Dimitri van den Bergh and Daryl Gurney are in action at the World Darts Championship

World Darts Championship: Tuesday predictions, odds, betting tips, accas, order of play & TV times

By Chris Hammer

Darts

Tue December 18, 2018 · 7y ago

Our preview of Tuesday's action at the PDC World Darts Championship includes the order of play, match-by-match predictions, Sky Bet odds and a suggested acca.

There's afternoon and evening sessions at Alexandra Palace today, with the likes of Krzysztof Ratasjski and Daryl Gurney in action.

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World Darts Championship: Tuesday December 18

AFTERNOON SESSION

Click on the odds for more Sky Bet match markets

TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1230 GMT)
First/Second Round: Best of five sets

Robert Thornton (4/11) v Daniel Larsson (11/5)

Head-to-head: N/A
2018 Meetings: N/A
PDC Titles in 2018: 0-0
Career PDC Titles: 14-0

Robert Thornton is a former UK Open and World Grand Prix champion but he's struggled to reach those dizzy heights again following his success in the latter back in 2015.

The Thorn famously shocked Michael van Gerwen on that amazing night in Dublin and while he made the quarter-final there two years later, he's suffered a host of early exits in televised tournaments.

Thornton only qualified for two majors this year - the UK Open and Players Championship Finals - but didn't fare well in either while he's reached just one quarter-final in the Pro Tour and European Tour events he's entered.

That said, he has plenty of experience of this stage and has only suffered one first-round defeat ever back in the 2016 edition, and in his past two attempts he suffered narrow second-round defeats to Daryl Gurney and Mensur Suljovic.

Daniel Larsson is making his PDC World Championship debut after coming through the Nordic and Baltic qualifiers alongside Darius Labanauskas but don't underestimate him. He won the BDO's Swedish Classic after victories over Mark McGeeney, Willem Mandigers and Gary Robson back in August.

I'll go for the 3-1 correct scoreline for Thornton at 11/4 but if you think it'll be closer, Larsson is evens with a 1.5 set start.

Prediction: 3-1

Ricky Evans (2/5) v Rowby-John Rodriguez (2/1)

Head-to-head: 2-1
2018 Meetings: 0-0
PDC Titles in 2018: 0-0
Career PDC Titles: 0-0

If you go for a tea break after the opening match of the night, don't take too long because Ricky Evans is on next.

You might think I mean the match will be over in double quick, such is the rapid fire nature of Evans' throw, but I don't. It's his entrance music of course!

Right, back to the serious business of who wins. Evans is enjoying one of the best season's of his career and at the age of 28 he could well be reaching another level to his game.

He amused/baffled the crowd at the Dutch Darts Championship with his 'Baby Shark' walk-on but played superbly well to reach his maiden European Tour final only to lose out to Ian White.

Apart from that he's reached four quarter-finals on the Pro Tour and also claimed impressive victories over Daryl Gurney and Jeffrey de Zwaan at the European Championship and Players Championship Finals respectively, so he's not fazed on the televised stage.

This is his fourth appearance here but first for two years since his 3-2 first-round defeat to Michael Smith, in which one of his 180s was timed at just 2.16 seconds.

Obviously such fast throwing can put opponents off their stride by inadvertantly rushing them to play a faster game.

It's hard to work out how well Rowby-John Rodriguez will cope with this as they haven't played each other since 2014 and never on TV.

The 24-year-old Austrian plays on both the Development Tour, where he's reached one final this year, and the Pro Tour although with few great results in the latter he needed to book his spot here via the South-East Europe Qualifier.

He's played here three times before - losing in the first round to Raymond van Barneveld and Dave Chisnall (twice) - and I reckon he's got more than a fighting chance of taking this to the wire. Over 4.5 sets is 2/1.

Prediction: 3-2

Krzysztof Ratasjski (1/5) v Seigo Asada (7/2)

Head-to-head: N/A
2018 Meetings: N/A
PDC Titles in 2018: 0-0
Career PDC Titles: 0-0

I'm a big fan of Krzysztof Ratasjski and having backed him pre-tournament to win an exceedingly tough quarter of the draw at a big price, it goes without saying who I think will win this one!

