Players Championship Friday Afternoon: First Round Matches

James Punt has already posted his ante-post tournament preview and you can read it here. He has also previewed every Players Championship Friday Afternoon match, check out his free tips below.

Scott Mitchell vs. Martijn Kleermaker

Both players recent form is rancid. Mitchell losing four of his last five, Kleermaker six of his last seven. If you want a bet on this match, well, good luck.

Ryan Searle vs. Simon Whitlock

Whitlock leads their H2H stats 3-2 and won their only 2021 match 6-5, back in April. Searle is now one of the game’s big hitters, averaging 97 over the last three months. He has won six of his last ten matches but at the last Super Series he was runner up in PC 28 and a quarter finalist the following day in PC29.

Prior to that Searle won PC22 in August, was a quarter finalist in PC23, was a World Grand Prix quarter finalist, was a PC 24 quarter finalist and then runner up in PC26. His annual win rate is a touch under 70%. Maybe he should be winning more titles, but he certainly wins plenty of matches.

Simon Whitlock refuses to lie down and fade away. However, his win rate is just 51% in 2021 and he has lost eight of his last twelve matches. He has played some good stuff and still lost. He reached the semi-final of the Gibraltar Darts Championship in September.

Searle is the 1.50 favourite, and he should justify those odds, but his odds are not great value.

Ryan Joyce vs. Luke Woodhouse

Joyce is 2-1 in the H2H stats and has won seven of his last ten matches. He played some good stuff in last week’s Grand Slam but was inconsistent and Rob Cross was too good for him in the second round.

Woodhouse has won five of his last ten, is generally a modest scorer but he has his moments, usually when I bet against him.

Joyce is the 1.57 favourite, Woodhouse the 2.63 outsider. There is no value in Joyce’s odds, but it is hard to be that enthusiastic about Woodhouse at his odds. No bet.

Krzysztof Ratajski vs. Ron Meulenkamp

Ratajski is the 1.30 favourite and that is hard to argue with. He is one of the tour’s heavy scorers and wins a lot of matches. He has reached two televised semi-finals in 2021 and three other quarter finals. He was disappointing in last week’s Grand Slam, losing 4-5 to Nathan Rafferty to miss out on the knockout stage.

Ron Meulenkamp as had a quiet season, but he did beat Ratajski the last time they met back in July, but overall, it is 3-1 to Ratajski. Their first three matches all went to a deciding leg. Ron The Bomb has been a bit of a damp squib more recently, losing six of his last seven matches due to some very modest scoring.

Ratajski should win and more comfortably than he has done in the past, but odds of 1.30 make little appeal.

Martin Schindler vs. Ian White

This is a match which does look to have some value in it. Ian White is the 1.90 favourite and Schindler a 2.00 chance. White has been struggling for a couple of years now. He had a win rate of 70% in 2019 but that has plunged to just 50% in 2021. More recently he has lost seven of his last ten matches and his scoring has been erratic.

Martin Schindler has had a much better season and looks to be on his way back to being if not a top player, certainly a very dangerous opponent. Schindler lost two of his three group matches in last week’s Grand Slam but won his final match against Gerwyn Price. That should have made him feel a bit better, especially as Price went on to win the tournament.

Schindler’s win rate in 2021 is 68% and he has won seven of his last ten. White has a 8-3 H2H record against Schindler but his confidence must be very low right now while Schindler will be happier with where his game is going.

Players Championship Friday Afternoon Tip: 2 points Martin Schindler to win @ 2.00 generally available

Michael Smith vs. William Borland

Smith is in good form, winning seven of his last ten matches. Borland on the other hand has lost seven of his last ten. They have met once before and that ended with a 6-1 win for Smith. Bully Boy is the 1.25 favourite and while Borland is a better player than he was 12 months ago, Smith has the scoring power to outclass the young Scotsman. Smith does have problems on the outer ring when under pressure, but will he be under pressure here? Unlikely.

Players Championship Friday Afternoon Tip: 2 points Michael Smith to win -2.5 legs @ 1.91 with SpreadEx

Merv King vs. Darius Labanauskas

Merv king leads the H2H’s 4-1, but he has lost six of his last ten matches. In those ten he has had four sub 90 averages but also a 115, a 99.9 and 101. Consistent he is not at the moment.

Labanauskas is one of those fairly dour players, very deliberate and he makes the most of his talents. He has lost five of his last ten matches and he has lost three of four matches vs. King this this year and the last two both to nil. Labanauskas has only lost two of his last 100 matches to nil, both to Merv King.

Players Championship Friday Afternoon Tip: 1 point Merv King to win -1.5 legs @ 1.91 with Ladbrokes

Joe Cullen vs. Andy Boulton

Cullen is 6-4 against Boulton and 2-0 in 2021. He has won seven of his last ten, Boulton five.

Joe Cullen is the 1.36 favourite, Boulton the 3.40 outsider. Cullen has won four of his five first round matches in this event, Boulton lost two of his three. They met just three weeks ago, and Cullen won 6-5 before he went on to reach the final. Half of their ten past meetings have gone to a deciding leg but four of their last five have been one sided affairs.

