World Matchplay darts: Predictions, odds, betting tips, accas, Monday order of play & TV times

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Five of the remaining first-round matches take place tonight, with the likes of Gerwyn Price, Daryl Gurney, Dave Chisnall and Ian White taking to the oche at the crowd-less Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.

After four out of my five match bets came in on Sunday to add to the three from Saturday, here's hoping the momentum can continue with these previews...

World Matchplay: Monday July 20

SUGGESTED ACCA

• Ian White (-1.5), Gurney (-2.5) & Gerwyn Price (-3.5) at 5.15/1
• Click here to build your acca at Sky Bet
• Sky Bet Price Boost: Gurney, Price & Lewis all to win their matches (WAS 7/4)

EVENING SESSION

• TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1800 GMT)
• First round: Best of 19 legs
• Full World Matchplay draw & schedule

Dave Chisnall (2/5) v Vincent van der Voort (2/1)

• Head-to-head: 7-3
• 2020 Meetings: 0-0
• Career PDC titles: 15-5 (TV: 0-0)
• Titles this season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
• PDC Order of Merit: 10th - 33rd
• ProTour Order of Merit: 11th - 28th

Dave Chisnall really should be standing here with the confidence from winning a first title of the season but instead there's question marks over his form.

Chizzy, who'd reached a quarter-final 24 hours earlier, led Ryan Joyce 7-3 in the second final of the PDC Summer Series only to miss four match darts at 7-6 up before succumbing to a dramatic 8-7 defeat.

The wheels came off for the remaining three days and ended the week with an overall average of 94.77, which ranks him 21st out of the 32 World Matchplay qualifiers, while Paul Nicholson said in his Sporting Life column that "his action is starting to break down and the problems with his jerkiness and accentuated follow through is getting worse."

On the plus side for those desperately hoping Chisnall mounts a serious challenge in his quest to win a maiden televised major, Vincent van der Voort fared even worse.

The Dutch veteran only won five matches across the week and his overall average of 89.89 was only better than those of Keegan Brown and Adrian Lewis out of all the World Matchplay qualifiers.

It may not end up being a clash of the highest quality, but I still expect Chizzy to do enough and achieve the modest targets in the Sky Bet player performance market below.

Prediction: 10-6

Suggested bet: Dave Chisnall to win the match, score over 4.5 180s and checkout over 97.5 at 6/4

Ian White (1/2) v Joe Cullen (13/8)

• Head-to-head: 11-3
• 2020 Meetings: 0-0
• Career PDC titles: 13-3 (TV: 0-0)
• Titles this season: 1-0 (TV: 0-0)
• PDC Order of Merit: 11th - 18th
• ProTour Order of Merit: 6th - 9th

Two years ago, Joe Cullen twice came within the width of a wire away from defying Gary Anderson's nine darter and reaching a potentially career-changing World Matchplay semi-final.

The second of those was disrupted by a fateful fly and those memories could well have affected him during the semi-finals of the televised European Championship later that year when he agonisingly missed another match dart when blowing a 10-7 lead against Simon Whitlock.

It's sad that such a talented player like the Rockstar has failed to reproduce his sparkling best on TV since and last year on his return to the Winter Gardens he suffered an awkwardly one-sided 10-0 defeat at the hands of Ian White, who also looked embarrassed.

Cullen, who won a maiden European Tour event last year, endured a shocking Summer Series, in which he won just three matches, but said: "Even though I was very disappointed with my performance at the Summer Series, I think it was of benefit to blow away the cobwebs before the World Matchplay. If I’m being honest, my year so far has been very average, if I want to push on to reach the world's top ten I can't be happy with mediocre performances."

It would take a small leap of faith to side with him at the moment, especially against a player in considerably better form.

White's 2020 had been going well before lockdown having picked up a 10th Players Championship title of his career although he probably expected more success at the Summer Series, where he reached a semi-final on one day but failed to sparkle on the others.

Much has been made - including in my outright betting preview and player-by-player guide - about these conditions potentially being ripe for a player like White who has a track record of struggling on major televised stages, even though he has beaten Peter Wright and MVG in European Tour finals.

My only concern for him is if he feels the pressure of everyone saying it's a 'golden opportunity', but that's probably more likely to come into the equation in later rounds when he's closer to glory.

Prediction: 10-6

Suggested bet: Match to have over 15.5 legs, highest checkout to be over 115.5 and over 7.5 total 180s at 11/10

Daryl Gurney (4/11) v Ricky Evans (11/5)

• Head-to-head: 4-4
• 2020 Meetings: 0-0
• Career PDC titles: 5-0 (TV: 2-0)
• Titles this season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
• PDC Order of Merit: 7th - 27th
• ProTour Order of Merit: 12th - 31st

Daryl Gurney went into the Summer Series like he does every tournament he's ever entered. Under the radar.

