So 96 players came and we are now left with just two. Michael Smith and Peter Wright will battle it out to lift the Sid Waddell Trophy this evening. Casting his eye over the action our darts expert gives us his views and darts betting predictions.
If you’ve followed the PDC darts world championships tips this year, we are now at the final hurdle and there’s still plenty of value here.
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The Final of the Championships is on Monday 3rd January
Michael Smith vs Peter Wright
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Final
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Match due to start at 8:10pm
This promises to be a mouthwatering final and one which the bookies have Peter ‘Snakebite’ as slight favourite. Other than Jonny Clayton. These two have easily been the best two players this week and fully deserve to be in the final.
Michael Smith 🏴
Smith began the tournament as he meant to go on defeating Ron Meulenkamp 3-0 with the highest individual match average of 106.32 before defeating William O’Connor 4-2 in the third round with a 97.42 average.
From then in he’s come through three more thrillers to advance. He beat the aforementioned Jonny Clayton 4-3 in an absolute classic, he then followed suit by defeating Gerwyn Price 5-4 in the Quarter-Finals, surviving two match darts. He then completed his route to the final by dispatching of James Wade 6-3. In the final match he should’ve arguably wrapped this up earlier but ‘The Machine’ put in a spirited performance and a mini fight back to delay the inevitable. In all these games he average between 99 and 102, very consistent indeed.
What’s even more promising about these last three matches is the fighting spirit Bully Boy has displayed. Whilst his talent has never been in question some have questioned his mental toughness, well I think that myth has now been dispelled.
He comes into this with a tournament average of 100.65, the most 180’s in the tournament at 59 and a terrific doubles percentage of 47.57%. He’s doing most things right this week as he’s also hit 14 ton plus checkouts, converting these opportunities at around a 16% conversion rate and he’s keeping very straight with less than 5% stray darts at Treble 20 and Treble 19 combined.
Peter Wright 🏴
The tournament stats of Wright are similar too, in fact his tournament is just 0.01 higher than his opponent at 100.66. To compare the other metrics mentioned above Snakebite has hit 55 180’s – both hitting them at a rate of 0.40 per leg – his doubles percentage is 40.10%, he’s amassed 9 ton plus checkouts at a conversion rate of 14% and his stray darts on the main scoring segments is 9%.
Wrights route to the final has probably been a bit more straightforward than that of Smith. He put Ryan Meikle to the sword 3-0 in his opener, he ‘only’ averaged 92.19 but his opponent on that day was never at the races.
He then survived a mini scare against Damon Heta, trailing 2-0 in a race to four, he was yet again trying out a different set of darts. At that point he reverted back to his gold arrows – which he’s used ever since – and well, he’s looked a different prospect, reeling off four consecutive sets to win with relative ease and ending up with a match average of 102.15
He won with the same relative ease in his next match versus Ryan Searle. A 4-1 scoreline reflected his superiority in this one as Searle just never showed what he was capable of or what we expected of him.
In the Quarter-Final he faced Callan Rydz who had breezed through the tournament to this point dropping just one set. He looked like continuing that progress too. He blew Wright away early in with a dominate display of finishing to race into a 2-0 lead. Wright used all his experience and belief to claw his way back into this and eventually won 5-4 in a deciding set. Rydz was gutted afterwards, missing a golden opportunity to advance but Wright just held it together better of the two late on.
In his Semi-Final Peter Wright took on his Scottish compatriot Gary Anderson in what is now the best match of the event statistically. It had the highest combined Match average, Peter Wright set a new record for most 180’s in a match and the match had a record number of 180’s for a World Championship Semi-Final. It was a mesmeric display by both in which Wright won 6-4, a lot of this however is due to the fact he raced into an early 3-0 lead.
PDC World Championships Final Preview & Betting Tip
It really does promise to be an excellent match with a multitude of 180’s but who wins? Taking a look at the head to head this strongly favours Wright with 23 wins compared to Smiths 12 with two draw in the Premier League. They met in this event way back in 2013 with Wright winning 4-3 and they’ve met thrice this year with Wright winning twice compared to Smiths one. More importantly Wrights two wins have been in big events.
Firstly in the Matchplay 16-7 as he went on to lift the second biggest crown in World darts then more recently at the Grand Slam of Darts 16-12. What’s pertinent about this is not the the scoreline but the manner of it. Smith looked all over the winner, cruising and playing extremely well at 12-8 only for Wright to win eight consecutive legs in just 104 darts. In those legs he averaged 115.62 and Smith had no answers to his comeback.
I think Wright comes out on top here. He’s won more individual titles than anyone else this year, his self belief is unmatched and when he needs to dig deep he seems to be able to find that little bit extra.
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Prediction: Both Players to Hit 3 or More 100+ Checkouts, Both Players to Throw 15 or More 180’s & Wright to Win.
Back the Darts Final predictions below ⬇️
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