Dimitri van den Bergh was dumped out of the PDC World Championship in the second round as German newcomer Florian Hempel stunned the Belgian with an incredible performance on Tuesday night.
Van den Bergh averaged 101.78 – the highest average in his quarter of the draw so far – but Hempel held his nerve at key moments to claim a 3-1 victory.
Hempel has been playing competitive darts for only four years, but he has dropped only one set in two matches this week.
King Can Dethrone Wade
With Van den Bergh gone, the second quarter has become wide open, with James Wade the top seed.
Wade, though, was deeply unimpressive in his second-round success over a wasteful Maik Kuivenhoven, and preference at the prices is for Mervyn King.
The 50/1 available about King in the outright betting is well worth considering, with each-way terms of a half the odds, the final.
King has been presented with a golden opportunity to go far in this championship – the vastly experienced 55-year-old will fancy his chances against anyone in his portion of the draw. He can be backed at 7/2 to win his quarter.
Steve Lennon is up next for King, then maybe Hempel. King is still capable of magnificent darts – and his fightback from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against Ryan Joyce in round two has set The King up well for the rest of the event, with perhaps a King versus Peter Wright semi-final is in the offing.
Barney All Set to Stare Down Cross
The top half of the draw is a minefield, with 7/2 tournament favourite and defending champion Gerwyn Price on a collision course with massively in-form duo Jonny Clayton and Michael Smith. Only one of that trio can make the semis.
Thursday sees the final set of matches before the Christmas break – there is no darts on the 24th, 25th or 26th December – and Rob Cross against Raymond van Barneveld is the match of the day.
Cross won the World Championship on his debut in 2018, destroying Phil Taylor 7-2 in the final, while van Barneveld has been world champion five times.
Barney made his Alexandra Palace comeback on Monday night, cruising past Lourence Ilagan 3-0, averaging 96.70.
Cross will have been watching that match, fretting about the calmness and quality of the seemingly resurgent 54-year-old.
The pair have met twice on the PDC circuit this year – and van Barneveld has triumphed both times – so the 6/4 outsider for this contest is well worth considering.
Beware the Outsiders
Another outsider may be victorious in the preceding match – Luke Woodhouse has a great record on the Ally Pally stage and 43/20 seems a juicy price about him defeating Damon Heta.
Woodhouse delivered some superb checkouts in his first-round success over James Wilson.
The outsiders in the final three matches all appear to represent value. Van Barneveld and Woodhouse, in particular, are attractive options, but Rusty-Jake Rodriguez was magnificent in his first-round triumph and 49/20 seems a big price about the Austrian youngster defeating Chris Dobey.
Favourite-backers should certainly be wary late on Thursday of some pre-Christmas upsets at Ally Pally.
*All odds correct at time of writing.
