DARTS statistician '3 Dart Analyst' takes his own unique look at the matches on the fifth night of the William Hill World Darts Championship.
Qiang Sun v Corey Cadby – Preliminary Round
Qiang Sun
- Qiang Sun made his World Championship debut last year; he picked up just one leg in a 2-0 defeat in his preliminary round match to Mick McGowan.
Cadby
- Cadby is making his World Championship debut, last month he won the PDC World Youth Championship, registering an average of 98.35 against Berry van Peer in the final.
- He made a real impression during the Perth Masters in August when he defeated Phil Taylor 6-2 and averaged 103.58 in doing so. In the next round he averaged 109.57 in losing 10-2 to Peter Wright.
Mervyn King (22) v Steve West
King
- Mervyn King is appearing at his 21st consecutive World Darts Championship (10th in the PDC). He was runner-up twice during his time in the BDO.
- This is the first time he hasn’t been a top 16 seeded player since he made his PDC World Championship debut at the 2008 tournament.
- In 3 of the last 4 years at the World Championship his first round match has gone to a last set decider.
- King has been beaten by 8 players on their way to winning a World Championship title. This is second only to John Lowe’s total of 11. All of King’s defeats came against different players.
West
- This is Steve West’s PDC World Championship debut, though he did feature at the Lakeside 5 times during his time in the BDO.
- West is still looking to win his first match at a World Darts Championship having lost in the opening round on all 5 occasions at the Lakeside.
- In October he had his best win on the TV stage when he defeated Phil Taylor in their first round match at the World Grand Prix.
Head to Head (King leads 5-3)
King has the overall advantage in terms of their head to head wins, mainly due to winning the first four matches they played against each other. They have met three times during 2016 with West taking the honours on two occasions, though King did win their last meeting at a Players Championship tournament in July.
Adrian Lewis (5) v Magnus Caris
Lewis
- Two-time PDC World Champion Adrian Lewis is making his 12th appearance at the PDC World Darts Championship. He has only failed to progress to the quarter-finals on 3 occasions and was of course runner-up last year to Gary Anderson.
- Over the last six years no player has won more matches at the PDC World Darts Championship than Adrian Lewis has.
- In his previous 11 appearances at the World Championship Lewis has never lost in the first round, so he has also never lost a best of 5 set World Championship match.
- Lewis has hit a checkout of 120 or higher in each of his last 5 first round matches at the World Championship.
- He has won 3-0 in the first round in each of the last 3 years.
- Overall Lewis has played 15 matches at the World Championship against unseeded players and he has only lost once (that was against Paul Nicholson at the 2009 World Championship).
Caris
- Magnus Caris is competing at a World Championship for the 12th time. He made his debut all the way back in 1988! That’s earlier than any other player in the tournament.
- He reached the semi-finals at the Lakeside in 1994 where he lost in a last set decider to Bobby George.
- In 5 previous appearances at the PDC World Championship he has failed to progress further than the first round (though he has won a couple of prelim round matches), his defeats have been against Lloyd, King, Beaton and Thornton.
Head to Head (Caris leads 2-1)
Adrian Lewis and Magnus Caris have met three times previously (all matches were away from the TV stage in Players Championship tournaments). Surprisingly Caris has the lead in their head to head record having won two of those three matches. The last time they faced off was in 2015 when Caris won 6-2; their other two previous meetings went to a last leg decider.
Joe Cullen (28) v Sun/Cadby
Cullen
- Joe Cullen will be appearing at the PDC World Championship for the 7th consecutive year. He is aiming to get through to the second round for the first time having lost in the first round on all 6 previous appearances (his only match win at the World Championship was in a prelim match five years ago).
- This is the first time he has been a seeded player so also the first time he will be facing an unseeded player in the first round.
- His first round defeats have been against Klaasen, van Gerwen, Wright, Part and Terry Jenkins (twice). In each of the last 3 years the player who has knocked Cullen out in the first round has gone on to at least reach the semi-final.
Head to Head
Joe Cullen has no previous head to head matches against either Qiang Sun or Corey Cadby.