Our guide to Tuesday's action at the PDC's William Hill World Darts Championship includes the order of play, match-by-match previews, predictions, seasonal statistics, head-to-head records, odds and a suggested acca.
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The third round concludes at the Ally Pally today while there's also two games in the fourth tonight as the quarter-final line-up starts to take shape at the Ally Pally.
We preview all six matches across both sessions while at the very bottom of you'll find graphics of every player's season stats as well as an additional one to chart how successful they've all been in achieving the 'Match Treble' in all their PDC matches this year (winning with the most 180s and highest checkouts).
World Championship: Tuesday December 29
- TV Coverage: Sky Sports Darts (1200 & 1800 GMT)
- Third/Fourth Round: Best of 7 sets, no tie-breakers in any set
Tuesday's darts accas
- Wade (-1.5), Dobey (+1.5) and Petersen (-1.5) at 3.27/1
- Chizzy to win & hit most 180s, Ratajski to win and MVG to win with Cullen hitting most 180s at 5.36/1
- Click here to build your acca
AFTERNOON SESSION (1200 GMT)
James Wade (1/3) v Stephen Bunting (23/10) (R3)
- Head to Head: 2-4 (2 draws)
- 2020 Meetings: 0-1
- PDC Titles this Season: 1-0 (TV: 0-0)
- Career PDC Titles: 37-2 (TV: 10-0)
- PDC World Championship Appearances: 16-6
- PDC World Championship Best: Semi-finals (2009, 2012, 2013) - Quarter Final (2015)
One of the most baffling statistics in darts is James Wade still unable to join the ever-growing list of players who have managed to post a 100+ average at the World Championship.
There's been 41 different players to achieve it in the tournament's history, with Dirk van Duijvenbode, Jose De Sousa, Ricky Evans, Krzysztof Ratajski and Mervyn King all joining the club this year, while Kim Huybrechts has managed it twice more to take his tally to three.
No disrespect to the latter - or many other names who have got onto that list down the years - but the Machine is a different class to the majority and if he's going to finally lift the Sid Waddell Trophy, then he'll probably need to break this peculiar duck at some point.
Wade is highly fancied to reach his first Ally Pally final at the 17th attempt on the back of an impressive winter which has seen him finish runner-up in two majors - although he only managed one ton+ checkout in those runs as he instead relied on his trademark timing and keeping his cool at the pivotal moments.
The 10-time major winner was fortunate to catch rising star Callan Rydz on a really poor off day last time out which allowed him to coast through 3-0 with a 93 average while Stephen Bunting recorded the same mark in a dramatic 3-2 victory over Andy Boulton thanks to an 11-darter in the decider.
The St Helens man, who did win their last meeting on the floor back in September, threw three 100+ checkouts and weighed in with five 180s against Boulton so he will be a danger in all the sub markets and also the result.
Wade and Bunting have been two of the most prolific ton+ checkout shooters on the circuit this year and we should see a handful more, especially if there's at least six sets played.
- Score Prediction: 4-2
- Suggested Bet: Three or more 100+ checkouts in the match at 11/10
Daryl Gurney (4/5) v Chris Dobey (1/1) (R3)
- Head to Head: 4-2
- 2020 Meetings: 1-0
- PDC Titles this Season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
- Career PDC Titles: 5-2 (TV: 0-0)
- PDC World Championship Appearances: 7-4
- PDC World Championship Best: Quarter Final (2013) - Last 16 (2019, 2020)
Daryl Gurney had almost forgotten what it was like to play well on TV prior to his impressive victory over William O'Connor way back on night three so the last thing he probably wanted was such a long wait for his next match.
After averaging 99 in a 3-2 victory, the Northern Irishman said: “To be honest I’ve been playing badly all year and I’ve been losing. I haven’t been getting any good results at all, but I’ve honestly been practising as well as I ever have. Then I’ve gone up on the TV stage and been terrible by my own standards.
