Sam Hart previews day eight of the World Darts Championship.
Sam Hart here once again to give my thoughts on the World Darts Championship. This is day eight’s preview, and let's just say we have had a rollercoaster so far with these previews, but hopefully we can have a winning Sunday at the Worlds.
Afternoon Session
The afternoon session is a belter with the likes of Dirk van Duijvenbode, Ian White, Ritchie Edhouse, Joe Cullen, and Wessel Nijman all in action. Those two later players, Joe Cullen and Wessel Nijman, are where I want to put my focus. This already looks like it could turn out to be one of the matches of the tournament. Joe Cullen has made it to the last 16 on three occasions, including the last two years. He hasn’t quite shown the top-quality Joe Cullen form, but he seems to like the long set format of the World Championships, and he has good experience on the stage. His opponent, though, is one of my outsider fancies for the tournament in Wessel Nijman. He has a bit of a scare against South Africa's Cameron Carolissen, but scraped through into round two. I am hoping this has given him some good experience and has him now used to the Ally Pally stage. He threw a 139 checkout in his opening leg and continued to show he is a big scorer when he needs it. This should go the way of Wessel, who is ⅖ with Bet365 for this match, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Joe Cullen grabbed a set or two. So there is 11/4 about Wessel Nijman 3-1 and 7/2 about the 3-2. I feel these could be the smart play in the afternoon session.
Evening Session
The evening session again is a cracker of a session pre-Christmas. I want to look at the opening game, which is a matchup between Martin Schindler and Callan Rydz. I was with some German fans on Friday night talking about Martin Schindler, and they were confident he would go on a big run in this tournament this year, and he's currently 31/50 with Betfred to take this match. He has had an okay year, getting to the last 32 and last 16 of most big events; however, he comes up against a player in Callan Rydz who arguably put up the performance of the tournament so far in his first round match against Romeo Grbavac, where he won 3-0, with a 107 average and 60% on his doubles, and he won 9 of the 11 legs played. He looked confident in the way he played, and if he plays like this on Sunday night, he will be beating Schindler. So I am going to chance a minor upset, with Rydz winning this at 6/5 with Bet365.
The only other match I would like to quickly mention is Gary Anderson in action against Jeffrey de Graaf, who came through his first-round match against Rashad Sweeting of the Bahamas. That wasn't the most popular result, with the crowd fully behind Sweeting, who really did put a smile on your face. Gary is one of my selections from the outright preview; he has a good draw and has talked himself up like he is seriously back to contend for this title. So keep an eye on Gary and how he plays. I do feel he is a player in this tournament who could go all the way.
Thanks for tuning into this preview of the World Darts Championship day eight. I will be back with my day nine preview, but until then do enjoy the sport and remember to gamble responsibly.