2019 PDC World Championships Preivew

Posted: 12.12.18 in Tournament Analysis Blog category

We talk DPC sponsored players, who will be Champion and can Lisa Ashton get the Ladies off to a flyer?

The annual darts fest at Alexandra Palace starts on Thursday. We have an expanded field, 2 ladies and 2 of our sponsored players taking part. The field has been increased to 96 players allowing a further 24 players in making room for the ladies and some additional qualifiers from around the world.

There is a whopping £500,000 to the winner and the prelim games have been done away with and a first round will take place between the qualifiers and 32 players from the PDC order of merit. The seeded order of merit players will join in for the 2^nd round.

For us this opens an opportunity for our sponsored players to progress. This year Diogo Portela, will be wearing our sister company, Performance Darts badge during his game with Ron “The Bomb” Meulenkamp. We met Ron when we took our video analysis kit to the Dutch Open a few years ago. He has done well over the past few seasons in the PDC and has changed his style since we had a video session with him!

Last year Diogo drew Peter Wright, a below par Peter Wright but nevertheless a very tough opponent. Both Diogo and Ron will fancy their chances in what should be a cracking game and a close encounter I reckon. It is being played in the evening session on Tuesday 18 December.

Our other sponsored player is Geert Nentjes, who will be sporting a DPC patch in his game on Wednesday 19^th in the afternoon session v Nathan Aspinall. Geert came to our attention at European Q School. I was there with Diogo and also “looking after” the Iron Man, Dennis Nilsson. Dennis flagged up Geert as a quality player and after watching him play we offered him a kit sponsorship deal.

If you would like to learn a bit more about Geert check out this excellent interview with Pieter Verbeek from DartsNews.com here.

He is a cracking player and Aspinall will have his work cut out if the “cool and calm” Geert can remain cool and calm! Whatever the outcome Geert has done amazingly well just to be there. I will be at both games and really looking forward to them.

Who Will Win?

This is probably the most open tournament we have had for a long time. MvG has stuttered recently, compared to his usual high standards but is still 11/8 favourite across the board. Anderson 7/2 ,Wright 10/1, Smith 14/1 and to demonstrate how the current champion stock has fallen,Rob Cross is a huge 22/1 to retain his title.

Some Outsiders

We have seen a few players come through the pack this season and snatch titles and players championship events so why not at the biggest tournament of the year? Gurney 33/1, Wade 40/1 and Rajatski at an eye watering 200/1 catch the eye.

Opening Night

Thursday December 13 (1900)

Jeffrey de Zwaan v Nitin Kumar (R1)
Martin Schindler v Cody Harris (R1)
Jan Dekker v Lisa Ashton (R1)
Rob Cross v De Zwaan/Kumar (R2)

There is some real quality right from the first night. I expect Jeffrey de Zwaan to set up a meeting with Rob Cross and it would be no surprise if de Zwaan sent Cross packing. Jeffrey is a best price 5/2 and that will tempt a few I am sure.

Martin Schindler v Cody Harris should be a cracker too. Diogo has been practising with Cody and speaks highly of him. The Wall is a quality player though and should have enough at 4/6 to progress. We have Martin’s darts at the DPC Darts Shop by the way, check them out here!

Then Ladies World Champion takes on former BDO player Jan Dekker. Bookies have Jan at 1/3 and Lisa at 11/4. Now make no mistake, Lisa Ashton can win this game. I have seen her in action at Lakeside on many occasions and when she is on form then she could virtually beat anyone. But, can she come up with a performance of the highest standard on Thursday. My best advice is to go with Lisa in the handicap market

Fun Dabble

De Zwaan and Lisa Ashton +1.5 legs double

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