Sporting Life
Jonny Clayton and Jose de Sousa (Picture: Lawrence Lustig/PDC)
Jonny Clayton and Jose de Sousa (Picture: Lawrence Lustig/PDC)

World Grand Prix: Night four predictions, betting tips, acca, order of play and TV time

By Chris Hammer
Darts
Wed October 06, 2021 · 3y ago

The second round of the World Grand Prix concludes on Wednesday night so check out Chris Hammer's match-by-match predictions, best bets and a suggested acca.

There's no Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright or Gary Anderson in second-round action tonight after all three crashed out on Monday to blow this bottom section of the draw wide open.

Darts betting tips: World Grand Prix night four

1pt over 6.5 180s in Cross v Ratajski at 6/5 (Sky Bet)

1pt Danny Noppert to beat Vincent van der Voort and hit most 180s at 2/1 (Sky Bet)

1pt De Sousa v Clayton to have over 14.5 legs, highest checkout to be over 115.5 and over 6.5 total 180s at 11/10 (Sky Bet)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

World Grand Prix: Wednesday October 6

  • TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 BST)
  • Format: Best of five sets. All Sets are the best of five legs. All legs must begin and end with a double, meaning that a player must hit a double before he can begin scoring in each leg.

SL Acca: White, Noppert & De Sousa to hit most 180s at 11/2 with Sky Bet

Ian White (8/13) v Darius Labanauskas (5/4)

  • Head to Head (TV): 1-1 (0-1)
  • 2021 Head to Head (TV): 0-0 (0-0)
  • 2021 Titles (TV): 0-0 (0-0)
  • Three-Dart Average (2021): 94.89 – 92.93
  • 180s per leg (2021): 0.26 – 0.14
  • Checkout percentage (Stage Events 2021): 25% - 51.06
  • 100+ checkout per leg won (2021): 8.25% - 13.41%
  • World Grand Prix 2021 stats so far
    Average: 78.12 - 85.85
    180s: 2 - 0
    Double-in: 41% - 46%
    Checkout %: 26.9% - 35.3%
  • World Grand Prix Best: QFx2 – Debut

Ian White has endured a pretty miserable season by his standards but all of a sudden he's favourite to reach yet another televised quarter-final.

Victory over debutant Darius Labanauskas would see him reach the last eight of a major for the 11th time and the way this draw has opened up, he may find it hard to not think about the prospect of a second semi-final in a career that has promised so much more.

However, he rode his luck to scrap past Gary Anderson in a really poor encounter on Monday night, with both players missing match darts in a decider before Diamond finally got the job done at the seventh attempt.

Labanauskas played much better in his upset victory over an in-form Brendan Dolan but it was no surprise to see him fail to register a single 180 considering he's one of the lowest maximum hitters. His ratio of 0.14 per leg this season is only better than Glen Durrant's as far as this field is concerned.

White to win with most 180s is 6/4 but the way he's playing overall, it's probably safer to take William Hill's 3/4 just for him to do the maximum part. The result could go either way.

Rob Cross (11/10) v Krzysztof Ratajski (8/11)

  • Head to Head (TV): 5-4 (2-0)
  • 2021 Head to Head (TV): 0-0 (0-0)
  • 2021 Titles (TV): 0-0 (0-0)
  • Three-Dart Average (2021): 95.95 – 96.97
  • 180s per leg (2021): 0.23 – 0.24
  • Checkout percentage (Stage Events 2021): 37.37% - 37.01%
  • 100+ checkout per leg won (2021): 10.33% - 10.26%
  • World Grand Prix 2021 stats so far
    Average: 85.62 - 94.26
    180s: 3 - 0
    Double-in: 36% - 58%
    Checkout %: 42.9% - 32%
  • World Grand Prix Best: R2x1 – R1x2

The last time Rob Cross met Krzysztof Ratajski in a televised major was at a point in his career when people were starting to question - incredibly unfairly I might add - whether he might be a one hit wonder.

He went on to defeat the Polish Eagle en route to World Matchplay glory back in 2019 as he shut the doubters up emphatically but here we are over two years on wondering when we'll see him return to major-winning form.