Here's what I wrote in the aforementioned preview:

"The Polish Eagle won back-to-back Players Championship titles a couple of months ago before impressing on the televised stage at both the Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals, where he memorably pulled off an incredible comeback to defeat Gerwyn Price - with the celebrations to match.

He blew his chance of doing real damage in the latter with an unexpectedly big 10-4 defeat to Noppert but that doesn't stop him being a dangerous opponent, one who is enjoying an upward curve in his career."

👊 Take that Gerwyn Price!

❄️ The pumped up Iceman was averaging over 110 and led 5-1...

🦅...but Krzysztof Ratajski won the next five legs to win 6-5!

🙌 Look at those celebrations! pic.twitter.com/0ELu9sJcvN
— Sporting Life (@SportingLife) November 23, 2018

I'm under no illusion that Seigo Asada is a threat to Ratasjski - he didn't look out of his depth against Rob Cross this time last year despite a 3-0 scoreline and is one of the best players on the Asian Tour.

If you watched the Shanghai Darts Masters this summer you may remember him losing to Peter Wright 6-3 averaging a shade under 90 while he's won three events in Asia this year.

I read an interesting article about the 'Ninja' on dartsplanet.tv where he revealed his ambition to head to Q School to progress further in the sport - so we may see more of him in the future regardless of Tuesday's result.

Prediction: 3-1

Darren Webster (1/2) v Vincent van der Voort (13/8)

Head-to-head: 4-6
2018 Meetings: 1-1
PDC Titles in 2018: 0-0
Career PDC Titles: 1-5

Vincent van der Voort is somewhat fortunate to be here in the sense that statistically he played worse than his first-round victim Lourence Ilagan, who was extremely entertaining to say the least!

The Dutch veteran even admitted after the 3-1 victory: "I think my experience won me that game, it wasn't as comfortable as the scoreline suggests. To be honest I think Lourence was the better player but I stuck at it and I'm so happy to get that win."

Van der Voort's average of 94 was slightly lower than Ilagan's 96 while he hit two 180s compared to his opponent's five. His checkout percentage was fractionally lower too but he hit the key doubles at the right time when the Filipino spurned four darts to win the fourth set.

You'd think he'll need to play to that level minimum to defeat 2018 quarter-finalist Darren Webster, who is appearing in his seventh successive World Championship after another strong season which has seen him rise up 13 in the world rankings.

The Demolition Man may not have won a title this season but he reached two televised quarter-finals at the World Matchplay and European Championship while he's also been runner-up in two Pro Tour events.

I like the 11/8 on Webster to win, hit over 2.5 180s and make a checkout of over 97.5. They are very reasonable targets for a player of his standard even if he were to triumph in straight sets.

Prediction: 3-1

EVENING SESSION

TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 GMT)
First/Second Round: Best of five sets

Steve Lennon (2/9) v James Bailey (10/3)

Head-to-head: N/A
2018 Meetings: N/A
PDC Titles in 2018: 0-0
Career PDC Titles: 0-0

James Bailey missed out on earning a PDC Tour Card at the start of the year but since then has enjoyed an impressive year Down Under, winning the recent Oceanic Masters which earned him his maiden World Championship spot.

The 49-year-old from Brisbane, nicknamed the Bull, won a couple of other DPA Tour events and also had the opportunity to take on Gary Anderson at the televised Melbourne Darts Masters.

He won two legs and averaged 87, which isn't bad considering the Flying Scotsman averaged 107 on that occasion!

Steve Lennon shouldn't be trouble though. The 25-year-old from Ireland continues to show steady signs of improvement as he gains more experience of televised stages and recently he reached the last eight of the Players Championship Finals, where he lost to Michael van Gerwen.

Lennon also defeated Mensur Suljovic en route to a maiden European Tour final in the Dutch Darts Masters but, of course, it was MVG waiting for him and lost 8-5.

I'm going to go for the whitewash here at 7/4.

