2024 WC Darts Wednesday Evening Preview & Tips – JP
2024 WC Darts Wednesday Evening Preview & Tips
It was a profitable afternoon for us at the Ally Pally. Radek Szaganski won 3-2, landing our correct score bet at 5.25. Ross Smith then took care of business vs Niels Zonneveld, covering the -1.5 set handicap. Let’s hope for another winner tonight, check out James Punt’s 2024 WC Darts Wednesday evening match previews and tips below.
Ryan Joyce vs. Alex Spellman
Relentless Ryan Joyce is in fine form having been runner up in PC24, winning PC26 in October and enjoying a run to the semi-finals of the Players Championship finals last month.
Joyce is not a particularly heavy scorer but he is a good finisher and a very effective player when in form. Joyce reached the quarter final here in 2019 but has only won two first round matches since, both 3-2.
Spellman qualified via the North American CDC tour. He failed to win a tour card in the PDC European Q school last year and has been playing a lot of darts since. He has played Challenge Tour, a couple of Players Championship matches, Modus Super Series and the CDC Tour. His seasonal average is 89. He is a decent player and he should give a good account of himself.
Joyce is the 1.40 favourite with Spellman 3.25. I have not seen Spellman play and while Joyce deserves to be favourite, the odds look about right and there is little in the way of value here.
2024 WC Darts Wednesday evening tip: No Bet
Richard Veenstra vs. Ben Robb
Veenstra strikes me as being a bit of an underachiever. He has a good A-game but doesn’t win as many matches as that game should be capable of. He was successful in the BDO system and only got his PDC tour card this January.
Veenstra is a two time BDO World Championship semi-finalist but this is his Ally Pally debut. He won one match at the UK Open and one at the recent Players Championship finals.
He hasn’t made much of an impression since getting his tour card, with a Players Championship quarter final being his best run. His seasonal average is 92.91 and he is perfectly capable of scoring well, he just doesn’t string many wins together.
First Round Woes
Ben Robb looked to have some promise when he made his Ally Pally debut in 2020 but he has lost all three of his first round matches. He tried and failed to win a Tour Card in 2022 and he is back playing, and winning, on the DPA and DPNZ tours.
He has also played in the Modus Super Series and reached a final a couple of weeks ago, losing 2-4 to Steve West. His seasonal average is 87.7 and he isn’t a heavy scorer on the whole, but his finishing is above average.
The other Kiwi to qualify was Haupai Puha, who lost 1-3 to Martin Lukeman. Robb beat Puha in the final of the New Zealand World Championship qualifier. He has won a set in his last two visits to The Palace and he should be capable of getting something from this game. Over 3.5 sets is just 1.40 and that is the only bet that makes any sense to me.
Veenstra is the 1.50 favourite and being backed, with Robb a 2.75 shot. This isn’t a match which makes any appeal. No bet.
2024 WC Darts Wednesday evening tip: no bet
Christian Kist vs. Luke Littler
The most hyped player in darts since Leighton Bennett, and where has he gone? Some people have Littler not just winning this, but the whole thing. He is good but he’s not playing at the top level week in week out and he has plenty to learn.
Kist can’t be backed as he is a player who is always an injury risk. He suffers with arthritis and when he gets a flare up in his throwing hand, he is Donald Ducked. We don’t know if he is affected until the first few throws and I don’t bet on matches where a player may not be able to play properly.
Arthritis Issues
We last saw Kist at the Players Championship Finals where he averaged 68 in a 1-6 defeat to Pietreczko. His wrist was bad that day and he just had to go through to process of playing a match to pick up his loser’s prizemoney.
Littler is the 1.34 favourite which is a touch generous, especially if Kist isn’t fit. Kist has played in four PDC World Championships and won just one match, beating Justin Pipe 3-0 in 2016. He has never lost to nil, taking a set off MVG, Dolan, Chisnall and Klassen. If he is fit, he could get on the scoreboard, but I’m not risking anything on his health.
2024 WC Darts Wednesday evening tip: no bet
Peter Wright vs. Jim Williams
At last, an attractive looking match. Wright is a two time World Champion and three time finalist, but he has had a poor year. A poor year that included a Major title and a Euro Tour title. He remains very hard to figure out.
You can’t argue with his Ally Pally form. He has played fourteen opening matches and won eleven. His last opening match defeat was to Tony Alcinas in 2018 and he has won ten of his last eleven opening matches.
His recent form sees six wins from his last ten matches. Since he won the European Championship in late October, Wright has only played five matches and lost four. Go figure, as they say.
Waltzing Williams
Jim Williams waltzed to a 3-0 win in his first round ‘match’ with Norman Madhoo in the second game of the tournament. Williams was a BDO World Championship runner up in 2020 and in this version, he has now won four of his six matches at Ally Pally.
Williams has played two second round matches, losing one 2-3 to Cullen and last year he beat James Wade 3-2 at this stage of the tournament. The Welshman has won seven of his last ten matches and was runner up in the final Players Championship event of the season, but he lost in the first round of the finals.
Inconsistent
He is a better scorer than Wright this season but his problem is consistency. There are too many sub 90 averages in his game and his record in PDC majors is poor.
He is one of the few Tour Card holders who is not a full time professional as he still runs a business and he doesn’t play the kind of full schedule which may develop him to be an even better player. He sees darts as a bit of a hobby that pays well.
These two have only met three times and Wright has won two. They have all gone to a deciding leg.
Wright At Home At Ally Pally
Williams has played better darts than Wright in 2023, but Wright is very much at home here. He will have prepared well and as far as I know, all is OK off the oche, which is not always the case. So long as he is happy at home, he has a much better chance of playing well.
Wright has only had one opening match go to a deciding set but I would not be surprised to see a close match tonight.
Peter Wright is the 1.57 favourite which is a bit short in my book. Williams makes more appeal at 2.60. However, I’ll sit on the fence and go for a long match.
