Fallon Sherrock

PDC World Darts Championship 2023: Day six predictions, betting tips, acca, order of play and TV time

By Chris Hammer

Darts

Fri December 23, 2022 · 3y ago

There's more PDC World Darts Championship action on Tuesday night so check out Chris Hammer's match-by-match predictions, best bets and a suggested acca.

There's just one session of darts to look forward to at the Ally Pally, with Fallon Sherrock and Raymond van Barneveld both in action.

Here, we look ahead to all four matches with seasonal statistics to help...

Darts betting tips: World Championship day six

1pt Sebastian Bialecki to beat Jim Williams at 7/4 (General)

1pt Fallon Sherrock (+1.5 sets) to beat Ricky Evans at 6/5 (Unibet)

1pt Ryan Meikle to beat Raymond van Barneveld at 9/5 (BetVictor, Boylesports, Ladbrokes)

SL Acca: Bialecki (+1.5), Sherrock (+1.5) & Meikle (+1.5) all to win at 13/2 with Sky Bet

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

World Championship: Tuesday, December 20

EVENING SESSION

TV Coverage: Sky Sports, 1900 GMT
Round and Format: Rounds 1 & 2 (Best of five sets)
In the below stats (courtesy of @CarlyFletch) and his @DartsTracker), the averages and 180 per leg data is for all PDC events in 2022, while checkout percentage is for stage events only. For Sebastian Bialecki, the data available is from his World Championship qualification route - the East European Qualifier.

Jim Williams (4/9) v Sebastian Bialecki (13/8) (R1)

Head to Head (TV): 0-0 (0-0)
2022 Head to Head (TV): 0-0 (0-0)
Three-Dart Average (2022): 93.93 - 92.80
180s per leg (2022): 0.22 - 0.21
Checkout % (Stage Events 2022): 36.84% - Unavailable
100+ checkout per leg won (2022): 10.25% - 9.30%
Match Treble % (Win, most 180s & high checkout): 16.33% - Unavailable

Sebastian Bialecki is quite a prospect and darts fans will remember him for reaching the UK Open quarter-finals earlier this year as a European Development Tour qualifier.

The Polish teenager's best win was a 10-6 triumph over Ryan Searle and his run could have been even better had he not been pipped in a last-leg decider against Willie O'Connor in the quarters.

Bialecki also won a Development Tour event this season, beating Keane Barry in the final, and booked his place here for the first time by coming through the East European Qualifier with an average of around 93.

WATCH: Paul Nicholson and Chris Hammer predict the Ally Pally draw!

Predicting the PDC World Darts Championship with Paul Nicholson!

As we saw earlier this year, Bialecki is not fazed by the big occasion and I fancy him to cause Jim Williams a lot of problems in the opening match of the night.

Williams won a Players Championship event in his first season as a PDC Tour Card holder but apart from that he hasn't enjoyed too many lengthy runs on the Pro Tour and didn't have much joy on the European Tour either.

He does at least have some Ally Pally experience having won a first-round encounter last year before losing a classic with Joe Cullen 3-2 but he may not get as far as the second this time around.

Scoreline Prediction: 2-3

CLICK HERE to back Sebastian Bialecki to win with Sky Bet

Jamie Hughes (1/3) v Jimmy Hendriks (9/4) (R1)

Head to Head (TV): 0-0 (0-0)
2022 Head to Head (TV): 0-0 (0-0)
Three-Dart Average (2022): 93.46 - 86.58
180s per leg (2022): 0.22 - 0.13
Checkout % (Stage Events 2022): 37.90% - 66.67%
100+ checkout per leg won (2022): 11.87% - 12.79%
Match Treble % (Win, most 180s & high checkout): 17.65% - 7.46%

Jimmy Hendriks earned his spot at his debut World Championship by defeating Max Hopp in the final of the West Europe qualifier, averaging an impressive 94 in the process.

That was someway higher than his average on the Pro Tour this season, which is around the 87 mark, while he didn't manage to win more than two matches at any of the 30 Players Championship events he entered. To be fair, however, when you look through his results, he did get handed a lot of tough first-round draws and that won't have helped him find some winning rhythm.

His checkout percentage stats above are quite misleading to say the least as he only played two matches in stage events this year - the UK Open - and neither of those were on the main stage so don't be thinking he's some master finisher based on the above!

Jamie Hughes is a far more reliable operator having qualified for his fourth successive World Championship via his Pro Tour Order of Merit although his only major experience this year came in the UK Open and Players Championship Finals, reaching the fifth and second rounds respectively.

The Tipton ace is a very fair favourite and I'd expect him to progress fairly comfortably.

Scoreline Prediction: 3-1

Ricky Evans (1/4) v Fallon Sherrock (11/4) (R1)

Head to Head (TV): 0-0 (0-0)
2022 Head to Head (TV): 0-0 (0-0)
Three-Dart Average (2022): 91.34 - 81.75
180s per leg (2022): 0.21 - 0.15
Checkout % (Stage Events 2022): 44.17% - 28.91%
100+ checkout per leg won (2022): 9.38% - 10.81%
Match Treble % (Win, most 180s & high checkout): 18.75% - 0.00%

Fallon Sherrock is the third female player in action at this year's World Championship and regardless of what you think of her controversial inclusion, there's no doubt she'll have the Ally Pally crowd firmly on her side when she steps onto the oche.