Yet despite only being able to cram in some last-minute practice - relatively speaking of course - after spending most of lockdown playing the full-time father role due to his wife being a key social worker, he was one of the most consistently impressive performers across the five events.

He won 14 matches, averaged over 100 six times and boasted an overall mark of 97.44 which was seventh best out of all the World Matchplay qualifiers.

Gurney admitted the last few months have put his career in perspective so we could therefore be about to witness a new SuperChin who doesn't show as much negative body language up on the oche or talk himself down pre and post match.

You can read more about why the Northern Irishman is part of my overall staking plan at 40/1 each-way in my outright betting preview , but as far as this match is concerned, I think he'll ease to a fairly comfortable victory with the most 180s.

The 2017 World Grand Prix champion was hitting maximums at a rate of 0.27 per leg out of the 161 he played at Summer Series while Ricky Evans, who only averaged 90.30 across the week, was operating at a ratio of 0.23 across 129 legs.

Prediction: 10-5

Suggested bet: Gurney to win and hit most 180s at 11/10

Gerwyn Price (1/4) v Danny Noppert (3/1)

• Head-to-head: 3-2
• 2020 Meetings: 1-0
• Career PDC titles: 11-1 (TV: 2-0)
• Titles this season: 2-0 (TV: 0-0)
• PDC Order of Merit: 3rd - 24th
• ProTour Order of Merit: 1st - 17th

Gerwyn Price may well be a two-time major winner, a stage showboater and one of Michael van Gerwen's chief rivals, but these World Matchplay conditions are going to level the playing field in his favour more than anyone.

He's rocketed his way to darting stardom in spite of the booing, jeers and distracting whistling on doubles when he plays a usual crowd favourite, so now that handicap has gone, we should see an even greater level of performance that we often see from him in the sterile environments of the Players Championship events.

Although the Welshman couldn't add to his 2020 tally of two titles during the Summer Series, he'd certainly blown away the lockdown cobwebs by the end of it with a run to a final of the fifth tournament, which he lost to Peter Wright.

Price's overall average of 99.69 was third best behind Wright and Jose De Sousa while he also weighed in with 10 100+ matches averages, including one of 115.62 which was the highest of the week.

Before the sporting calendar came to a halt, the Iceman thrashed Danny Noppert 10-3 at the UK Open with an average of over 104 and I really think we could be seeing another one-sided encounter tonight.

The Dutchman was a steady performer during Summer Series but didn't do enough to suggest he could trouble the standard many will be expecting from his opponent while his 180s per leg ratio was 0.1 less than Price's 0.33.

Prediction: 10-4

Suggested bet: Price to win and hit most 180s at evens

Adrian Lewis (8/13) v Steve Beaton (5/4)

• Head-to-head: 9-6
• 2020 Meetings: 1-0
• Career PDC titles: 16-5 (TV: 9-0)
• Titles this season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
• PDC Order of Merit: 14th - 25th
• ProTour Order of Merit: 25th - 30th

The darting world breathed a collective sigh of relief when Steve Beaton just about did enough to maintain his astonishing record of never missing this prestigious event since he joined the PDC way back in 2001.

This will be the Bronzed Adonis' 20th World Matchplay appearance in a row and while it's a shame he's not marking the milestone at the Winter Gardens in front of a crowd, I doubt he'll be too bothered considering he's only gone beyond the first round there on seven occasions.

In all his decades as a professional, the 56-year-old has seen it all so it'll be interesting to see how differently he responds to this new experience - or if he just carries on as usual with a silky smooth action that never changes. Almost certainly the latter.

Beaton was enjoying a pretty solid season before lockdown with a couple of quarter-final runs but during Summer Series he was among the lowest ranking performers, albeit marginally better than Adrian Lewis.

The former Lakeside king won four matches out of nine and averaged 92.18 overall while Jackpot picked up two victories in the first four days with a cumulative average of just 88.97 - the worst of all World Matchplay qualifiers. He subsequently pulled out of the fifth and final tournament.

It's very difficult to call which is why I'm delving into for the match action market, where the below targets seem reasonable enough.

Prediction: 7-10

Suggested bet: Match to have over 15.5 legs, highest checkout to be over 114.5 and over 6.5 total 180s at 5/4

Click here for full 2020 World Matchplay draw and schedule

Related Darts Content

• Chris Hammer's Player-By-Player Guide
• Paul Nicholson's World Matchplay analysis
• World Matchplay betting preview & tips
• 2020 World Matchplay draw and schedule
• Carl Fletcher's vital statistics
• 2020 Premier League venues & dates
• 2020 PDC event calendar & results
• 2020 World Darts Championship results
• 2019 PDC event results
• Sky Bet's darts odds

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