1738 - Dolan doesn't threaten a break at all, only leaving a huge three figure out after twelve, which puts Aspinall under no pressure as he's on double sixteen at the time. 7-4.
1736 - Another maximum helps Aspinall to back to back twelve darters with Dolan nowhere near threatening. Dolan then has a poor scoring leg to not leave a finish after twelve, Aspinall left 83 after the same but by the looks of things missed bull for 6-4, it didn't matter as Dolan couldn't finish 82 and Nathan came back - missing two more darts to break, Brendan then can't clean up 20, Aspinall finally breaks in 21 darts. A comic leg after the last two, but the Stockport lad's two away regardless.
1731 - Big moment in the final as Aspinall hits a 136 out to break and level, Dolan didn't doo much wrong to leave a two darter after twelve, but a maximum helped Nathan get in range to hit the big shot.
1729 - Nathan holds for 4-3, he left 40 after twelve darts, it needed to go with Dolan on a low three figure out, and it did.
1727 - Dolan with a thirteen darter to hold, he had plenty of time early after Aspinall started with six darts without a treble. 4-2.
1725 - Aspinall holds for 3-2, odd choice to go two treble twenties on 130 with Brendan on a huge out, but he gets back in to finish five next visit.
1722 - Break for Dolan, who cleans up 80 for a 15 darter. It looked like the chance had gone when he made a right mess of a 124 shot, but Nathan couldn't finish a two darter and it's the Irishman who's ahead. He follows up with a heavy scoring leg to leave 84 after nine, he can't clear that either but Nathan wasn't on a finish, so steps back in on 12, leaves three, Nathan can only manage 28 trying to get 160, and Dolan is finally 3-1 up.
1718 - Good scoring leg from Dolan to leave 24 after 12, he can't clean it up in the next visit but Aspinall's scoring is nowhere and Brendan can return to level.
1715 - Looks like Dolan had a dart to break with a 125 out, but he couldn't pin tops and Aspinall holds the opener.
1713 - Final just under way. Aspinall's won the bull.
1701 - Brendan Dolan's into the final. He probably had six darts at 146 with Wade on an even higher outshot, but he only needed three of them to get the job done.
1659 - Wade's got one back and is on the board.
1656 - Aspinall's in the final, I guess he had one match dart on a 135 attempt, if he'd left tops it's surely a bull-T15 attempt, that needed to go after Noppert had hit two maximums in the leg to leave 45 after nine darts, but Danny couldn't finish it and Nathan was back in for the match. Dolan's made it 6-0 and is throwing for a whitewash, incredibly.
1654 - Noppert gets another one back, leaving 76 after nine, but needed six visits to win the leg, nearly letting Aspinall in for the match. Dolan's 5-0 up despite both players averaging in the low 90's, that first comedy leg no doubt having something to do with it.
1652 - Noppert leaves 84 after nine and finishes it off for a twelve darter, still a big ask but he has the throw here at least. Meanwhile Dolan has finished 106 with Wade waiting on tops and now leads four zip.
1650 - Nearly a James Wade thing, looks for all the world like he missed tops for a 105 out, Brendan cleans up 32 for 3-0. Nathan is one away from the final but Danny's started leg eight strongly.
1647 - That's a bit better, Wade missed bull for a 122 out, and Dolan, who'd left 36 after twelve, gets a break for 2-0. Aspinall's just got a five visit hold to go within two legs of the final.
1645 - Dolan wins the opener in 20 darts, no 157 special from Wade, that match hasn't really got going yet. Noppert left 40 after twelve for a break back, but Aspinall finished 81 with the last dart to go 3-1 up, then went 140-140-180 for another break and a 4-1 lead.
1643 - Both finals under way, the Aspinall final is a bit ahead, Nathan has managed to get an early break and is 2-1 up on throw, Dolan has won the bull and looks comfortable for an opening hold after Wade managed just 63 with his first six darts.
1632 - As we wait for the semi finals to begin, a brief word on what this means for everyone in the FRH rankings - Aspinall, if he wins this, can pass Michael Smith and move into the top five, if Noppert wins he'll move ahead of Jermaine Wattimena and become the Netherlands' number three, Wade's locked in ninth no matter what he does but can cut the gap to Chisnall significantly, as well as putting distance between him and White and Durrant, while Dolan would climb back into the top 32 with a win from a current position of 35th. He'll move above Luke Humphries if he's the losing finalist.