“I still believe in myself though. I’ve been hitting big scores for fun in practice leading up to this. I’ve had a couple of nine darters. I know what I need to do is stop overthinking about situations and focus on playing my darts. That’s what I did against Willie and I think I was a deserving winner.”
I did write in my pre-tournament preview that he does have the pedigree of fighting back when the chips are down and therefore represented a spot of value at 14/1 to come through this quarter of the draw if he can rebuilding his confidence with a couple of early eye-catching victories.
He's got one of the board but his next opponent, Chris Dobey, is also in the same boat after also struggling to get the results he'd been hoping for this season.
Hollywood, who lost to Gurney 7-2 in the Premier League as a Challenger back in August, has not gone beyond the quarter-finals in any event this year and looked on course for an early exit at the Ally Pally when trailing Jeff Smith 2-0 in sets on night two.
However, he bounced back in style and after edging the third set 3-2 with a 116 checkout, he won six of the next seven legs with the help of two further ton+ finishes to take his match tally to four, while he also weighed in with six 180s.
As resident statistician Carl Fletcher wrote in his pre-tournament preview , Dobey has averaged pretty strongly this season despite the results and has also lost to the eventual winner of events on five separate occasions.
I'm struggling to pick a winner but I do expect the standard to be high, with both players potentially at the start of an upward curve of confidence.
- Score Prediction: 4-3
- Suggested Bet: Match to have over 23.5 legs, highest checkout to be over 132.5 and over 11.5 total 180s at 11/4
Jason Lowe (2/1) v Devon Petersen (2/5) (R3)
- Head to Head: 0-0
- 2020 Meetings: 0-0
- PDC Titles this Season: 0-1 (TV: 0-0)
- Career PDC Titles: 0-1 (TV: 0-0)
- PDC World Championship Appearances: 0-7
- PDC World Championship Best: Debut - Fourth Round (2019)
Jason Lowe will soon be nicknamed 'Young Stoneface' if he continues to look so emotionless during career-changing wins over the best players in the world on the biggest stage of all.
You'd never have thought the 500/1 pre-tournament outsider had just thrashed Michael Smith for the loss of just three legs on his debut to pocket by far his biggest darting pay day, which comes less than 12 months after earning his maiden PDC Tour Card at the age of 48.
By contrast, Bully Boy made no attempt to hide his frustrations and afterwards Lowe quipped: "“I’m not an emotional guy. People ask me ‘why don’t you smile’ but when I’m playing in my match I get in my bubble and I concentrate. I’m not miserable, I just look that way! He was shouting a bit and I thought ‘I’ve got you here’. That made me play better because I knew he was struggling."
The builder from Cradley Heath, who entered Q School after a flip of a coin, has been playing darts on the local circuits 30 years but regrets not having a crack at the highest level much earlier than now - and so he should with the standards he's been able to produce this year.
He even gave Michael van Gerwen an almighty scare in his only other televised outing at the UK Open back in March, only to miss the big number in the deciding leg.
Lowe averaged 96 against Smith and threw seven of the nine 180s but we have to bare in mind that Smith missed 11 of his 14 darts at doubles in a terrible performance that was also hampered by his poor body language.
Devon Petersen has a far more positive mindset and has plenty of fighting spirit should he find himself in a tough spot, which could well be on the cards if he averages in the high 80s like he did when beating Steve Lennon 3-1.
However, I really think you can put a line through that match due to the freakishly poor doubling from both players that descended into madness. Lennon missed 39 of his 46 darts at the outer ring while Petersen spurned 33 of his 44 and those kind of figures are clearly the rate exception to the rule.
The African Warrior, who has been one of the players of the season thanks to his breakthrough PDC title and a run to the European Championship semi-finals, still managed to fire in seven 180s in four sets to further consolidate his status as the most prolific maximum man on the circuit.
If we're treated to at least five or six sets in this encounter, then I like the price of 2/1 about both players managing to hit six or more 180s apiece.
