandard performance. Hopefully that gets the German Giant settled into the tournament and he can get back to scoring strongly.
Clemens has played three third round matches here and won two. He beat Peter Wright 4-3 in 2020, lost 0-4 to Jonny Clayton on 2021 and beat Jim Williams 4-3 last year, on his way to reaching the semi-final.
Major Woes For Chizzy
It has been a good season for Chizzy, but not in the majors and those are the ones he is targeting. Is he putting himself under too much pressure?
Clemens was a semi-finalist here last year and came into this event having reached the semi-final of the Players Championship finals, so he is getting used to having good runs on TV. He still hasn’t won a PDC title and I don’t expect he will win this one, but we have backed him to be the top Continental European without MVG.
Chisnall Fav
Chisnall is the 1.61 favourite with Clemens 2.38. Their H2H record is 4-1 to Chisnall but Clemens finally got his win when they met on the Euro Tour in October. It was a 6-2 win with Clemens averaging 101 and Chisnall 99. Chizzy just fluffed his lines on the doubles. Clemens was starting to show the better form that he hit a few weeks later.
So long as Clemens can get back to the kind of form he was showing coming into this event, he can at least give Chisnall a game, and a win is not out of reach.
2024 WC Darts Wednesday Afternoon Tip: 1 point over 5.5 sets @ 1.75 with Fitzdares
2024 WC Darts Wednesday Afternoon Tip: 0.5 Gabriel Clemens to win 4-3 @ 7.50 with Hills, Fitzdares
Rob Cross vs. Jeffery de Graaf
Cross won his second round match against Tricole 3-0. It was a poor performance, at least for the first set or two. He had found his game by the final set but it was a worrying performance.
That is three matches in a row were Cross has struggled. Averages of 92.3, 88.9 and 89.3 are not going to get him very far in this and he needs to find the kind of form he had been in for a couple of months before this event.
Jeffery de Graaf has won four of his last ten matches and he played quite well when beating Edhouse and de Sousa to get here. He should have lost to Edhouse but he deserved his win over De Sousa. De Graaf’s seasonal average is just 85.8, so with a tournament average of 93.5 he has been playing nearer the top of his game so far.
Can Voltage Rediscover Spark?
Rob Cross has won both their previous matches, but the last was back in 2017. This match would appear to be about whether Cross can rediscover his good form. If he doesn’t, he could be out.
We are on him to win the quarter and this match would have looked like a formality a couple of weeks ago, but his last three matches may be marking a drop of form, rather than just a blip.
Cross has won all four of his third round matches at Ally Pally and has averaged at least 99 in each. I will keep the faith for now as De Graaf may struggle to keep his recent form up.
Cross is the 1.17 favourite and De Graaf 5.50. Cross is too short to back, even giving up a handicap but I will back De Graaf getting a +2.5 set handicap. That way a 4-2 or 4-3 win for Cross would keep him in the tournament and give us a win here.