1629 - Scenes as Dolan completes the comeback from 5-2 down. Both had left just outside the finishing zone after nine darts, Telnekes ruing a second turn of 42, and he only sets up 114. Dolan sets up 120, Derk can only leave 16 so I assume he didn't get a match dart, and Brendan finishes shanghai on twenties to move into a semi final against James Wade.
1626 - Steady from Brendan, three tons to start before a sloppy 45, however Derk's not in the picture, and another ton then 56 out on return and we've got a deciding leg.
1623 - Sloppy that from Derk, two poor setup shots leaves him only a shot at 130, he does get a shot at bull but only hits 25, and Brendan steps in for an easy break. Dolan needs to serve out and then hope for something big in a decider.
1621 - Brendan stops the rot, checking out 102 to claw a leg back but it's still a hugely uphill task for the man who won one of these twice last year.
1619 - Very solid stuff from Derk this, leaves 53 after twelve darts this time with Dolan nowhere, cleans it up in two to go one leg away from the match.
1617 - Four in a row for Derk now, looks like Brendan missed two darts at 32 for the hold, Derk stepped in and finished 87 for a 4-2 lead and a very commanding position.
1615 - Only the one game on now while we wait for Aspinall/Noppert to begin, Derk again leaves a single darter after twelve, and again pins it first time, 3-2 to the Dutchman and he's half way to a maiden PDC semi final.
1613 - Noppert completes a 6-2 win over Ratajski to face Nathan Aspinall for a place in the final, high quality game with every leg finished in five visits. Telnekes has tied his quarter final up at two-two, good scoring to leave double eighteen after twelve darts, which he pins at the first attempt.
1609 - Ridiculous from Wade, White's left 121 for the match after nine darts, only for Wade to finish 161 and not give him a shot at it. Mother of god. Dolan's consolidated the break and made it 2-0, while Noppert is throwing for the match at 5-2 up.
1607 - Nearly the perfect finish from White, from 350 he went 180 and then missed bull for a 170 out, he'd come back with Wade not finishing 126, but somehow busts and Wade has the throw in a deciding leg. Dolan's broken Telnekes in the opening leg.
1605 - Wade holds after White misses what I assume to be a dart at bull for the match on a 135 out that should have been something much easier, poor set up shot. Danny Noppert has another break and leads the Polish number one 4-1 now.
1603 - White clears up to go 5-3 ahead. Noppert finishes 67 with the last dart despite a Ratajski maximum to hold and lead 2-1. Telnekes and Dolan are starting shortly.
1601 - The breaks continue in the Noppert game, a maximum setup allowing Danny to lead 2-1. Wade's held for 4-3 but Ian has six darts at less than 200 to go a leg away from the semi finals.
1559 - Nathan Aspinall has dumped van Gerwen out of the tournament 6-1 cleaning up 93 in two darts for an eleven in the final leg. Very nice. Also had a couple of ton plus outshots early on. Ratajski has the break back, meanwhile White left 32 after twelve and then held on to make it 4-2.
1557 - van Gerwen has one break back after Aspinall missed what I assume to be a double-double out attempt completely. Wade's held to trail 3-2, while Noppert's broken Ratajski in the opener and started 140-140 in the next leg.
1555 - Thought we'd have a quiet few minutes, I guess not - Brendan Dolan's into the quarters with a 6-2 win, while Nathan Aspinall's won the first five legs against MvG. Oh wow. White's a break up on Wade at 3-1.
1544 - Dave gets the break straight back, the first two quarters of van Gerwen/Aspinall and White/Wade are just warming up now.
1541 - Noppert's completed the whitewash on Gurney, punctuated with heavy scoring to, again, average 102. Only Chisnall against Dolan in the last sixteen now, Chizzy's scoring went to pieces in leg two allowing Brendan to grab a break and he's throwing with a 2-0 lead.
1536 - White completes a 6-1 win of his own on double two, and will probably face Wade, although Duzza may break back for 3-5 shortly. Noppert is now 5-0 up and has stolen the darts and could whitewash. When I say Durrant may break back, he's missed multiple darts at double and Wade is through.
1534 - Telnekes completes a remarkable 6-1 victory, and will play either Chizzy or Dolan in the quarters. Huge for our White bet that. Noppie has another break and is throwing at 4-0, while Wade is throwing for the match against Durrant at 5-2. Chizzy and Dolan haven't yet started by the way.
