2024 World Matchplay Sunday Preview

James Punt has already posted his outright preview and tips for this event, check that out here. He’ll also have daily match previews, you can read his Saturday preview here. His 2024 World Matchplay Sunday tips are below.

2024 World Matchplay Sunday Session 1

Rather than making the European Championship Final kick off at 11pm, the PDC have caved in, and today’s first session will start at 12.10, with the ‘evening session’ starting at 16.10. The aim is to have the last match finished just before the kick off in Berlin.

The initial plan was a 10am start, so he have got a bit of extra sleep time. It will be a swift change over between the first and second sessions, and I would say they are cutting it very fine if they plan to have it finished by 8.00pm.

It will be a very unusual situation for all the players on Sunday, not least the first two players up on stage, Ross Smith and Josh Rock. They will have to play an important match at 12.10 on a Sunday. The atmosphere is likely to be more like a Friday afternoon session on the Euro Tour…in Gibraltar. 

Those playing in the afternoon/early evening will at least have a more refreshed crowd to give a proper atmosphere, but there will be a bit of clock watching as everyone wants to get the matches wrapped up, and the footy on.

Ross Smith vs. Josh Rock

Darts at noon? I’m not happy, and I guess the players will not be either. At least Smith can draw upon the English positivism in the air. The Tories vanquished, Lewis Hamilton winning the British GP and now England in the European Championship.

Whatever crowd will be there, and in whatever state of sobriety, I guess there will be lots of Engerland football chanting, and the Englishman on stage will get the lion’s share of support.

Smith is in good form, winning twelve of his last fourteen matches and picking up another Players Championship last Tuesday. He was runner up in the latest Euro Tour event, his second Euro final of the season.

Smith has been playing well now for some time. His last sub 90 average was back in early April and he is one of the heaviest scores around right now. He is also the biggest 180 per leg hitter in the pro game.

ET7 Win

Josh Rock has gone one better than Smith on the Euro Tour, winning ET7 in May. Rock has won six of his last ten matches and reached a quarter final last week.

The two players are very closely matched. On the European Tour OOM, Rock is 5th, Smith 6th. In terms of seasonal averages, Smith is 95.73 Rock 95. 47. Smith is playing with a little more consistency, Rock has been hitting more ton plus averages, but also more sub 90s.

Over the last 12 months, Smith’s 180s per leg rate is 0.38, Rock’s 0.27. I wonder if that might be the difference between the two. If Smith can bang in more 180s, Rock is under pressure. A bit like Daryl Gurney in his pomp, or Jose de Sousa when he was a big thing, or Dirk when he was on the cusp of a big title, Smith’s real strength is scoring. He can simply overpower opponents. Rock can punch as well, just not as hard, or as often.

Level H2H

Their H2H record only extends to two matches, with one win each. The latest was a 6-5 win for Smith, just last month, on his way to the final of ET8. Both players averaged over 100, but it was Rock who hit the most 180s that day (3-6).

I am going to stay away from the 180 markets. A noon start might make it hard for the players to get fired up, but another close match would be no great surprise. Smith has played two Matchplay first round matches, losing both 8-10, to Rob Cross in 2021 and Dimitri van den Bergh last year. Hopefully he can reverse the scoreline this year.

The market has Rock as the very marginal 1.91 favourite, with Smith available at 1.95. Smith looks the value, but I’ll go for a close match instead.

2024 World Matchplay Sunday Tip: 1 point over 16.5 legs @ 1.75 with Ladbrokes, Boylesports

Danny Noppert vs. James Wade

James Wade, still only 41 years old, has played in eighteen previous Matchplays, won one and been runner up five times. However, he has only won five matches in the last five years. That reflects his fall down the rankings, to the point that he was the final qualifier on the pro tour list. He is now down to 23rd in the world rankings.

If he is to arrest that slide, and avoid a career flogging CBD Gummy bears, he needs to start having good runs in the Majors again. He made the final of the European Championships last year, just after falling out of world top 10, and backed that up with a semi-final in the Grand Slam, and a Players Championship finals, quarter final.

He was nearly back on track, but he couldn’t defend his World Championship semi-final money, nor UK Open quarter final money, and the fall resumed. But he had proved, that when his back is against the wall, he will fight.

Solid Recent Form

His recent form, the form he needed just to qualify for this, has been impressive. The first five months of the season had been mediocre at best but since the start of June, Wade has won ten of his fifteen matches, a big improvement on what had gone before. He reached the quarter final of PC11 last month and the quarter final of PC13 last week.

