Go out on a limb and back Ross Smith to show greater stamina against veteran

Sky Sports Arena, from 12.30pm Sunday

Third seed Peter Wright and Dave Chisnall bring some Premier League pedigree to Alexandra Palace on a day when it’s hard to identify much in the way of value.

Chizzy closes the afternoon session while Snakebite tops the bill in the evening, a session in which Mr Nine-Dart himself, Paul Lim, makes his 23rd appearance in a world championship. Opponent Ross Smith wasn’t even born when Lim first appeared at Jollees in Stoke in the 1982 worlds.

Lim will be 65 next month but still knows how to win games. The Singapore Slinger sticks chiefly to soft-tip darts these days but showed he still has the appetite for the steel-tip game when beating Rob Cross 4-2 at the World Cup in June with a 102 average.

He’ll have the crowd on his side even though Smith is English and Smudger knows he’s going to be in for a battle.

Smith’s year has been fairly nondescript with the odd decent result. But he is confident and like Lim, he has played at the Lakeside – he made the last eight there in 2011 – so isn’t a stranger to cameras or pressure.

Lim’s wins are understandably over short matches these days and the longer the contest goes the greater the likelihood of Smith coming through. So rather than muck about with the odds-on the favourite, take the 6-5 Smith that wins 3-1 or 3-2.

Willie O’Connor has a reputation as a player with promise although results don’t actually back that up.

The 32-year-old Irishman has made four visits to the Grand Prix in Dublin where, with the crowd on his side, he is yet to win a game. Last year, on his Alexandra Palace debut, he had plenty of chances against Steve Beaton in his opener but lost 3-1.

Beating an uninterested Michael van Gerwen at the Dutch Darts Championship in August earned him more kudos.

Given all that, it's hard to justify odds of 8-13 about O'Connor beating Yordi Meeuwisse, a decent Challenge Tour thrower who saw off Mike van Duivenbode and Fabian Roosenbrand notably in Western European qualifying.

He boasts winning records against Jelle Klaasen and Jeffrey de Zwaan and presuming he stands up to the pressure of the situation he can give O’Connor a contest.

Recommendations
R Smith to win 3-1 or 3-2
1pt 6-5 Betfred
Y Meeuwisse
1pt 6-4 Coral

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