Dutch Darts Masters

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Got a while for this until it gets underway. This Friday is the qualifying round and then Saturday it will be the remaining rounds and the final. We know the 8 qualifiers and it's a strong 8 with Noppert, DVD, Van Der Voort, Wattimena, Kleermaker, De Zwaan, Kuivenhoven and Meulenkamp all competing. That's a strong line-up when you think in general, in these events, there alot of players you'd never even have heard of "making up the numbers"

Unfortuntely, we don't know where, in the draw, these players are going to be placed. Which is a great shame. All we know so far is the the top half has Smith in it, with Wright and the bottom half houses MVG and Van Den Bergh. The other 4 players are Sherrock, Price, Wade and Clayton.

Based on how poor Wright is looking and the fact MVG has just had surgery, you'd have to say this event could be quite open. Price showed glimpses of brilliance at the World Cup but he needed alot of big checkouts because at times his scoring let him down. Clayton isn't looking the same player either right now. Smith is a tier above everybody else right now and has to be rated as a favourite.

I think Noppert, DVD and potentially Kuivenhoven (to a less extent) could be dangerous of the qualifiers but until we see the draw, we'll leave it there.

back on Friday.

 

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.. so the draw is out and here it is :

Smith Vs Kleermaker
Wright Vs DVD
Wade Vs De Zwaan
Sherrock Vs Kuivenhoven
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Van Den Bergh Vs Meulenkamp
Clayton Vs Wattimena
MVG Vs Noppert
Price Vs Van Der Voort

so Smith looks in a real strong position. Beating Kleermaker, Wright and Wade to make a final is let's face it, well within his capabilities. I don't like 4/1 shots though and I don't think Smith at 4/1 is value even in this situation. Wright can beat anybody on his day ofcourse.

I would say Kuivenhoven plays Wade for a place in the semi-finals against Smith. DVD has been putting in some big performances recently but didn't really do himself justice at the World Cup and that puts me off a tad. Perhaps he was trying to live up to MVG standard.

Bottom half looks like Van Den Bergh/Clayton taking on Price/?

MVG comes back from surgery. He can't have had much practice and I think Noppert is great value this weekend. He was 25/1 last week but is now 20/1 and if he beats MVG then that's going to soon go down to perhaps 8 or 10/1. I'm taking Noppert in the bottom half and DVD in the top half. Small bet on Kuivenhoven outsider bet.

1.5pts e/w Noppert to win Dutch Masters 20/1 betfred
1pt e/w DVD to win Dutch Masters 16/1 paddypower
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0.5pts e/w Kuivenhoven to win Dutch Masters 100/1 paddypower