Star Studded Last 8 at Ally Pally

Simon Whitlock is a surprise omission from an otherwise star studded PDC World Championships quarter-final line-up this New Years day.

Last year’s runner-up was eliminated from the tournament by Vincent van der Voort on Thursday evening as the Dutchman maintained a high standard throughout and punished the Australian for almost every mistake that he made.

He will now face Adrian ‘Jackpot’ Lewis for a place in the semi-finals. Lewis was an impressive 4-1 winner over Robert Thornton in his last 16 match posting a 101.05 average and nine 180s en route to victory. The bookmakers are pricing Jackpot at 1/4 to make it to the semi-finals of the event for the first time in his career whilst it is 11/4 for the Dutchman to cause another upset.

That game concludes the afternoon session and comes after Terry Jenkins against Wes Newton who begin the quarter-final action. This is probably the least glamorous of last 8 ties and Jenkins is priced at 8/15 to progress with the in-form Newton at 17/10.

The evening session kicks off with Gary Anderson against Raymond van Barneveld. Anderson was superb in his third round match against Andy Smith, his 108.39 three-dart average was the biggest of the tournament so far and is the reason he has been made the 4/6 favourite to progress here.

However, van Barneveld supporters will take solace from the fact that he showed great strength of character to beat Colin Osborne to book his place in the quarter-final. The Barney of 6-12 months ago would have folded under that kind of pressure and if he can start hitting his doubles with consistency his three-dart average will shoot past the 100 mark.

The day concludes with Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor up against Mark Webster. Taylor has gradually improved as the tournament has progressed but has yet to come up a player of Webster’s quality. This will undoubtedly be his biggest test of the tournament so far and if the Welshman can reproduce his best form then he will fancy his chances of upsetting the odds here.

Taylor is a 1/6 favourite with the bookmakers whilst Webster can be backed at odds of 5/1. The Power is 5/6 to win his 16th world title in three days time and if he comes through this tough test then those odds are certain to tumble.