Friday's William Hill World Darts Championship match previews & free tips

Where to watch

Sky Sports Darts, 12.30pm & 7pm Friday

Best bets

John Henderson +2.5
3pts 11-10 Sky Bet
Mervyn King
2pts Evens bet365, Hills, Sky Bet

Friday's William Hill World Darts Championship preview

Round four of the William Hill World Darts Championship starts on Friday but an outstanding third-round tie is top of the bill at Alexandra Palace.

Fallon Sherrock is back on the oche to take on Chris Dobey, who will be desperately hoping to avoid the fate which befell Ted Evetts and Mensur Suljovic at the hands of the new Queen of the Palace.

The 22nd seed is one of the most likeable arrowsmiths on tour and hugely popular, but he will be acutely aware that the 3,000 fans packed into the arena want only one winner. And it’s not him.

• Fallon Sherrock profile: how the Queen of Alexandra Palace defied the odds

Evetts and Suljovic couldn’t handle the crowd but Dobey, a 2-9 favourite, is confident of bringing to an end the story of this world championship.

“I can’t wait for it,” said the man they call Hollywood. “If I can beat Fallon – and the crowd – it’ll prove to myself that I’ve got what it takes to go all the way.”

If odds of 2-9 had been offered about Dobey beating Sherrock before the tournament started the price would not have lasted seconds, but now it doesn't seem that attractive.

Suljovic couldn’t cope at odds of 1-14 and it isn’t as though he and Evetts bottled it. Sherrock, a 4-1 underdog, is playing supremely well, averaging a shade under 91 with a checkout percentage over 50.

Forget the seedings because Suljovic has been off the pace for a while – Dobey is the best player she’s bumped into yet. There may be better bets elsewhere.

First up on the oche, there is what promises to be a protracted dust-up between Simon Whitlock and Mervyn King, a pair of gnarled old campaigners who will give nothing. It’s odds-on that it lasts over 5.5 sets - it should be odds-on there are under 5.5 smiles. This will be bruising.

King has inevitably already had one gruelling ordeal, throwing away a two-set lead against Ciaran Teehan before limping over the line in overtime.

That’s pretty much his modus operandi these days so he’ll happily soak up the pain of another slog and should deliver once more.

Whitlock barely broke sweat when overwhelming Harry Ward on Sunday but King came to London in much the better form and can prevail.

What would normally have been the game of the day – in the sense that it features two players with genuine title pretensions – is between Daryl Gurney and Glen Durrant, a third-round affair only because Duzza hasn’t been in the PDC long enough to force his way into the top 16 in the world.

Both men averaged 96-plus in their openers and it’s a repeat of a Premier League match earlier this year which Gurney won 7-3. Again it’s a toss of a coin for the layers and that’s easy enough to see why.

The bookmakers have no doubt that Gerwyn Price will make light work of Big John Henderson even though the Welshman almost came a cropper against Willie O’Connor is his opener.

Punters are all over Price even though he doesn’t like the venue or the format, has a dismal record at the Palace and struggled against O’Connor.

Hendo will simply play his own game which is consistency itself and that may well be good enough to win, at the very least, a couple of sets.

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