Rob Cross v Chris Dobey
2019 champion Rob Cross has been playing some decent darts of late with nine 100+ averages in his last nineteen matches. In fact he’s been in decent form for quite some time now with two final appearances on the Euro Tour in May.
This third section of the quarter looks to be the most wide open of the four and ‘Voltage’ will be hoping to recapture this crown. Over the past eighteen months he’s really been producing some top stuff, akin to the standard he produced to claim both this and the World title previously.
He faces a stern test in his opener against ‘Hollywood’ Chris Dobey who is more than capable of knocking out Cross. Dobey is yet to win a title this year but has gone deep in several tournament including a run to the Semi-Final just a month ago at Players Championship 17 where he was defeated by the impressive Scott Williams where he didn’t quite perform as he can in that one.
Dobey is a terrific talent but always seems to produce some top darts in front of the TV cameras over the last couple of years only to find someone produce something more emphatic. Picking just several examples, he lost here last year in Round One despite a 97.06 average, he lost in the Last 16 of the World Championship with an average of 97.81 and lost in the last two UK Opens despite averages of 101.31 and 95.20.
It’s that angle I like here where his average line is marked at 94.5. I think he loses this one but is capable of posting an average over this. He may have only achieved that mark once in his last four matches but looking further back he’s posted an effort above that line in six of his last nine matches. I believe he’s capable of posting another average above this here too.
Gerwyn Price v Martin Schindler
The Iceman Gerwyn Price isn’t quite hitting the heights we’ve become accustomed to over the past few years but the number two seeds is still a major contender this week.
He opens up against the German Martin Schindler who’s enjoying an excellent resurgence and poses a real threat of an early exit for the Welshman. Having said these pair met at the World Cup of Darts recently and although that was only a best of seven legs match, Price came out on top 4-0 with an average of 117.88.
Price played a couple of the Players Championship events last weekend suffering second round exits in both but did average 95+ in each game so he’s playing well enough albeit he’s now only won two of his last seven singles matches and you have to go back 20 matches to the last time he hit more than three maximums in a match. In that same period Schindler has done that on seven occasions.
It’s that scoring power that I’m going to concentrate on in this one. Schindler is playing well, there’s no doubt about it, a Semi-Finalist this last weekend in Players Championship 20. He’s the superior of the two on the maximum front.
Schindler is averaging 180’s at 0.33 per leg over the course of 2022 compared to that of Price at 0.26 per leg. In fact he’s hit 28 more 180’s than Price despite playing some 104 legs less. Take Schindler to come on top in this market.
Dave Chisnall v Kim Huybrechts
Dave Chisnall has really started to find some form at just the right time. He’s played twenty-three matches in July and has won nineteen of them. His record over the past weekend reads well too as he reached the Quarter Final, Last 16, Last 16, and Quarter Final with an average of 95.12 over these four days.
We should have seen that coming too as the end of May and beginning of June he registered six successive averages of 101+. He’s always been a huge maximum hitter and remains one of the best in this statistical field at a rate of 0.32 per leg this year. He could be a real dark horse for the title this year.
Kim Huybrechts doesn’t have a good record in this event but has played some decent darts the past eighteen months. He’s averaging 93.08 this season although he’s been a bit inconsistent of late. In his last 10 matches, he’s averaged 95+ just three times with the other seven all performances with averages of 90.02 or below.
He can’t match ‘Chizzy’ on the maximum count either. He has his prolific spells but typically he’ll need to raise his 0.19 per leg ratio somewhat to keep this close here.
The pair have met just once this year and it was a tight game in which Chisnall won 6-5 in a high-quality contest but interestingly Chisnall hit seven maximum compared to Huybrechts one. I imagine we’ll see something similar here, although perhaps not so close. I like Chisnall to win and hit the most 180’s here in a repeat of their most recent encounter.
Written by an Andy verified content writer
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