Prediction: 3-0

Ron Meulenkamp (1/3) v Diogo Portela (23/10)

Head-to-head: N/A
2018 Meetings: N/A
PDC Titles in 2018: 0-0
Career PDC Titles: 0-0

Diogo Portela is quite a character.

Thinking about changing my walk on song for the worlds. What about Ottawan - D.I.S.C.O ( https://t.co/vAjomIDFyR )

Just imagine the crowd singing D.I.O.G.O... LOL
— Diogo Portela (@brazilliant180) December 3, 2018

This time last year Portela, who used to work for L'Oreal and was also a part-time maths teacher, had recently quit his job to play darts professionally and was about to become Brazil's first representative at the World Championship.

'Braziliant' rose to the occasion as he averaged around 91 in a 3-1 defeat to Peter Wright although since then he's struggled to win much prize money on the Pro Tour and had to return to his homeland to compete in the South American qualifier, which proved successful.

In a recent social media post he put his problems down to issues with his grip but claims he's back to a decent standard.

Will it be enough to trouble the very solid and improving Ron Meulenkamp, who has enjoyed a couple of quarter-final runs on the European Tour this season, beating Dimitri van den Bergh and Michael Smith in those respective events.

I'm really not sure what to go with here to be completely honest!

Prediction: 3-2

Dimitri van den Bergh (1/16) v Chuck Puleo (15/2)

Head-to-head: N/A
2018 Meetings: N/A
PDC Titles in 2018: 1-0
Career PDC Titles: 2-0

Chuck Puleo of the USA qualified for his debut World Championship alongside Canada's Jim Long after the pair's success on the CDC Tour - although his Alexandra Palace experience could well be a quick one.

Long was fortunate to catch Mickey Mansell on one of his worst days, claiming a dream 3-1 victory despite averaging in the mid 70s but there's little chance of Puleo receiving such charity from such a talent like Dimitri van den Bergh.

The the Belgian recently became the first player to retain his World Youth Championship just a week after landing his first televised nine-dart finish at the Grand Slam of Darts.

Dimitri Van Den Bergh's nine-darter against Stephen Bunting

This could be a complete and utter demolition job. You can get even-money on van den Bergh winning, hitting over 2.5 180s and having a checkout of more than 100.5 which should still be feasible even if he wins all nine legs.

Prediction: 3-0

Daryl Gurney (1/6) v Ross Smith (4/1)

Head-to-head: 2-2
2018 Meetings: 1-0
PDC Titles in 2018: 1-0
Career PDC Titles: 3-0

Those of you who read my pre-tournament preview will know I also backed man of the moment Daryl Gurney to win his tough quarter of the draw, which features Gary Anderson, at 6/1.

"Gurney showed real fighting spirit in an incredible final against MVG to win his second TV title at the Players Championship Finals last month and it's no real surprise to see his odds tumble down to 25/1 for world glory. The manner of his triumph against a player he hadn't beaten in 13 previous meetings since 2016 - and never before on television - will give him belief against absolutely anyone and he's a real danger. It's also important to mention that his triumph in Minehead must surely seal his Premier League spot for 2019 so he doesn't have that additional burden on his mind."

The Northern Irishman did admit in an interview with me last week that his performances up until the Players didn't deserve another crack at the Premier League but he does now have a lot more belief that he can deliver on the biggest stage.

(video no longer available)

Ross Smith broke the hearts of all Paul Lim fans when defeating the Singapore legend 3-1, averaging 92 in the process and managing two 100+ checkouts including one of 138.

I think 11/10 for this match to have over 12.5 legs, a high checkout to be over 114.5 and more than 6.5 180s is worth a play.

Prediction: 3-1

Tuesday's suggested darts bets

Over 4.5 sets in Evans v Rodriguez at 2/1
Webster to win, hit over 2.5 180s and make a checkout of over 97.5 at 11/8
Lennon to beat Bailey 3-0 at 7/4
Gurney v Smith to have over 12.5 legs, a high checkout to be over 114.5 and more than 6.5 180s at 11/10
Click here to place your bets