Serious Business Begins at Alexandra Palace

The second round of the PDC World Championships begins at Alexandra Palace this Monday afternoon and it is now that the event begins in earnest.

With one afternoon and one evening session per day from now on in, the darting entertainment will be coming thick and fast. There are no easy games from this stage onwards and with all of the top 16 seeded players still in contention, and Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor apparently not at his best, this promises to be one of the most open World Championships ever.

Mark Webster and Ronnie Baxter kick off the second round action after both impressing with 3-0 victories in their first round fixtures. Webster is one of the game’s in-form players and is fancied by many to have a good run at this event, his odds on winning halving from 50/1 to 25/1 after his win on the opening day of the event.

The Welshman is the 1/2 favourite with the bookmakers to make it through to the third round whilst Baxter can be backed at 15/8.

Another potentially close match later in the afternoon sees Andy Hamilton play Robert Thornton. Hamilton came through his first round match 3-0 but posted one of the worst winning three-dart averages in doing so. Thornton on the other hand was up in the 90s with his average and should go into this one with much more confidence in his game.

Perhaps surprisingly the bookmakers have this one the opposite way around and it is Hamilton that is the 4/5 favourite with this opponent available at 5/4.

Phil Taylor concludes the day’s play when he takes on the Danish Per Laursen. Laursen produced one of the upsets of the first round when he beat three-time World Champion John Part but if he were to beat The Power in the second round it would be one of the biggest upsets of the decade.

The 15-time World Champion is 1/33 to go through to the next round where he will meet Paul Nicholson or Peter Wright and Laursen can be backed at 25/1.