Stephen Bunting could get a black flag from Cool Hand Luke Humphries

Sky Sports Arena & Main Event, from 12.30pm Thursday

Luke Humphries has proved this year that he is one of the sport's rising stars and it’s quite possible that Cool Hand has got one more show-stopping effort in him before the end of 2018.

Humphries takes on Stephen Bunting in round two of the William Hill World Championship and he definitely has the game to bring down the 18th seed.

The pair have met twice in 2018 with Humphries winning both times, memorable staging posts on a year of highlights for the 23-year-old.

Bunting, the former Lakeside champion, is a streaky player whose campaign has been decidedly mixed. He certainly gained confidence winning his group at the Grand Slam and went on to reach the quarters at the Players Championship Finals.

Berkshire chucker Humphries has already appeared on stage producing a 97 average whitewashing Adam Hunt on Sunday and he looks a fair bet at 13-8 with Betway.

The layers don’t expect the seedings to stand up in a couple of matches with 25th-ranked Alan Norris the 13-8 outsider against Steve Lennon while Steve Beaton, seeded 20, is 6-5 to see off Chris Dobey. The prices look spot on in each of those ties.

The bookies prefer Cristo Reyes against Rowby-John Rodriguez and the Spaniard should get the nod from punters too. The advice is to try to nick something better than 4-6 and take the 6-5 with Betfred that he wins 3-1 or 3-2.

You wouldn’t expect Reyes to steamroller anyone but The Spartan has found some form in the autumn with impressive stage wins over Mensur Suljovic and Rob Cross. He thrashed Voltage 6-1 at the Players Championship Finals.

Rodriguez beat Ricky Evans 3-1 in his opener but despite hitting four 180s and finishing well he averaged under 89, showing there was plenty of muck thrown as well.

Mervyn King may look like a man about to explode but he still has the game to win big games at world championships, especially over the shorter format.

The beetroot-faced Fenlander does get hot under the lights but he also throws a whole load of consistent darts and should be too good for Jan Dekker, who made hard work of toppling Lisa Ashton in his opener.

Dekker was under a very different kind of pressure taking on Ashton and was just pleased to get through having endured a pretty dismal season.

Recommendations
L Humphries
2pts 13-8 Betway
C Reyes to win 3-1 or 3-2
1pt 6-5 Betfred
M King
2pts 20-23 Betfair

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