After a string of early televised exits since he last won a tournament of any kind at the European Championship in 2019, his second ever victory at the World Grand Prix against Peter Wright will have done him the power of good, although he would have been surprised how comfortable Snakebite made it for him with an unusually below-par showing.

Ratajski will make him work for every single leg. He certainly didn't play like someone who'd never won a double-start match last time out, as he showed tremendous character to overcome Nathan Aspinall 2-1 with an impressive mid-90s average.

He was so clinical on his starting doubles and seemingly has finally got his head round the format having crashed out at the first hurdle in each of his two previous appearances.

I do think Ratajski is the superior player right now but Cross can make this a real close battle so if we see at least four sets, then my selection of 6.5 maximums in the match at 5/4 has a great chance. Both have been pretty sound on that front this season, and although Ratajski surprisingly didn't manage any last time out, Voltage threw three in just two sets.

Danny Noppert (8/11) v Vincent van der Voort (11/10)

  • Head to Head (TV): 1-1 (0-0)
  • 2021 Head to Head (TV): 0-0 (0-0)
  • 2021 Titles (TV): 0-0 (0-0)
  • Three-Dart Average (2021): 96.22 – 92.68
  • 180s per leg (2021): 0.26 – 0.19
  • Checkout percentage (Stage Events 2021): 28.89% - 27.78%
  • 100+ checkout per leg won (2021): 12.21% - 13.28%
  • World Grand Prix 2021 stats so far
    Average: 96.72 - 90.47%
    180s: 3 - 0
    Double-in %: 52% - 59%
    Checkout %: 50% - 60%
  • World Grand Prix Best: R2x2 – QFx1

Two nights on from overcoming Michael van Gerwen amidst 'stamp-gate', Danny Noppert faces another intimidating Dutchman in the giant shape of Vincent van der Voort.

However, when it comes to quality of play, there hasn't been much to fear from VDV this season and as good as his 2-0 victory over Gabriel Clemens was with a 90.47 average, his victory was mainly down to his phenomenal doubling at both ends of legs. It'll be hard for him to match those standards again when he faces a stronger opponent in a longer format.

Noppert averaged a brilliant 96.72 against the five-time champion and also started and finished clinically but the most impressive part of his display was character to defy MVG's second-set revival, especially considering he'd lost six of their previous seven matches.

Stats-wise he's been averaging significantly higher than VDV this season and also has a far better 180s per leg ratio than his Dutch counterpart. I can only see this going one way and I'll throw in the most maximums to boost the price.

Jose de Sousa (1/1) v Jonny Clayton (4/5)

  • Head to Head (TV): 3-7 (1-4)
  • 2021 Head to Head (TV): 2-6 (1-3)
  • 2021 Titles (TV): 3-4 (0-2)
  • Three-Dart Average (2021): 98.83 – 98.68
  • 180s per leg (2021): 0.35 – 0.27
  • Checkout percentage (Stage Events 2021): 40.16% - 41.06%
  • 100+ checkout per leg won (2021): 12.80% - 12.43%
  • World Grand Prix 2021 stats so far
    Average: 78.07 - 95.1
    180s: 1 - 2
    Double-in: 47% - 50%
    Checkout %: 25% - 60%
  • World Grand Prix Best: R1x1 – R1x2

There won't have been many fixtures played more than Jose de Sousa v Jonny Clayton in 2021 and tonight they remarkably meet for the eighth time this season and fifth on TV.

The Ferret has the considerable upper hand on the head-to-head front, edging him 6-5 in the first round of the Masters, which he went on to win and seal a place in the Premier League - which he also won by beating you know who in the final!

De Sousa did bag one of the regular season meetings and also triumphed in their most recent ProTour clash back in June but it's fair to say neither man is operating at the absolute peak of their 2021 powers that we saw in May.

As well as their superb performance stats this season, they've combined for seven titles, with the Special One's last coming in mid-June and Clayton's being the Premier League crown.

That said, now his the time of year where players will be looking to gather momentum and the Welshman certainly looked more like his old self in round one against Callan Rydz, whereas de Sousa simply wasn't pushed hard enough by a struggling Glen Durrant to remind us of his sensational levels.

It's a tough one to call and while Clayton is looking slightly sharper, we should see at least four sets of high quality darts that helps hit the Match Action targets below at 11/10.

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