The first round of the 25th PDC World Darts Championship concludes tonight - here's the order of play, our predictions, odds and a suggested acca.
With no preliminary matches tonight, Peter Wright, Kim Huybrechts, Darren Webster and CRisto Reyes are the four seeded players hoping to avoid any upsets at Alexandra Palace.
Below is the evening's full running order, complete with the Sky Bet odds, Chris Hammer's predicted scoreline for each game, his suggested bets and accumulator. You can also click here for his outright bets and here for the full tournament draw, daily schedule and results.
World Darts Championship: Thursday December 21
Click on the odds for more Sky Bet match markets
EVENING SESSION
TV coverage: Sky Sports Darts (1900 GMT)
First round: (Best of 5 sets)
- Cristo Reyes (1/4) v Toni Alcinas (3/1)
Cristo Reyes held the record of the highest losing average in world championship for a matter of days last year when his 106.07 against Michael van Gerwen was eclipsed by Raymond van Barneveld's 109.34 against the same opponent. Since then he's not really lit up many stages apart from a couple of semi-final runs at European Tour events and I reckon he'll be given a good test by his World Cup partner Toni Alcinas, who came through a field of over 200 players at a South European qualifying event to earn his third career world championship spot - but first since 2012.
Prediction: 3-2 - Kim Huybrechts (2/7) v James Richardson (13/5)
On one of his good days, Kim Huybrechts will make anyone who backed against him look silly. He's a player who relies on purple patches of form but there have been few examples of these during what has been a difficult year for the Belgian, both on and off the oche, with his mother passing away during a Premier League campaign in which he finished bottom. Still, The Hurricane can just fire on all cylinders out of nowhere so don't be surprised if he wins 3-0 averaging 100+. James Richardson, who famously beat Barney 3-0 back in 2012, is back on the world stage for the first time since 2013 following a steady season on the ProTour but he's never beaten Huybrechts in five previous attempts, although their two meetings this year were very tight.
Prediction: 3-2 - Darren Webster (2/9) v Devon Petersen (10/3)
Darren Webster has enjoyed a very solid season as he continues his renaissance on the PDC circuit and is now ranked 23 in the world. The Demolition Man won a Players Championship event earlier this year, thrashing Daryl Gurney in the final, as well as reaching the World Matchplay quarter-finals. He should win this pretty comfortably against a player who has struggled to get through the early rounds in many of the Pro Tour events this season.
Prediction: 3-1 - Peter Wright (1/33) v Diogo Portela (11/1)
It's great news to hear Peter Wright is fit to compete here after last month's health scare although he has admitted to losing almost two stone in weight. He cancelled his scheduled exhibition events, including one I had hoped to see him at in Leeds, so it's hard to guess just how well he'll throw. His 'C' game should be enough to get through here but look what happened to Adrian Lewis the other night. In terms of his 29-year-old Brazilian opponent, he sold a business back home to come to England two years ago and recently quit his job at L'Oreal to concentrate on being a darts player. We'll see if he can cut it tonight!
Prediction: 3-0
Thursday's suggested darts bets
- James Richardson (+1.5 sets) to beat Kim Huybrechts at 6/5
- Reyes v Alcinas to have over 13.5 legs, high checkout of over 110.5 & over 5.5 total 180s at 11/10
- Darren Webster to win the match, score over 2.5 180s and checkout over 97.5
Thursday's darts acca
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