- Score Prediction: 2-4
- Suggested Bet: Both players to hit six or more 180s each at 2/1
EVENING SESSION (1800 GMT)
Dave Chisnall (1/3) v Danny Noppert (23/10) (R3)
- Head to Head: 0-3
- 2020 Meetings: 0-0
- PDC Titles this Season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
- Career PDC Titles: 15-1 (TV: 0-0)
- PDC World Championship Appearances: 9-2
- PDC World Championship Best: Quarter Final (2017, 2019) - Third Round (2020)
Dave Chisnall is preparing for his seventh third-round match in 10 Ally Pally appearances but he's only twice gone any further when reaching the quarter-finals in 2017 and 2019.
The popular St Helens man certainly won't be getting carried away with dreams of ending his wait for a maiden televised major considering Dimitri Van den Bergh and Michael van Gerwen are in his quarter, while nobody ever knows which Danny Noppert will turn up.
I never relish betting on any game featuring the inconsistent Dutchman, who continues to knock on the door of the top 20 for very good reason yet can still throw in some poor sub-90 averages, particularly on TV.
In the three majors he qualified for since the sport resumed - excluding the double-start World Grand Prix where his two 80 averages were obviously par for the course - he's fallen into the 80s twice in five matches. However, one of the two occasions he scraped into the 90s he defeated Gerwyn Price, and he did post one of 100 at the Players Championship Finals before going completely off the boil again with an 85 against Mervyn King.
It was a similar story in the first round here, where he could only manage an average of 80.56 in a 3-1 victory against the virtual unknown Cameron Carolissen, who won nine legs and missed plenty of chances to cause a huge upset.
Chizzy averaged 97 and threw in six 180s in his 3-1 triumph and while he was pretty ruthless on the outer ring, the match would have been a lot close had a below-par Keegan Brown not missed 13 of his 21 attempts at doubles.
It could be quite a scrappy game that goes deep, but at least this should allow Chizzy to hit his Player Performance targets pretty comfortably. The question mark of the treble is the win part!
- Score Prediction: 4-2
- Suggested Bet: Dave Chisnall to win the match, score over 5.5 180s and checkout over 105.5 at 5/4
Gabriel Clemens (5/4) v Krzysztof Ratajski (8/13) (R4)
- Head to Head: 0-6
- 2020 Meetings: 0-4
- PDC Titles this Season: 0-1 (TV: 0-0)
- Career PDC Titles: 0-7 (TV: 0-0)
- PDC World Championship Appearances: 2-2
- PDC World Championship Best: Second Round (2019) - Third Round (2020)
Head-to-head records can tend to be misleading in darts - especially compared to current overall form - unless a player can boast a particularly strong run of recent dominance in a range of different settings and venues.
And that's exactly what Krzysztof Ratajski has over Gabriel Clemens.
He's won all six of their meetings in the PDC dating back to June 2019 and four have come this year, including two since the summer. His first was in the quarter-final of a Players Championship event that he went on to win in February, the second was on the stage of the European Tour later that month, while he also edged him out 12-10 in a World Matchplay cracker in which he averaged almost a ton.
Their last meeting in September was another different venue - their own living rooms during the Home Tour. Ratajski whitewashed him 5-0 with a 100 average compared to Clemens' 84.58 but we should probably strike a line through that one for obvious reasons.
You wonder if the Polish Eagle has now developed a mental stranglehold over the German Giant and he comes into this clash on a real high following back-to-back whitewash wins over Ryan Joyce and Simon Whitlock.
He posted averages of 100 and 93 respectively while Clemens managed 95.7 in a highly entertaining 3-1 win over compatriot Nico Kurz before producing a the performance of his career to dethrone Peter Wright in a dramatic last-leg decider.
Clemens has obviously averaged higher than his 98.65 but the manner in which he held his nerve and composure throughout a see-saw encounter in which Wright hit him with a barrage of 180s was testament to his strengthening character on the big stage. Especially after Snakebite won the sixth set 3-0 to seize the initiative.