No bet match for me but Cullen should prevail.

Brendan Dolan vs. Chas Barstow

For a non tour card holder, Barstow has done well to make the finals. He is a decent player, only just missed out on winning a tour card in January and he should not be dismissed. He has lost eight of his last ten however and he is up against one of the pro tours more consistent players.

Dolan finished ninth on the players championship OOM, winning one title, runner up in another and reached three more semi-finals. He has never gone beyond the third round in the finals but has won six of his ten first round matches.

Dolan is the 1.37 favourite and while he has lost five of his last ten, he is still scoring well enough and should make his experience count and make more progress back up the rankings.

Players Championship Friday Afternoon Tip: 1 point Brendan Dolan to win -2.5 legs @ 2.00 with Boyle Sports, Ladbrokes

Dimitri van den Bergh vs. Madars Razma

Van den Bergh is the 1.30 favourite despite losing seven of his last ten matches. He had to miss last week’s Grand Slam having failed a Covid test. He has a 5-1 H2H record with Razma and won their last four matches.

If Razma was playing better than losing six of his last ten, he might have been worth taking a punt on, but this looks like a no bet match.

Ross Smith vs. Rusty- Jake Rodriguez

Rodriguez played in last week’s Grand Slam but lost all three group matches. Smith is having a decent season, he has upped his annual average to 95.4 and won his first pro tour title.

These two met in October and it was the Austrian who won 6-3 and overall, it is 2-2. Smith is the better, more consistent player but Rusty-Jake has a good enough A game to make him dangerous to oppose, especially in a short format match. He has lost eight of his last ten senior level matches and Smith should win, but odds of 1.33 are not generous.

James Wade vs. Ricky Evans

James Wade has won his last five matches against Ricky Evans, and he has won seven of his last ten. Ricky Evans has won six of his last ten matches, but he is beating the more modest players and losing to the more accomplished. Wade is likely to be too accomplished and he has won their last three matches by a total leg score of 28-11.

Players Championship Friday Afternoon Tip: 1 point Wade to win -2.5 legs @ 2.10 with SpreadEx

Danny Noppert vs. Rowby-John Rodriguez

Danny Noppert has been in good form recently, averaging 97.8 in the last three months. He has lost four of his last six, but he averaged 108 in one of those. He was a semi-finalist at the World Grand Prix, and he just looks more at home on the big stage than he has done for some time.

Rowby-John is averaging 90.1 in 2021 and has lost six of his last ten matches. However, he has hit three ton plus averages in his last six matches and his overall average is corrupted by playing on the lower scoring European Challenge tour. He has a good A game, and it will be interesting to see how he gets on next year.

Noppert is the 1.45 favourite and Rodriguez 2.95. It is hard to argue with those odds. No bet.

Nathan Aspinall vs. Jeff Smith

The Asp has discovered his scoring boots recently, averaging 98.7 in the last three months and hitting ton plus averages in six of his last seven matches. He is in a very difficult section of the draw, but he is a player that can be considered as a possible tournament winner.

Jeff Smith was playing in North America last week, winning the CDC Continental Cup but this is a step up in class and sub 90 averages will not do.

Aspinall is 3-2 up against Smith and won their only match this year 6-4. Aspinall is the 1.33 favourite. One area of their respective games which is very different is in 180 hitting. Aspinall, especially since changing to thinner points, is a big 180 hitter at 0.30 per leg compared to just 0.09 per leg for Smith.

Aspinall is just 1.44 to hit the most 180’s but it is worth taking him to win and hit the most 180’s.

Players Championship Friday Afternoon Tip: 1 point Nathan Aspinall to win and hit the most 180’s @ 1.61 with Boylesports, Betfair

Gabriel Clemens vs. Steve Beaton

Steve Beaton has not enjoyed the way that the players championship qualifiers have been moved into blocks of 3 -5 events played back-to-back, rather than the traditional two per weekend. His win rate in the last two years has fallen from a 2019 rate of 61% to 48% last year and 50% this year. Most recently he has lost six of his last ten matches.

Gabriel Clemens has won six of his last ten and is the 1.41 favourite to win this. His recent standard of play does not inspire the kind of confidence to back such a short-priced favourite but neither does opposing him at 3.40 make enough appeal. No bet.

Adrian Lewis vs. Kim Huybrechts

Lewis has won just four of this last ten matches, but he reached the final of PC 24 last month. Since that final he has played 13 and lost 7 and his scoring has been a bit flat. He has struggled for form in the last three years, and he is hard to fancy to have a long run.

Kim Huybrechts has improved his game this year, upping his seasonal average by 2.5 points but his win rate by just 1.5%. In the last six players championship qualifiers he reached one semi-final and two more quarter finals. He has won seven of his last ten matches and beat Lewis 5-1 in their only match this year.

Huybrechts is the 1.83 favourite to win, and those odds look about right. No bet.

-JamesPunt