2024 Betfred World Matchplay Day Four

The World Champion Luke Humphries headlines as we get the second round underway in Blackpool for the 2024 Betfred World Matchplay

Humphries Faces In-Form Bunting

The Winter Gardens crowd will be expecting this match between the world number one and the Masters champion to be an absolute belter and it’s easy to see why.

Luke Humphries on stage during the 2024 BetMGM Premier League Darts
Luke Humphries faces Stephen Bunting in Round Two Credit: PDC

Luke Humphries has carried his status of world champion extremely well this season despite probably not winning as many titles as he’d have hoped while Stephen Bunting has continued to produce stellar performances since winning his maiden major – not least a 117.12 average on the European Tour.

Bunting beat Humphries en route to Masters glory before Cool Hand gained emphatic revenge at the UK Open and since then they’ve traded one victory against each other apiece on the European Tour action.

Price Looking To Extend His Blackpool Run

Gerwyn Price opened this year’s World Matchplay with an extremely solid 10-4 victory over Daryl Gurney in which he averaged just shy of 100 but I’d expect him to get a much tougher examination against Ross Smith.

In fact Smith was my pre-tournament tip to win this quarter of the draw and based on the performance he put in during his thrashing of Josh Rock by the same scoreline, I’m still pretty confident about his chances.

Gerwyn Price faces Ross Smith in Blackpool

The Englishman averaged 99 despite ‘only’ managing three 180s which is well below his usual rate of maximums and if he can unleash a barrage of those on this occasion, the crowd could become a notable factor in his favour.

Price is certainly no slouch when it comes to 180s and hit five of them in 14 legs last time out so if we see plenty of legs in this one, then they should be able to achieve at least six apiece fairly comfortably.

Also On Night Four

James Wade always seems to take great delight at being underestimated – or even written off – and he used that to fuel him to a surprisingly comfortable win over a lacklustre Danny Noppert on Sunday.

The Machine only needed a steady 96 average to mark his 19th successive appearance here with a 10-5 victory and that could be plenty good enough tonight as well when he faces Nathan Aspinall.

The defending champion admitted ‘I shouldn’t be playing’ due to injury problems that will force him to take a break from the game after Blackpool so he did remarkably well to battle through 18 legs to beat Luke Woodhouse on opening night.

Jonny Clayton’s seasonal average of 93.88 may not look too impressive but since the start of July he’s managed 99.86 across his 13 games so it was little surprise to reach three figures in his opening-round victory over Raymond van Barneveld.

It was the Ferret’s seven 100+ average in this recent return to form and he’ll need to maintain it when he faces Dimitri Van den Bergh, who has already lit up this year’s World Matchplay with a nine-dart finish.

The Belgian also averaged 99 in an impressively clinical 10-6 victory over an in-form Martin Schindler which will further fuel his belief that he can seriously challenge for a second major of the season having already claimed the UK Open back in March.

Van den Bergh also won a Players Championship title last month and while his very recent form isn’t as hot as Clayton’s, he’s still managed a couple of averages in excess of 107 in recent weeks

Each day we will be providing you recommend bets in partnership with Betfred.

You can also watch the team straight after the session finishes on our YouTube Channel, when we will bring you The Fallout Bar, plus interviews from every winner. 

Tuesday July 16 (1900 BST)

Second Round x4

Gerwyn Price v Ross Smith

Nathan Aspinall v James Wade

Luke Humphries v Stephen Bunting

Jonny Clayton v Dimitri Van den Bergh