1530 - Telnekes breaks again to lead 4-1, and starts leg six a lot better and should make it 5-1. Noppie is now 2-0 up on Superchin, so has the break. MvG completed the win 6-3, another 102 average for the quarter finalists, and will play Aspinall next. White is one away with KFL yet to trouble the scorers.
1526 - Telnekes has made it 3-0 with another break, but Wright looks good to grab one of them straight back. van Gerwen now has the break himself and is 5-3 ahead, Duzza has an early 2-1 lead over Wade, Noppert's grabbed the opener against Gurney, while Chizzy/Dolan is yet to start. Wright has indeed broken straight back but Derk still leads 3-1.
1524 - Huge blown chance for Humphries that, on 88 after twelve darts, he is somehow on 40 after that visit, so I've got to assume it's an unorthodox T16 and then two missed at tops. Ratajski can't finish 72, but Humphries misses three more and Ratajski nips in third dart to clean up 20. God damnit Luke. That just leaves us with Ian White who's three up over Kai Fan Leung, van Gerwen has got the break back at 3-3 but will still need to find another one with Jermaine winning the bull. Telnekes, in another surprise, has broken Wright early and is two up.
1520 - Luke's back in this, Ratajski started with three trebleless visits in leg 10, but a 180 then 128 didn't help as Humphries took out 116 to have the darts in the decider. Dolan completed the win over Teehan by the way.
1517 - Dolan looks to have held off Teehan's comeback as he goes into a 5-3 lead. Ratajski is ahead of Humphries by the same scoreline, while Aspinall is the first man into the quarters, averaging 102 in a 6-2 win over Vincent van der Voort. Wattimena has got an early break against MvG and has the darts leading 2-0, big chance for Jermaine here.
1511 - Noppie's survived a 105 average from Cross to win the decider with a break - shouldn't have done, Cross had 230 left after six, but wasn't on a finish after twelve! He did set up tops after fifteen, but Danny cleaned up 110 for the match. Teehan/Dolan's the last round three game and it's 3-3, while in the last sixteen Aspinall's in a huge lead against van der Voort, and Ratajski leads Humphries 3-2.
1506 - Dave Chisnall and Kai Fan Leung win deciders, Leung being a bit lucky as Stevenson appears to have missed a match dart, while Chizzy was maybe a bit lucky that Evans couldn't really score heavy enough to take advantage where a fifteen darter would have won him the game with a break. Gurney's completed a 6-1 win, Cross and Noppert are now 5-5, Dolan was 3-0 up in an all Ireland clash against Ciaran Teehan, but the youngster's won two in a row to make it 3-2.
1503 - The second of our super long shots is probably gone as Jason Lowe trails Daryl Gurney 5-1. Gilding missed bull for the match then contrived to bust 25 somehow, allowing Wade to go through to face Duzza, Cross and Noppert are in a News of the World situation.
1501 - Ian White powers away from Willie O'Connor, finishing with back to back four visit kills. Wright beat Lovely 6-2, Glen Durrant wins another close one 6-4 against Madars Razma, Wade and Gilding are in a decider, while Evans and Stevenson lead Chizzy and KFL 5-4.
1450 - While only half the last 32 is done, we can actually get three last sixteen games under way given the games that have finished first - MvG/Wattimena, Aspinall/VVDV and Ratajski/Humphries all look tasty matchups. Lovely's run looks like ending against Wright who's 4-1 up, Duzza's a break up on Razma at 4-2, everything else is only just starting or on throw.
1445 - van Gerwen keeps doing van Gerwen things, averaging a cool 104 against John Henderson to move on, Nathan Aspinall managed the same against Chris Dobey, both winning 6-3, as did van der Voort against Kleermaker, while Wattimena gets another 6-5 win against Vincent van der Meer. Our tip Luke Humphries has also just dumped out former world finalist Michael Smith, Smith languishing with a mid 80's average. Ratajski also finished off Borland as expected given the lead he had.
1440 - Telnekes is the first man to win his board, completing a huge win over Gary Anderson, just as Brendan Dolan finally gets over the line to complete the last 32 lineup. van Gerwen and van der Voort are both a leg away from joining Telnekes in the last sixteen.
