These two, right now, are the biggest 180 hitters in world darts. Over the course of 2022 Dirk Van Duijvenbode is the most proficient, he’s hit them at a ratio of 0.38 per leg, almost 4 every 10 legs he plays.

Ross Smith isn’t far behind him on this annual ratio at 0.34 per leg but you’d have to say he’s upped that of late and you might argue he’s the better maximum hitter of the pair at the moment. Looking at the last 100 legs they have played Van Duijvenbode has hit 41 and Smith has hit 52.

They both showed their 180 prowess in their opening games too. Dirk hit 12 during his 5 set match with Karel Sedlacek and Ross hit 10 in his 4 set match with Darius Labanauskas.

These two actually met at this stage of this event last year and it was Dirk who prevailed 4-3 after trailing 3-0. During that match Dirk hit 10 maximums and Ross just 2 but this is a different Smith now. Recently crowned European Champion and his maximum hitting has been a big factor in his recent successes. If we get 6 or 7 sets in this I’d expect the mark of 8 maximums apiece being easily breached. We could even see a record number of 180’s for a match of this length if both players live up to the billing we are giving them.

2018 PDC World Champion Rob Cross looked sublime in his opening game success over good friend and rising star of the game, Scott Williams 3-1. He averaged 99.32 and hit 7 maximums in a pulsating game, one of the better games at this year’s World Championship.

Mervyn King didn’t look as good on the stage as he ran out a 3-2 victor over American Danny Baggish, averaging 93.74 and hitting 5 maximums.

Cross has looked rejuvenated over the past 18 months or so, much more like the World Champion he was. During this year he has a win percentage of 68% compared to the 53% of King, has a higher average at 96.62 compared to 91.64 from King and his 180 per leg ratio is better at 0.26 as opposed to the 0.21 per leg of his opponent. The statistics certainly show Cross to be the superior player during 2022.

The Head to Head is 5-5 but Cross seems to find the victories against him when he’s in the better form of the two, as is arguably the case for King. They have met just once this year and it was Cross who prevailed 6-4. The TV record reads 2-2 also but arguably the two bigger wins were for Cross at the World Matchplay (2018) and the UK Open (2019), both by 10-5 margins. With Cross in better form of the two and on the back of his runner up at the Players Championship Finals, the most recent event to this, take him to emerge victorious.

Luke Humphries and Vincent Van Der Voort get us underway this evening and ‘Cool Hand’ Luke is the warm favourite in this one having enjoyed a stellar season. He won four Euro Tour and has reached the Semi-Final of the last two televised events, the Grand Slam of Darts and the Players Championship Finals. He’s also reached three Quarter-Finals in the last three years in this event so will be hoping to at least match that again this year.

He squeezed past Florian Hempel in his opener but at times looked very good. It turns out that he was feeling a little under the weather so perhaps he should be getting more credit than he has for advancing in a match that he was pushed all the way.

Van Der Voort on the other hand breezed past Cameron Menzies 3-0 and was hardly pushed. That was a simple assignment for big Vincent but under pressure he’s not the same player. He will be under it severely from the Number 5 in the World here and it’s Humphries who leads the
Head to Head 2-0. I think he’ll win again here but Vincent is capable of pinching a set or two off him.

Next up is Gerwyn Price vs José De Sousa. Price, since losing his opening set in this year’s event against Luke Woodhouse, has won his next seven sets. This includes a 4-0 victory over Raymond Van Barneveld to claim his first televised victory over the Dutchman.

De Sousa has ridden his look somewhat and somehow remains in the event. He trailed 2-0 against Simon Whitlock but won 3-2 and went one better against Ryan Searle, trailing 3-0 before winning 4-3 with his opponent missing a match dart to defeat him 4-1. He can’t continue to get away with that surely and I think if Price establishes an early break here there’ll be no way back for him and ‘The Iceman’ will run out an easy winner. Take Price to win on the handicap -2.5 sets.

The best match is saved until last as a really close encounter between Jonny Clayton and Josh Rock awaits. Clayton lost at this stage last year to Michael Smith in the match of the tournament by a scoreline of 4-3 and I think a similar fate awaits him here.

He’s come through two matches on paper that appear straightforward victories. Yes, his opener 3-0 against Danny Van Trijp was but his 4-1 victory against Brendan Dolan wasn’t as each set went to a last leg shootout, thankfully for Clayton he managed to edge four of the five.

He faces another Northern Irishman in this one Josh Rock, who’s the young rising star everyone is talking about. He seems to take everything in his stride and has already won three matches to reach this Last 16 stage. A fairly routine 3-1 victory over José Justicia in his opener was followed up with a 3-0 defeat of Callan Rydz in the next. Most recent however was a classic against Nathan Aspinall that he won 4-3.

Aspinall served up everything to Rock before wilting in the final set. Rock showed us he has the game under pressure too. This could be tense against another tenacious player in Clayton. I expect this game to have 6 or 7 sets, take the Over 5.5 sets mark in this one.