The universally popular Ricky Evans is certainly not used to being booed and whistled so it'll be interesting to see how he deals with such an atmosphere on a stage he's enjoyed several crowd-pleasing moments.

Evans hasn't enjoyed his best season by any means, qualifying for just two other majors and suffering a first-round exit at the recent Players Championship Finals with a low 90s average, which is pretty par for his year. In a recent interview with Online Darts he said: "Since April, I've been garbage on the tour. My game isn't a million miles away, but I'm not posting 100 averages and not winning easily. I'm posting in the low 90s."

Sherrock's statistics above are collated from her performances on the World Series Tour and the Grand Slam of Darts as that is more relevant for this tournament than her Women's Series displays - although her average in the latter was also around the 81 mark.

The Queen of the Palace is the first to admit it's been a disappointing season apart from winning the inaugural staging of the Women's World Matchplay back in July - which retrospectively earned her a spot at the Ally Pally - and struggled to produce what we know she's capable of when coming up against the men this year. She's not operating at the level which saw her average almost 100 over 29 legs against Peter Wright in last year's Grand Slam.

However, during an interview with Sporting Life before the tournament, she said: "Overall I know what I need to do which is to put more hours in the practice room because I was playing too much and travelling all over the place. I thought because I was playing a lot I didn't need to put as much practice in but I think that's where I faltered. So I've put a lot more hours in now and I think 2023 will be much better, starting with the World Championship.

Fallon Sherrock was busy with the media, as usual, ahead of her third World Championship but still found time to answer a couple of questions from my daughter Isla, who is replacing me at Sporting Life after leaving primary school next year. pic.twitter.com/0MHoUuixve
— Chris Hammer (@ChrisHammer180) December 20, 2022

"I was playing a lot of tough competitive matches but not winning and sometimes you need to learn to win again. It's all very well hitting a lot of 180s and scoring well but if I'm not closing games out, it makes it harder. I've been upping my match practice, learning how to close the game out again and getting the confidence back. And now I think qualifying for the World Championship has taken a lot of stress off my shoulders."

Since then she's been involved in the Modus Super Series and managed to win four of her 10 games to finish third in a table of six players. Her better performances saw her average between 87 and 93 on five occasions which was really promising and if she can get off to a good start against Evans and really get the crowd up on their feet, then another famous win is distinctly possible.

It would be quite ironic too, considering the criticism surrounding her inclusion and the fact Lisa Ashton and Beau Greaves both lost!

Scoreline Prediction: 2-3

CLICK HERE to back Fallon Sherrock (+1.5 sets) to win with Sky Bet

Raymond van Barneveld (4/9) v Ryan Meikle (13/8) (R2)

Head to Head (TV): 2-3 (0-0)
2022 Head to Head (TV): 1-1 (0-0)
Three-Dart Average (2022): 93.66 - 92.15
180s per leg (2022): 0.20 - 0.22
Checkout % (Stage Events 2022): 39.81% - 37.63%
100+ checkout per leg won (2022): 10.00% - 10.47%
Match Treble % (Win, most 180s & high checkout): 12.87% - 16.50%

Raymond van Barneveld will be relishing the prospect of a third-round meeting with Gerwyn Price after Christmas but first he's got to get past rising prospect Ryan Meikle.

The Ipswich thrower looked like he was handling the pressure of playing Lisa Ashton as well as Willie O'Connor did against Beau Greaves - but he suffered a nervy blip after missing darts at doubles for a 2-0 lead in the third set and ended up having to survive a final set.

Apart from that, the improving Meikle played very well, averaging almost 92, hitting five 180s and pinning almost 45% of his doubles - but he'll probably need to raise his game to defeat Barney on this famous stage.

DELETE CAPTION http://m.skybet.com/go/event/30732828/bet?sels=1169566337&aff=1197321778&dcmp=SL_ED_DARTS_DOUBLEUPBOOST

The Dutchman rolled back the years at the Grand Slam of Darts to defeat Price twice en route to the semi-finals and it was great to see him enjoying his darts again and producing a very high-level of darts to delight his army of fans - but can he do it again?

His Grand Slam heroics came out of the blue really in terms of his seasonal levels and then crashed out of the opening round of the Players Championship Finals to Kim Huybrechts - so I think it would be unwise to assume he's on his way back to his best. Maybe we just enjoy those magic moments when they randomly occur, rather than expect them.

Statistically both players are very evenly matched across all areas of the game in 2022 but Meikle's levels are only going to improve as he earns more experience, and he is coming into this clash warm after that test from Ashton.

Barney has suffered early upset defeats at the Ally Pally before and this could be another - albeit a minor one.

Scoreline Prediction: 2-3