He hit four ton plus averages last week across his eight matches. Wade is still one of the best finishers in the game and when he combines that with heavier scoring, he wins a lot of matches. The Machine is still some way short of his peak, but for now at least, he has halted the slide.

Steady Eddie

Danny Noppert is a ‘Steady Eddie’ kind of player, he picks up nice cheques and stays well up the rankings, but he is not a prolific title winner. He has won six of his last ten matches, but lost four of his last five, and against low ranked opponents. His scoring has held up well enough, it usually does, but he just met a few players in good form. Wade might just be another.

Their H2H record is 7-4 to Noppert and he has had little trouble with Wade in the last year or so, winning three of their last four since the start of 2023.

Despite that, I am giving Wade a decent chance here. He is not ready for the scrapheap just yet and I suspect he will be up for this. Noppert is the 1.58 favourite, Wade 2.50.

2024 World Matchplay Sunday Tip: 1 point James Wade to win @ 2.50 with Ladbrokes, BET365, Betfred

Dimitri van den Bergh vs. Martin Schindler

Van den Bergh has a good record in this event. He was the Lockdown champion in 2020, runner up the following year and semi-finalist in 2022. He has won all three of his first round matches at the Winter Gardens, so he is very comfortable in the venue, and at least it will be the evening by the time these two hit the stage.

Refreshments will be flowing and the atmosphere will be better. Van den Bergh is in decent form, winning seven of his last ten matches. He won PC12 last month and, of course, picked up his second Major title at the UK Open in March. He did go AWOL after that win, but he looks to have rediscovered his form again.

Maiden Title

Martin Schinder got his first ever PDC title earlier this year when he won the International Darts Open in April. He has been in good form on the Euro Tour, reaching another semi-final and a quarter final since that win.

Of course, three of those events were held in Germany, and the other in Austria, so very much home crowds. For this match, he will be a German playing in front of an English crowd, high on football mania and tepid Carling lager. ‘Germany get battered‘ anyone? Das steht auf einem anderen Blatt.

Like Van den Bergh, Schindler has won seven of his last ten matches. Unlike Van den Bergh, Schindler has never won a match at the Winter Gardens, losing his two first round matches. The Wall is playing with a good deal of consistency but it must be said that that he has been playing on home soil for a lot of the time. That may be significant.

Schindler is being backed and is now the 1.67 favourite, Dimitri the 2.30 outsider. Their H2H record is a fairly convincing 9-3 to Van den Bergh and I think the value lies with the Belgian.

2024 World Matchplay Sunday Tip: 1 point Dimitri van den Bergh to win @ 2.30 with Ladbrokes

Stephen Bunting vs. Ryan Joyce

Bunting is the shortest priced player of this session. He is decent form, winning six of his last ten matches, but while he has won plenty of matches in 2024, he is hitting the wall the deeper he goes. Bunting has lost five consecutive quarter final matches.

This is just a first round match, but Bunting has only won two first round matches at the Winter Gardens from nine played. He does carry a bit of timber and perhaps the heat here has got to him in the past. He hasn’t won a match here since 2019. To be fair to Bunting, he has had some pretty tough first round draws, and on paper, this one is easier.

Ryan Joyce is a journeyman player, but very good when he hits a hot streak. He is averaging a very respectable 94.55 in 2024, with a win rate of 60%. Joyce hit a bit of a mini streak last week, reaching the semi-final of PC14. He hit two ton plus averages in that run, including a 111.48 average in a 6-1 win over Josh Rock.

There were a couple of sub 90s in there as well, so he isn’t in absolute top form, but he could be dangerous. Joyce also made the final of PC9 in May. He has only played once in the Matchplay, and that was in 2020, so he has not played at the Winter Gardens.

Even Steven H2H

Their H2H record is 3-3. The only time they met in a Major was last December, in the World Championship, which Bunting won 3-0, averaging 107. Joyce does not tend to go deep in Majors, but he was a semi-finalist in last year’s Players Championship finals and a World Championship quarter finalist in 2019.

This is a tricky one. Bunting deserves to be favourite, but Joyce is the proverbial banana skin. He has shown some good form of late, but can he reproduce it on the big stage?

There is some value in Joyce’s odds and in a best of eleven leg match, I would back him. In a longer format? Bunting has much more big stage experience, even if that experience in this one, has not been great. I will skip this one, and look to oppose Bunting in a later match, if he gets through.

2024 World Matchplay Sunday Tip: No Bet

2024 World Matchplay Sunday Session 2

The ‘Evening session’ will start at 4.10pm, and the organisers will hope that we do not require extra time in any of the four matches, so that the audience can watch the footy.