1438 - Telnekes got the break back again and consolidated to lead 5-3, although only one of the last three will be on his throw. Ratajski's up four zip against Borland, while everything else looks on throw up just the one break apart.
1435 - Anderson's got his game with Telnekes back on throw at three all, only two round two games remain after Evans won a decider against Meikle, make that one as Jason Lowe defeats Luke Woodhouse. Brendan Dolan's bringing up the rear, but leads 5-3 against Niels Zonneveld.
1433 - Surprisingly good game that Lovely/Hunt game, Eddie averaged a ton and Hunt wasn't far behind, only one of ten legs in more than fifteen darts. Talent pool is so deep nowadays. Noppert's clinched that game, but I don't know how, he needed 21 darts to hold the final leg, but if Evetts is still on 200-odd after fifteen, you can take that many I guess.
1430 - Eddie Lovely's completed that win, 6-4, Willie O'Connor edges Mike de Decker in a decider, meanwhile in round three, Derk Telnekes has got an early break against Gary Anderson and has the darts at 2-1 up. Evetts and Noppert are now in a decider, while Ricky Evans and Ryan Meikle are locked at four a piece.
1426 - Andrew Gilding's into round three with a break in the deciding leg against Lisa Ashton - he left 96 after nine darts, and while he couldn't finish it, Ashton looks like she missed a dart at tops for the match and Gilding stepped in to clinch it. Eddie Lovely's at it again, leading 5-3 over Adam Hunt, while Ted Evetts is up by the same score against Danny Noppert.
1423 - Good game between two in form players in Devon Petersen and Kai Fan Leung, Kai hitting a ten darter to break Devon and win 6-4. Ashton and Gilding has gone all the way, while Madars Razma is in a commanding 5-2 lead against Adam Huckvale.
1420 - A few of the young'uns advancing, Chris Dobey needed every leg but beat Conan Whitehead, while Luke Humphries wasn't at his very best but was still solid enough to beat Keegan Brown. William Borland will go up against Krzysztof Ratajski after beating Jesus Noguera, but may need more than the high 80's average he put up if he wants to win that one.
1414 - That Ando match might be the game of the day, 108 plays 103, every leg within fifteen darts, Gary hitting three twelve dart or better legs. Gurney got the decider to move to the last 32, Ciaran Teehan's just dumped out Jamie Hughes, while Vincent van der Meer's completed a whitewash of Antonio Alcinas. Where did that come from? Easy answer is a 76 average from Toni I guess...
1411 - It looks like North had a dart at 14's for a 148 out to win the match, damn. Gary Anderson and Vincent van der Voort have both won their games, Vincent will go up against Kleermaker in the first board final to start, Hendo's just beaten Klaasen while Steffen Siepmann has forced a deciding leg against Daryl Gurney.
1408 - North had the throw in leg 10 but Chizzy got the break, and proceeded to go 140-121-140-100 out for an eleven darter. Elsewhere, Lisa Ashton's a break up against Andrew Gilding, leading 3-1, and Rowby John Rodriguez is hanging around against Gary Anderson, but the Scot at 5-4 is still a big favourite.
1405 - Great game that White game, both averaging 100+, only one leg going beyond 15 darts. Richard North's on the edge of a big upset, leading 5-4 over Dave Chisnall.
1403 - Peter Wright is easily through with a 6-2 win over Arjan Konterman, Glen Durrant was able to turn that game around against Robert Thornton and pinch the decider, and Ian White's just pinned a 125 out to hold in his decider against Kim Huybrechts, who was waiting on tops after 12 darts. Yikes.
1359 - Good game between Jermaine Wattimena and Scott Waites, went all eleven legs and the combined average was as near as damnit 100. Rob Cross easily defeated Nick Kenny, but both White and Durrant are 5-4 down and in big trouble.
1357 - Good god that de Zwaan game, Stevenson didn't win a single leg in five visits. Huge missed opportunity for de Zwaan. In better games, Ratajski turned a 3-1 deficit around to beat Collins 6-4, averaging nearly a ton in the process.
1354 - Derk Telnekes is through to round three after an awful game against Scott Taylor that went ten legs with only one in fifteen darts. Michael Smith's come from behind to beat Benito in a decider, Wade leads Mansell 5-0, while Simon Stevenson's completed a huge comeback to defeat Jeffrey de Zwaan.
