Friday Evening PDC World Championship Preview

There is no let up at the PDC World Championship as we head into our second session of the day. It was a struggle earlier on in the first two games but usually, you can’t keep James Punt down for long and that proved to be the case. Koltsov won against Wattiemena at 2.90 ensuring we didn’t finish empty handed. Check out his Friday Evening PDC World Championship preview and tips below.

Joe Murnan vs. Paul Lim

A buy on the spreads for the number of times the word ‘legend’ is mentioned could be the way to go here, or maybe just as a drinking game, but you may not see much more of the evening session if that is the case.

Legend or not, Paul Lim is the darting equivalent of the ceremonial players who tee off the first at Augusta to start the US Masters. He has played twelve PDC World Championships and won five matches from 20 played. The last was a 3-2 win over Luke Humphries two years ago.

Like all the Asian Tour players, Lim will not have been helped by the absence of the Asian Tour for the last two years. The only time we have seen Lim play recently was at the World Cup where he averaged 75 and lost 0-4 to MVG.

Joe Murnan is unlikely to ever be referred to as a Legend and he has played three World Championship matches and lost all three. He has lost seven of his last ten matches and has a seasonal average of 92. He has played 26 PDC major championship matches and won just six.

This match makes no appeal. Two players with little prospect of making any progress have been drawn together and one will get through to the next round before heading home. Murnan is the 1.50 favourite and Lim a 2.80 shot. No bet.

William Borland vs. Bradley Brooks

A match between two of the pro tour’s younger players. Scotland’s William ‘Big Willie’ Borland is coming to the end of his first year as a tour card holder and he has averaged 90.3 with a 46% win rate. He has lost seven of his last ten matches but in the last six months he has had wins against Anderson, Ratajski, Humphries, Noppert, Suljovic and Whitlock. This just a learning year, a chance to pick up experience and develop as a player. He has played pro tour, Euro tour and at three majors but only winning one of four matches.

Brooks is the more experienced player having got his tour card in 2018 but he is still a work in progress. The highlight of his career so far is making it to the knockout phase of the Grand Slam after wins over Merv King and Rusty-Jake Rodriguez. He then gave Gerwyn Price a hard time but lost 8-10. Brooks’ seasonal average has dropped in 2021 and stands at 87.1. He does play a lot of Development tour darts which can drag the average down, but on the pro tour he averages 88.1, so maybe not.

They have met four times and it is two wins each. It is a hard match to call. There is not much between them. Brooks has a bit more experience, but Borland looks the better prospect. The market has Brooks as the 1.83 favourite and Borland at 2.05. This is a no bet match for me.

Ross Smith vs. Jeff Smith

There are five players with the surname Smith in this year’s World Championship but one of them will be heading home for Christmas after this is over.

Ross Smith is a player in excellent recent form. Looking at form from the start of October, Ross Smith is averaging 97.1, checking out at 42.6% and is ranked fourth for 180’s per leg. Those are stats that are considerably better than many of the fancied players. He has played Jeff Smith twice this year and won both.

Jeff Smith is averaging 89.4 in 2021 and while he has won six of his last ten pro tour matches, he didn’t play the final three players championship events and instead he went back to North America to win the Continental Cup. He returned for the Players Championship finals but lost his first-round match 2-6 to Nathan Aspinall.

Smith will definitely win, but for me it has to be of the Ross variety.

Friday Evening PDC World Championship Tip: 2 points Ross Smith to win -1.5 sets @ 2.00 with Unibet

Peter Wright vs. Ryan Meikle

Snakebite comes here on the back of winning nine of his last ten matches, winning the Players Championship and being runner up at the Grand Slam. That is great form, but his actual scoring hasn’t been that great by his standards. Since the start of October he is averaging 94.89, still good but shy of his seasonal average of 97.5.

These two have met on five previous occasions and Wright has won four. They have met on TV once before, at last year’s Players Championship finals, and Wright won in a deciding leg.

Meikle beat the young German Fabian Schmutzler 3-0 last night with both players averaging 89. It was a good nerve settler for him and he has nothing to lose here. He has lost six of his last ten and eight of those matches have seen sub 90 averages. There was a 108 in there as well but that was a once in a blue moon match for Meikle.

Wright is the 1.13 favourite with Meikle a 7.00 shot. This is not a good betting match. No bet.

-JamesPunt