Rob Cross vs. Gian van Veen

Not a great betting match for me. I just can’t get Cross right, and Van Veen isn’t in great nick, but not playing badly either.

Cross won here in 2019, but never gone beyond the second round in any other of his seven appearances. He has won seven of his last ten matches but the reality is that he has played just one match since the World Series events in mid-June.

Cross made the finals in World Series 3,4 and 5. He beat Price to win WS3, lost to Price in WS4, and lost to Littler in WS5. Cross has had three weeks off since losing 0-6 to Michael Smith in the second round of ET8. He didn’t take the chance to play in the Players Championship events last week.

Van Veen Below Best

Van Veen did play last week, but only won one match. He has won six of his last ten matches and while there has been some good stuff, he is not playing his best on the whole. This is his Matchplay debut and while his A game can beat anyone, we haven’t seen enough of it recently to get too enthusiastic about his chances this week.

Their H2H record is 3-2 to Cross. All matches were best of eleven legs and four went to a decider. Based on that, we may get another close one.

Van Veen has only played five best of nineteen leg matches in Majors. He has won four of them, beating both Gurney and MVG 10-6 in last year’s European Championships, and Hempel and Usher in this year’s UK Open, both 10-7, before losing 8-10 to Heta. Clearly, he doesn’t struggle with the longer format.

2024 World Matchplay Sunday Tip: 1 point over 16.5 legs @ 2.10 with Betfair

Joe Cullen vs. Brendan Dolan

When the draw was made, I dived in and took a better price than is now on offer about a Dolan win. Joe Cullen is not in good form. He is not even in poor form; his form is bad. One win from his last eleven matches and his 2024 win rate is just 45%. Only three of his last ten matches saw 90+ averages.

Cullen has been here before. He can lose his form, usually due to something off the oche, but it comes back at some point. It wasn’t there again last week with Cullen losing his two first round matches 4-6 to Adam Hunt and Owen Roelofs.

Brendan Dolan is hardly in any great form himself, losing six of his last ten matches, with seven seeing sub 90 averages, but he at least also had a couple of ton plus averages. There are some signs of a pulse in his game. Dolan doesn’t really do much in the big Majors, but he will remember beating MVG in last year’s first round.

Their H2H record swings the Ulsterman’s way. He is 12-6 against Cullen, although Cullen won their last two matches 6-1, both last year. This will not be a thing of beauty, but I can’t have Cullen as the 1.91 favourite given his current form.

2024 World Matchplay Sunday Tip: 1 point Brendan Dolan to win @ 2.00 with SpreadEx

Peter Wright vs. Andrew Gilding

Another clash between two players struggling for form. Wright has lost five of his last ten singles matches, and his performance in the World Cup of Darts was poor as well. He was smashing up the single one. He won two first round matches last week, one of them with a 76.41 average, and a 6-1 win over Madars Razma. Did Razma have a bet on himself to lose or something?

Gilding has also won five of his last ten matches and his form very much mirrors that of Wright. We just notice Wright more as he is a two time World Champion. Gilding made the quarter final of PC13, but he did not do it in style.

These two last met in May on the Euro Tour and Gilding won that 6-2, but Wright is 8-2 over their career H2Hs. I would say you can ignore any old H2H form, as Wright’s game has packed up in the last year or two.

That said, these two met at the same stage of this event last year, and Wright won 10-4. They met again in this year’s UK Open and Wright won that 10-1. Wright also beat Gilding 13-7 in the second round here in 2015.

Wright is the 1.67 favourite, Gilding 2.30. How can you back either with real money? No bet.

2024 World Matchplay Sunday Tip: No Bet

Dave Chisnall vs. Krzysztof Ratajski

Chizzy has been in good recent form, winning eight of his last ten matches and winning the most recent Euro Tour title three weeks ago. He will be feeling quite good about things.

Chizzy has lost two of his last four first round matches at the Winter Gardens, but he has reached five quarter finals.

Ratajski is in poor form, losing six of his last ten. It is not all bad though, he has had some good performances with six 95+ averages, but he has a bit of a losing habit. The Polish Eagle has only lost one of his five first round matches in the Matchplay and he was a semi-finalist here in 2021.

Their H2H record is 7-4 to Ratajski and he won all four of their matches last year, three of them 6-2 or 6-1. They have not had many close matches.

Of his five first round matches here, only one of Ratajski’s went beyond 16.5 legs. Chizzy has tended to take longer to get a result in his opening matches. I will leave this one be. No bet.

2024 World Matchplay Sunday Tip: No Bet

-JamesPunt