1351 - Niels Zonneveld is the last man through, coming from a big deficit to edge Krzysztof Kciuk in a deciding leg. van Gerwen completed that victory, 6-2 over Brian Raman, but de Zwaan's been pulled back to 5-4 by Stevenson. Aspinall's just beaten Geert Nentjes 6-4.
1346 - Kleermaker is the first man into the last 32 with an easy win over Wesley Harms. Smith's in a bit of bother against Benito, down 4-2 midway through their game, while de Zwaan and van Gerwen are each a leg away from victory.
1344 - While we wait for the Kciuk/Zonneveld and Wilson/Woodhouse games to finish, Ratajski is down a break early to Robert Collins in round two. Woodhouse has just nicked that game.
1341 - More good news for the Challenge Tour team, Adam Huckvale has rolled Gavin Carlin, 6-1 the final score, very nice display from Adam in that one. Ted Evetts dropped just two legs against Ron Meulenkamp, getting near the 100 average, just the one poor leg letting him down. Ryan Meikle and Adam Hunt are also through to round two, we're just waiting on two matches now.
1335 - Borland won that decider to move through and face Jesus Noguera, Vincent van der Meer has also won a decider against Andy Boulton and will also face Spanish opposition in round two in the form of Antonio Alcinas. Gilding completed that win over Ward, leaving just half a dozen or so first round games to complete.
1332 - It continues to be a tough school for Aaron Beeney, he did get three legs on the board against Mike de Decker but a mid-70's average isn't going to win many games at this level. Willie Borland against Darren Webster has gone all the way, while Andrew Gilding is one leg away from another win for the Challenge Tour contingent, leading by two against Harry Ward.
1329 - Luke Humphries is through to face Keegan Brown, going one higher than Keegan's 100 average in a 6-2 win against Mark McGeeney. Kai Fan Leung has a match complete on the scoreboards for once, taking out James Wilson 6-3 from a 2-0 deficit, while Rowby did complete that victory over Brooks, leaving 40 after twelve in the last leg against throw, Brooks being unable to leave a shot after five visits.
1325 - The slow start to the year for Callan Rydz continues, being hugely outclassed by Kyle Anderson in a 6-3 defeat, which'll see the first of our second round games kick off between Kleermaker and Harms shortly. Conan Whitehead has unsurprisingly just beaten Barrie Bates to finish off round one on his board, while Rowby and Bradley Brooks have gone to a decider.
1319 - Last of the third set of first round games has just finished, the penultimate game saw yet another seed go down in Simon Whitlock, who was pipped to the line in a last leg by Madars Razma, but the last game saw an amazing display from Brendan Dolan, averaging 107 over 10 legs against Adrian Gray, despite not hitting a twelve darter in the whole match. Gray averaged 104 himself!
1316 - Jesus Noguera and Justin Pipe combined for four four-visit legs between then, Noguera winning out 6-4 to see another seed go tumbling out, Jason Lowe won comfortably 6-2 against Mervyn King, Lowe with a solid 95 average. But the biggest surprise is probably Dimitri going out, losing a deciding leg to the relatively unknown Eddie Lovely.
1312 - A couple more seeds through in deciders, Danny Noppert edged Matt Edgar in a very fine match from both players, while John Henderson was 4-0 up against Scott Baker before being pegged back, Baker couldn't clean up having got down to 161 after nine and allowed a fifteen dart break in the final leg.
1309 - Steve Lennon averaged over seven points more than Vincent van der Voort but lost 6-4, Vincent making it three Dutchmen through on his board, O'Connor survived in that game against Usher, hitting a fifteen darter in the decider to clinch it. Brown averaged over a ton in his win, Lisa Ashton has completed that shock win over Gabriel Clemens, Clemens having a real off day averaging only 82.
1305 - Seeds falling now - Antonio Alcinas capitalised on missed match darts from Steve Beaton to nick a decider, while Gary Anderson thrashed Stephen Bunting 6-0. Keegan Brown's just defeated Darius Labanauskas 6-1, while Willie O'Connor and Graham Usher have gone all the way to an eleventh leg.
1258 - Next seed out is Jose de Sousa, Devon winning 6-2 with all but one leg in fifteen darts or better and averaging a shade under 100. Possible big shock on the cards with Lisa Ashton taking a 3-0 lead over Gabriel Clemens.
