Darts Betting Tips: Happy Feet and GVV to star in Quarter Finals

Justin Hood highest checkout over 110.5 vs Gary Anderson @ 4/11

What a revelation Justin Hood has been at this World Championship, his run has absolutely been the story of the tournament for me. It’s not just the results that are impressive either, the performances on the whole have been outstanding. His poorest effort was against Ryan Meikle and he still averaged mid-90s in that one.

He totally swept aside a world class operator in Josh Rock yesterday with an absolute masterclass in finishing - Happy Feet was astonishingly 100% (11/11) on his doubles deep into the match, it wasn’t until he got match darts that he finally missed a target on the outer-ring. In addition to the sublime doubles, he also hit ten maximums in 18 legs, showing he has the scoring power too. Once again, the Ally Pally debutant looked completely unfazed by the occasion and seemingly played with no nerves at all.

I think almost everyone is happy to see Gary Anderson go deep in a World Championship again, especially us Scots. It’s been vintage Gary thus far, showing some similarities to the level he produced when he won back-to-back World titles in 2015 and 2016. Every match has suited him nicely being up against quick throwers, thankfully for him that’s not going to change as every player left in the tournament likes to get on with it.

He continues to talk down his chances of winning a third World title but he has to be feeling great about where his game’s at, one match a day or every few days is without doubt more suited to him as he’s not getting any younger, he’s admitted so himself.

Every aspect of Hood’s game has been good to this point, the big checkouts have been no problem, with him hitting eight 100+ checkouts across 17 sets so far. 4/11 looks a pretty reasonable price for him to hit one 111+ checkout, especially when he’s hitting doubles like he was against Rock.

If he hits his first couple attempts in this match, I think he’ll take more confidence from that and continue the top drawer doubling out. 7+ sets looks highly likely meaning he’ll have numerous opportunities to hit a big checkout, he’s playing far too well to not be successful with one.

Gian van Veen highest checkout over 120.5 vs Luke Humphries @ 1/2

Aside from Van Veen’s performance against Alan Soutar, I wouldn’t say either of these two will feel they’ve hit top gear yet, despite easing through the rounds relatively unscathed. Both still have 100+ tournament averages, which says it all about what we‘ve come to expect from them. Van Veen is averaging 100.47, compared to 100.08 for Humphries, with both of them playing exactly 69 legs so far.

Gian has yet to drop more than one set in a match, despite coming up against some inspired performances. Humphries was pushed by Gabriel Clemens, it could have went 3-3 but Humphries survived that scare and won in much more comfortable fashion against Kevin Doets last night, averaging 103 without looking like he’d got out of second gear.

The head-to-head is very interesting, Gian holds the upper hand in their most recent meetings, winning all of their last four matches, which includes the European Championship final and a Pro Tour final, with the other two coming at the World Matchplay and Players Championship Finals. Humphries did win the four meetings before that, so they sit at 4-4 in previous clashes. There’s been two legs or less between them in the scoreline in five of those matches, so it’d be wise to think this one goes over 7.5 sets when you consider how close their tournament stats are too.

I’m going to go with the slightly more reliable pick of Van Veen to hit a 121+ checkout though - in his two most recent meetings against Humphries, GVV has took out a 160+ checkout in each of them. His highest checkouts in the last three rounds have been 170, 125 and 132. The young Dutchman is one of the best combination finishers in the world and over this long a format, it feels a near certainty that he’s going to pop another big one in what should be a memorable match.