Holly Thackeray | November 26, 2015

Having already run the rule over the Players Championship Finals favourites, Coral oche experts now take a look at the tungsten titans preparing to tussle in the first round afternoon session, which runs from 12:45 – 17:00 GMT on November 27th.
There will be further Friday fixtures from 19:00 GMT, including a thriller between darting giants Gary Anderson and Phil Taylor, so keep your eyes peeled for our first round evening session preview.
However, here we begin with the opening eight intriguing Minehead match-ups, starring the likes of Stephen Bunting, Terry Jenkins and Mensur Suljovic.

The Dutch Destroyer is odds-on at 8/11 to push past Taunton-born tungsten battler Pipe (11/10), having defeated The Force in eight of their previous 11 frays. Why not take a more tempting price of 6/1 for Van der Voort to win 6-3, though, as the veteran tends to beat this foe by big margins.

Chuck will not make for easy prey, having finished as runner-up in the 2014 BDO World Championships, and being Somerset-born should have the backing of locals, but still looks an outside shout at 6/5 to reach the second round.

Welsh opponent The Iceman is longer at 6/4 as a dark horse after clocking up his first win against The Cobra back in July, though a close 6-5 contest with Klaasen triumphant at 11/2 may prove most profitable.


The Gentle is a player on the up, which is reflected in the Serbian-born star’s odds of 4/6 to make the second round at the expense of The King (6/5).

Whitlock (odds-on match favourite at 8/11) also took the spoils from their last scuffle in April, and should have enough darting star-dust to dispatch Dolan (11/10) again.

With Smith the winner in their last three meetings, however, place a stake on the up-and-coming tungsten talent at 5/1 to take the spoils from a 6-3 scoreline in Somerset.

Having lost to Gurney just once before, The Hurricane is 5/1 to storm past his Northern Irish opponent by 6-4, a repeat of their last meeting.
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