1252 - That Siepmann game saw Steffen win the decider in 24 darts, Mike not being able to clean up 126 in six darts. Derk Telnekes only averaged 82 against Michael Barnard, but that was enough for a whitewash, while veterans Mickey Mansell and Robert Thornton are in round two, along with Ciaran Teehan, who didn't play great against Christian Bunse but did enough for a 6-3 victory. Meanwhile in one of the picks of the round, Devon Petersen's currently 4-2 up against Jose de Sousa.
1248 - Brian Raman's another Challenge Tour player to make round two, getting past Steve West 6-4. Benito van de Pas joins him, Maik Kuivenhoven being way below par in comparison to earlier in the season. Mike van Duivenbode's out though, from 5-2 up he lost the remaining legs to Steffen Siepmann.
1244 - Bit of a surprise to see Schindler lose to Richard North, Richard's been playing a bit better in places but Martin averaged more, so could be a case of timing for North. Nick Kenny's got through an up and down performance against Jitse van de Wal, Kenny won 6-1 but got three legs in over six visits so maybe a bit fortunate not to be pushed harder. Cristo Reyes made a bit of a comeback but Collins has got over the line with a 6-4 win.
1241 - Impressive 6-3 win for Kim Huybrechts over Josh Payne, averaging easily over a ton, Scott Waites and Geert Nentjes have also made it through dropping just one leg each.
1239 - Mixed fortunes for a couple of other Challenge Tour replacements, James Hubbard went down 6-2 to Simon Stevenson, but Arjan Konterman beat Kirk Shepherd by the same scoreline. That Hubbard game saw James start with a ten darter, but was pretty mediocre after that, not that Simon will care one bit.
1234 - Robert Collins is making the most of his Challenge Tour call-up, racing into a 4-1 lead over Cristo Reyes, Wesley Harms is one leg away against Gary Blades, while North, Waites and Nentjes all have big 4-1 leads as well.
1228 - Glen Durrant's the last seeded player through with a workmanlike 6-4 victory over Scott Mitchell, leaving Clayton and Cullen as the only seeded players to be out at this stage.
1224 - Good job we didn't go for Clayton, he's just lost a deciding leg. van Gerwen was 2-0 and 4-2 down to Damon Heta, but rolled off the last four legs to book his spot in round 2. Looking at the play by play, Clayton must have missed about seven match darts!
1220 - Results flying in now - Peter Wright never really needed to get out of second gear to beat Nathan Derry, Jermaine Wattimena really put his foot down late grabbing both of his last two legs in four visits, while Rob Cross got a routine 6-2 win over Peter Jacques.
1217 - Stunning performance by Ian White, a 6-2 win over Jeff Smith with every leg of his being won in fifteen darts or better. Aspinall's also just completed a routine 6-3 win against Alan Tabern.
1214 - Kleermaker does take out Joe Cullen with a 6-1 win, not a vintage performance but with Cullen down in the mid 80's it didn't need to be. Most other games are midway through, nobody's up by more than a break, Wright and White both just going 5-2 up and on the brink of victory.
1210 - de Zwaan's the first man into round 2 with a 6-0 drubbing of Carl Wilkinson, we don't normally talk averages but a near 105 tally isn't bad, elsewhere Ratajski may be in a spot of trouble, currently behind to Jan Dekker.
1206 - All first games under way. MvG quickly down 2-0 to Damon Heta, as was to be expected Cullen not having things his own way against Kleermaker as he's down 2-0 as well. Nobody else in real trouble yet, de Zwaan's 4-0 up in no time at all.
1145 - You come here for tips, so let's look at the each way market:
Given what I've said below, I think we have to go with Ian White as usual, that he's twelfth favourite really is ridiculous, I want to have a bit of Clayton as well, but with Ando on his board and potentially getting Peter Wright even before we get to the quarters is a bit tough, he can do it but I think there's better spots (and better odds, you can usually get three figures on the Ferret, but 365 don't have the market up and I've only got money on Betfair right now). Luke Humphries is probably worth a small stab at 100/1, if he can nick past Smith or van Duijvenbode then it's only really Ratajski in his way before the quarters. Not the easiest, but a decent price. It's a fair way down, but I think I've got to have micro stabs at Evetts at 225/1 and Lowe at 250/1, they're too long not to have a chance.
