Finals Night Dutch Darts Championship Preview – JP
Finals Night Dutch Darts Championship Preview
Unfortunately, all of James Punt’s outright picks have made an early exit. Hopefully we can gain some compensation tonight. Check out his Finals Night Dutch Darts Championship match previews and tips below.
Michael van Gerwen vs. Keane Barry
Barry held off a comeback from Ryan Searle earlier today to win 6-5. He wasn’t as good as he was when beating Rob Cross yesterday, but he is in the quarters. Van Gerwen dismissed Martin Schindler with a 6-2 win and a 97 average, just as he did against Clemens last night.
Barry has taken out one former world champion already, but this of a different magnitude. We are in the Netherlands and the big crowd has come to see MVG beat opponents up. He has yet to have the pleasure of playing MVG and this will be a baptism of fire.
MVG is the 1.22 favourite and Barry 3.90. It is hard to get excited about this contest. Barry went out at this stage in ET4 and in all probability he will do so again, unless MVG has one of his strange turns.
Finals Night Dutch Darts Championship Tip: No Bet
Dave Chisnall vs. Peter Wright
Chizzy was far too good for our ante post hope, Josh Rock. It was a 102 average and a 6-3 win. That is back to back ton averages for Chisnall. That is on the back of three disappointing performances coming into the tournament. He has won six of his last ten matches but had three sub 90 averages in there. It is hard to be confident that he will remain in the same form as he has shown the previous two rounds.
The same can be said of Peter Wright. Snakebite only averaged 87 in a 6-5 win over Ratajski, but turned things around to average 102.7 in a 6-4 win over Michael Smith today. He played some magnificent darts in that match but his form is all over the place. He has lost six of his last ten matches and it is fair to say that there has been more bad than good performances on show.
Two unpredictable players does not make for a good betting event. No bet.
Finals Night Dutch Darts Championship Tip: No bet
Stephen Bunting vs. Damon Heta
Bunting ended our outright interest in the tournament by beating Dirk van Duijvenbode, who was playing in a leg brace after injuring his knee during his walk on ‘dance’ last night. Exuberance got the better of him and he has given himself a problem going forward as he is likely to be in pain for a while.
Bunting averaged 100.25 in a 6-4 win. He had the crowd very much against him but he stuck to his task and fended off a comeback by Dirk. He is in decent form, winning seven of his last ten matches, and he should give a good account of himself.
Heta also ended the hopes of a home favourite, beating Berry van Peer 6-1. He averaged 96.3, a decent step up from a poor show against Steve Beaton in the second round. Like Bunting, he has won seven of his last ten matches and has been quite consistent, scoring that bit better than Bunting.
Their H2H record is 2-2, not counting a Home Tour match in 2020. All three of their best of eleven leg matches ended 6-4 and this match does have that look about it.
Finals Night Dutch Darts Championship Tip: 1 point over 9.5 legs @ 1.95 with Betfred
Finals Night Dutch Darts Championship Tip: 0.5 point Heta to win 6-4 @ 7.00 with Betfred
Danny Noppert vs. Luke Humphries
Noppert was the 6-5 winner of a dreary match with Nathan Aspinall. He averaged 89.8 and was just about the better player on the doubles. Noppert has got this habit of putting in lousy performances, like his 79.4 average when losing 1-6 to Daryl Gurney in last week’s quarter final.
He has won six of his last ten matches but four saw sub 90 averages, so he is not banker material. He has played three quarter finals this season and lost two.
Cool Hand Luke beat Andrew Gilding 6-4 with a workman like display. It was a 96 average but he missed 11 doubles which kept Gilding in the match. Humphries is a Euro Tour specialist but he hasn’t won one in 2023, yet.
He was runner up in ET1 but he missed ET2 & 3 due to illness. He lost the quarter final of ET 4 before going out tamely to Daryl Gurney in last week’s second round. Humphries has had more work to do to get here, beating Ross Smith 6-3 and Gilding 6-4. Noppert hasn’t faced a 90+ average from his opponents so far, but that should change.
The crowd will be on Humphries’ back but he is in much better form than Noppert, winning seven of his last ten matches and hitting seven 95+ averages. Their H2H record is 3-3, all Players Championship matches.
Humphries is the 1.62 favourite, Noppert 2.30. I’ll take Humphries on the handicap as he is playing better.
