Friday Afternoon PDC World Championship Tips – JP
Friday Afternoon PDC World Championship Preview
Gary Anderson landed a 2 point touch for us last night but unfortunately, The Machine malfunctioned. James Punt has two more previews left before the Xmas break, his Friday Afternoon PDC World Championship preview and tips are below.
Brendan Dolan vs. Jimmy Hendriks
Hendriks won one of the worst games of darts ever seen at Ally Pally the other night. It was a 3-1 win over Jamie Hughes. Darts is a hard game, very hard when you can’t hit doubles. When neither player can hit them, it becomes painful to watch.
Hendriks averaged just 78 (mostly due to missing 26 doubles) but on paper it looks like he is the player to back as he has won nine of his last ten matches. Nine of those were in qualifiers for this and the Grand Slam and it must be said, he usually plays a lot better than he did the other night.
Dolan Off Form
Brendan Dolan comes here in poor form, losing six of his last ten matches. His 2022 win rate is just 49% and his record here is not good. He has played in fourteen previous World Championships but only made the third round twice and he has lost eight second round matches. Two of them have been in the last four years, but his 2022 season has largely been one to forget.
There is no H2H record to go on and it is not really a mouth-watering prospect. Dolan is the 1.29 favourite with Hendriks 4.60. It is a good draw for both players, both can fancy their chances, but it has no bet written all over it.
Friday Afternoon PDC World Championship: No Bet
Chris Dobey vs. Martijn Kleermaker
Kleermaker took advantage of his kind first round draw and beat the Chinese qualifier 3-0. He has won five of his last ten matches and only one has seen an average over 90, and that was only 92.8. That is poor form, and he is here for the taking.
Chris Dobey is in decent form, winning six of his last ten matches and scoring way better than Kleermaker. Dobey has a decent record here, winning his second round match for the last four years. The last three have gone to a deciding set and he never does things the easy way.
Their H2H record is 2-0 to Dobey and he really should win this without too much bother, so long as he doesn’t get tight, and that is not a given.
Dobey is the 1.30 favourite which is short enough given his habit of making it tough on himself. I can’t resist another 3-2 correct score.
Friday Afternoon PDC World Championship: 0.5 point Chris Dobey to win 3-2 @ 5.00 with Betfair
Ross Smith vs. Darius Labanauskas
Lucky D scrapped through an entertaining, if poor quality, first round match with John O’Shea. He won 3-2, but should have wrapped it up a lot earlier than that. It was another low scoring performance from Labanauskas and nine of his last ten matches have seen sub 90 averages, which explains why he has lost seven of them.
Ross Smith, European Championship winner is having a great few months. Winning a major has elevated him into the top echelon of the sport and while he doesn’t quite have the consistency to be called an elite player yet, he isn’t far off it. He has won six of his last ten matches and is scoring well, his seasonal average being 94.4, and he has been better than that lately.
This will be Smith’s sixth World Championship and he has only made the third round once before and that was last year. He is the 1.17 favourite and deservedly so. Smith really should go through Lucky D like a dose of salts if he plays close to his recent standard, and Labanauskas does too.
Friday Afternoon PDC World Championship: 0.5 point Ross Smith to win 3-0 @ 2.50 with Betfred, SpreadEx
Rob Cross vs. Scott Williams
Williams won the best match of the first round, averaging 100 when beating Ryan Joyce 3-1. Joyce averaged 103 and it was the first time that both players averaged over 100 in a first round match at Ally Pally. It was a classic and of course, we were on Joyce. Williams has won six of his last ten matches and hit three ton plus averages, but also four sub 91 averages. His seasonal average is 90.2 and the last part of his game to come together will be consistency.
Rob Cross is in good form, winning seven of his last ten. He too has hit three ton plus averages in those ten matches, but his scoring is more consistent, and his seasonal average is 96.5. That is the difference between the two, consistency and for that reason, Cross has to be the favourite.
Cross is the 1.40 favourite and Williams 3.20.
Fascinating Matchup
This is a fascinating tie. You can make a case for both players but play it 100 times and you would expect Cross to win the majority thanks to his greater consistency. But would he win 71% and Williams only 29%? I would have it closer and any value lies with Williams.
There is one big factor at play that confuses things. The two are pals and practice a lot together. That can take the edge off a match, but it is very hard to quantify what or who it will affect.
Cross is by far the more experienced player. He won the World Championship on debut in 2018 but since then he has only won four more matches at Ally Pally and gone out at this stage twice. There is no reason to think that he will lift his performance because of the venue.
Showman Williams
Williams has only played the one match here, won it and averaged 100. He is a showman and loves playing in front of a big crowd. Shaggy is 32 years old and has come very late to the game. He qualified for the BDO World Championship in 2020 but lost 0-3 in the preliminary round. He started playing in the PDC Challenge Tour this year and won the first event. Later that day, he won his second title. Quite the introduction.
Williams then got to play in some pro tour events as a stand in and he only went and won PC17, becoming only the third player to win a PDC title without holding a tour card. He qualified for the Grand Slam, his first televised event, and while he didn’t get out of the group stage, he took Josh Rock, another mate, to a deciding leg, before averaging 107 when beating Ryan Searle 5-3 in his final match.
Scott reached the third round of the Players Championship finals beating Alan Soutar and Dave Chisnall before losing to Joe Cullen, 7-10. From never having played on TV before, his last seven have all been on TV and he has won four of them, and four of the last five. Whoever writes his scripts is doing a fine job. Will a win here be the next chapter?