1126 - We start the bottom quarter on board 13, which should be Peter Wright's easily. Can easily see him reaching the board final dropping no more than three legs, Dimitri if he shows up and gets there could be a small problem, but Wright is surely the shortest priced player to win his board anywhere today. Board 14's a bit unpredictable, you think Clayton and Telnekes should easily get by Taylor and Barnard, and then the Ferret reaches the final, but the bottom half is a bit nuts with Bunting playing Gary Anderson, and then throw the unpredictable Rowby in there as well as Bradley Brooks, and who knows what happens. Chizzy should win board 15 easily enough, Schindler could be a bit of a danger if he gets past Richard North, but a bottom half of Evans/Murray/Meikle/Hamilton doesn't seem like a serious threat. Decent chance for any of them to put a grand on the board. Finally, board 16 has a couple of good matchups, Hughes against Searle is the pick, Teehan against Bunse is a bit below that but not a bad shot for Ciaran to break a bit of a losing streak, Dolan should get through Gray but then Kciuk against an improving Zonneveld is a tough one to call.
1121 - Ian White against Jeff Smith in round 1? Oh boy, that's tough. Winner of that ought to win the board, Kim Huybrechts and then Willie O'Connor as a probable path isn't overly challenging, relatively speaking. de Sousa against Petersen on board 10 would be an incredible watch, de Zwaan really shouldn't be troubled on his side, Kai Fan Leung or Wilson against Jose or Devon could be interesting wildcards. Very tough bit of the draw to call. Board 11 looks like an easy seed win special, Wade and Clemens are far enough ahead of Robinson/Mansell/Worsley/Ashton/Gilding/Ward that it's hard to see who can challenge them, Clemens I think should just have the edge, but it's tight. Durrant against Mitchell in round one is an interesting old BDO tie, chuck Ryan Joyce in as a probable round two opponent and you've got to think whoever wins that side should beat any of Whitlock, Razma, Carlin or Huckvale.
1117 - Ratajski should coast through board 5. Pipe's been in some decent form but has waned a bit over the last couple of months. Michael Smith and Dirk van Duijvenbode on board 6 in the first round will be amazing, please make that the stream board, winner should take that if they can get by the impressive Maik Kuivenhoven, although Luke Humphries is always going to be in with a shout right now. Board 7 I can see a dark horse coming through it. Gurney and King isn't a great seed combination again, Jason Lowe or Luke Woodhouse could easily come through the King side of it and challenge Daryl. Board 8 should be Cross in the final, a potential second round tie between Noppert and Evetts looks very tasty.
1114 - Top quarter doesn't look too strong, van Gerwen really should take this without a great deal of trouble, at least until a possible quarter final match against Aspinall. Heta's not an easy out first round but the rest of the board doesn't look too threatening. Ross Smith against Klaasen could be decent. Board 2 is a bit bland, ought to be Wattimena's but Waites or Boulton could fancy it. Board 3 is probably a straight clash between Aspinall and Dobey, I don't think anyone else there is really in their league, while Tabern looked OK in places last weekend Nathan's a bit ahead of him. Can't get too excited about board 4, Kyle against Rydz aside, Cullen/VVDV isn't that great of a seed pairing, and I could see them both losing to Kleermaker/Lennon respectively.
1100 - Morning ladies and gentlemen, coronaplague hasn't yet brought the darts to a complete halt (although them rearranging the Premier League as they've done is wildly optimistic, the only play right now is to cancel the entire second half of the season and have Rotterdam plus two nights in September to finish things), the draw's out and we have a couple of very fun ties at first glance in the first round with Jose de Sousa and Devon Petersen guaranteeing Carl loses at least one of his tips in the first round, while van Gerwen against Damon Heta is also fun. More thoughts on the draw shortly.
If the coronaplague lockdown on everything continues, there's a few things they could look at doing to keep things moving as much as possible on the Pro Tour. There's nothing to stop them splitting an event across two venues if meetings of 100+ are eliminated, you can host a quarter of each event in a different location (maybe even one on the continent to help those in Europe that may be more restricted than we are now), and then play the semis/finals at a later date, or even stream against each other live. Darts is one of the few sports where it's legitimately possible to work from home - Sedlacek isn't there as I think the Czech Republic has one of the largest restrictions there is, but surely he has a board at home and a webcam? Webcam darts has existed for years, and it's something the PDC has probably never thought of at this time.
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