Barney to cruise into the last-16 with crushing win over Caven

The Ladbrokes World Darts Championship moves into the last-16 phase as the wheat and chaff of the realm of tungsten tossing begin to be segregated in accordance with their worth.

The juiciest shoot of wheat, Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor takes to the oche to almost certainly book his post-Christmas spot in the competition, but with his price for success so hopelessly short, we’re focussing on the other two matches taking place in our never-ending quest to unearth the best bets around.

The first of these contests pits crowd favourite Raymond van Barneveld against Jamie Caven.

Underdog Jabba is priced at 11/4 to advance in the wake of Barney’s microscopic 1/4, but will surely be buoyed by an excellent run against adversaries hailing from the continent.

He set up this match with Van Barneveld on the back of defeating his Dutch comrade Jelle Klaasen 3-1 in the last-64, who became the fourth straight European-originating dartist to fall by the wayside when squaring off against Caven.

In general, Jabba will have no complaints about his recent form, besting 12 of the last 17 to oppose him on the oche.

There’s definite potential for an upset here, but Barney is typically formidable at this stage of the competition, winning four of his previous five last-32 matches by a 4-1 scoreline.

The remainder in this sequence finished 4-0 in his favour, so a punt on his supremacy with a 2.5-set handicap applied could be the way to go at 6/5, if his 3/1 for another 4-1 victory doesn’t appeal.

Up next is Peter Wright’s dust up with Danish hurler Per Laursen.
Snakebite Wright is the obvious pick to prevail, weighing in as colossal 1/8 favourite, with Laursen priced at a huge 9/2.

His Scandinavian adversary upset Terry Jenkins in the opening round so Wright can’t afford to take him lightly and backers who favour Peachy to score the most 180’s in the duel may well be rewarded.

Despite Jenkins hitting a nine-dart finish in their first round match, Laursen still managed to outscore him in this department and the four he managed would have also bettered Wright’s three in round one.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date

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