Barney and Taylor in Action at Ally Pally

World number three Raymond van Barneveld and 15-time World Champion Phil Taylor are in action at Alexandra Palace this evening.

Five-time World Champion Barney kicks off the evening session when he takes on Kevin McDine in his second round match. Barney booked his place in the last 32 of the event with a 3-1 win over Steve Hine coming back with a 94.28 three-dart average after losing the first set of the match.

What impressed most about the Dutchman’s performances was that despite losing that first set there were no signs of him shaking his head and beating himself up about the situation; something which has become a characteristic of Barney’s game over the past 18 months.

McDine on the other hand will be feeling a little fortunate to still be in the tournament after posting the worst winning three-dart average of the first round. He will need to improve considerably on that showing if he is to progress to the next round at odds of 13/2. Barney is the strong 1/8 odds-on favourite with the bookmakers.

Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor will be waiting in the wings to see what one of his greatest rivals has to offer as he is involved in third round action later in the evening when he takes on Peter Wright. The Power upped the ante with his second round performance on Monday evening; his 102.09 average slotting in just behind Gary Anderson as the second best of the tournament so far.

Wright has been one of the surprise packages of the event after upsetting the odds to beat Co Stompe in the first round and then Paul Nicholson in the second round. He will need to produce an even bigger upset if he is to get to the quarter-finals of the event for the first time in his career.

Taylor is 1/33 to go through to the third round whilst it is 25/1 that Wright produces what would be one of the biggest upsets in the event’s history.

With both players being on the opposite side of the draw we could yet see a third Taylor v Barney World Championship final. They’ve each won one of the previous encounters, who would triumph this time around remains to be seen.