World Darts Championship: Barney to hand out next rout
Published:Raymond van Barneveld was pretty much unbeatable when routing Michael Smith in the first round of the Ladbrokes World Darts Championship and he is the star turn of the afternoon action on day nine at Alexandra Palace.
He faces Brendan Dolan next, with Mark Webster and Ronnie Baxter also tipped to reach the last 16.
Ronnie Baxter to beat Kevin Painter @ 1/1
Painter hardly needed to come out of first gear to beat Leung Chun Nam in the first round, but a checkout average of over 50 per cent in the victory is reason for further optimism.
Baxter was not as impressive in seeing off Dennis Priestley, but has held all of the aces in his latest meetings with Painter, winning eight of the last nine.
This is significant and with few matches between the pair requiring a deciding set, 9/2 looks decent value on Baxter progressing 4-2.
Mark Webster to beat Colin Lloyd @ 8/15
Since being dumped out of this tournament in the opening round last year, Webster has had a miserable time at the oche.
However, he looked somewhere back to his best when overcoming a banana skin with Ian White in the first round and averaged over 97 in the process.
He has reached the semi finals here twice in three years and has won three of his last four clashes with second-round opponent Colin Lloyd.
Lloyd did well to come from behind twice to beat Darin Young in his opener and has reached the last 16 in two of the last three years, but will struggle to cope with The Spider if repeating his performance against White.
Raymond van Barneveld (-2.5 games) to beat Brendan Dolan @ 8/11
Both these men were on song in the opening round, dropping just one leg each in their respective victories.
But Van Barneveld’s 18-minute demolition of Smith was a sight to behold, alongside a three-dart average of over 108 and the fact he also landed the Grand Slam of Darts last month seemingly makes him the man to beat at present.
He has prevailed in six of his seven career meetings with Dolan too, but with little value in the 1/8 on the Dutchman, backing Van Barneveld to win giving up 2.5 sets looks the way forward.
All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date
