Champion Kicks Off BDO World Championships

2010 BDO World Champion Martin ‘Wolfie’ Adams is in action on the first day of the 2011 Championships at Lakeside.

Wolfie is the second match on stage this New Years day as he begins his attempt to land a third BDO world title. He faces world number 17 Tony West in the first round and is heavily favoured by the bookmakers at odds of 1/6 to progress to the second round.

Dutchman Willy van de Wiel is up next as he takes on Alan Soutar. Van de Wiel is priced at 8/15 for victory whilst Scotsman Soutar is 6/4 to go make the second round on his BDO World Championships debut.

Tony ‘Silverback’ O’Shea and Ross Smith follow that match with O’Shea bidding to make it to the last four of the event for the third year in a row. Silverback was a beaten finalist in 2009 and was then knocked out at the semi-final stage by Dave Chisnall last year. He is heavily favoured at odds of 1/4 to beat 21-year-old Smith.

Another of last year’s beaten finalists Martin Phillips is in action next as he takes on Scotsman Mark Barilli. Phillips played well at the recent Grand Slam of Darts despite exiting the event at the group stages and also reached the semi-finals stage of the World Masters in late October. Phillips is priced at 4/9 for victory here whilst Barilli is available to back at the reciprocal.

The day’s action concludes when Joey ten Berge takes on Shaun Griffiths. Ten Berge has yet to make it past the first round of the event in his two previous appearances at Lakeside but is favoured by the bookmakers at odds of 8/11 to end that run here.

There may not be the razzamatazz of the Alexandra Palace on show here but, as we saw at the Grand Slam of Darts, the quality of darts certainly isn’t second rate.