It's a tough one to call but I can foresee this one being a lot closer than Ratajski's other two wins and we should therefore see plenty of 180s and more eye-catching checkouts.
- Score Prediction: 3-4
- Suggested Bet: Match to have over 20.5 legs, highest checkout to be over 121.5 and over 9.5 total 180s at 11/10
Michael van Gerwen (1/9) v Joe Cullen (11/2) (R4)
- Head to Head: 18-4
- 2020 Meetings: 1-1
- PDC Titles this Season: 5-2 (TV: 2-0)
- Career PDC Titles: 138-5 (TV: 55-0)
- PDC World Championship Appearances: 13-10
- PDC World Championship Best: Winner (2014, 2017, 2019) - Second Round/Last 32 (2017)
If Michael van Gerwen can play close to the blockbusting standard that he's produced in both of his previous games, then Joe Cullen will be hard pressed to win more than a set.
After posting a 109 average in a 3-1 victory over Ryan Murray, the world number one ran riot again in a thoroughly entertaining clash with Ricky Evans - although the 4-0 scoreline was harsh on his victim, who took three of the sets to deciding legs and averaged 100.66.
MVG's average of 106.85 was complemented by seven 180s, a 150 finish and a checkout percentage of 57.14% so he's undoubtedly showing ominous signs that he's peaking exactly at the right time to end a difficult and inconsistent 2020 on an ultimate high.
Perhaps the very real prospect of losing the world number one spot for the first time since he took it off Phil Taylor six years ago has sparked him into life while lifting the Players Championship Finals triumph at the end of November clearly put the spring back in his step.
Cullen is bang up for this challenge, however, and won't have any fear having twice beaten the Dutchman on the stage of European Tour finals over the past 16 months, including October's International Darts Open.
Sure, the latter was when MVG was at his most inconsistent and Cullen's average of 97 was considerably better than his 91.37 that day, but it's still a significant source of mental strength for the Rockstar to draw upon.
He sounded very confident after overcoming his close pal Jonny Clayton 4-3 in the last round, which he won with a show-stopping 100 checkout featuring two tops in the deciding leg when his opponent waited on 40, but you'd have thought he needs to average much higher than his 92.34.
Despite MVG going maximum crazy against Evans, he doesn't tend to be that prolific and Cullen's 180 per leg ratio this season of 0.29 is higher than the Dutchman's 0.24. He's also managed six in each of his two games, while van Gerwen has managed 10 overall.
Therefore I think it's worth backing the double of MVG winning but Cullen coming out on top in the 180s.
- Score Prediction: 4-2
- Suggested Bet: MVG to win and Cullen to hit most 180s at 5/4
Season Statistics
To help you with your bets throughout the tournament, here are some excellent statistical graphs for every player in the field from Darts Tracker creator and Sporting Life contributor Carl Fletcher (@CarlyFletch & @Darts_Tracker on Twitter), while there is an additional graphic at the bottom charting each player’s frequency of bringing up the ‘Match Treble’ in PDC events this season. That is when they win, throw most 180s and hit the highest checkout. You can read more about Carl’s research on that by clicking here.
NB: Averages & 180 per leg data covers events except World Grand Prix (which is double-start and distorts figures), 100+ checkout % is all events, and doubles percentage is stage events only (majors and European Tour) because definitive double stats for Players Championship events aren't available.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL TOURNAMENT DRAW, RESULTS & SCHEDULE
More World Darts Championship content
- World Championship draw & schedule
- Carl Fletcher's 'what the stats say' preview
- Paul Nicholson's Ally Pally picks
- Carl Fletcher's Super Six Outsiders
- Carl Fletcher's Match Treble Masters
- James Cooper's Quarter masters
- Watch: All the World Championship nine-darters
- 2020 Premier League results
- 2020 PDC event calendar & results
- Sky Bet's darts odds