Taylor to turn ‘The Power’ back on in Lewis ‘Battle of Stoke’ clash
Published:Back both Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor and Dave Chisnall to make it an English Double at 5/1 against Adrian Lewis and Peter Wright respectively.
Six-time Premier League Darts champion Taylor put his woeful 7-0 thrashing at the hands of Michael van Gerwen behind him as he won the Coral UK Open qualifier in Wigan just three days on.
Taylor beat Lewis 6-2 in that final and faces his old pal and fellow Stoke-born heavyweight again in the highlight match-up on February 13th. The former is favourite and priced at evens to pull off a victory, while the latter has odds of 7/4 for a win.
Playing in just his fourth competition since changing darts, the current world number two Taylor got back to business emphatically as he threw two nine-darters in the recent Coral tournament.
Odds of 25/1 say the 16-time world champion can repeat a nine-dart finish again in his second round league match-up.
Coral are again offering double Dutch victories at 6/5 for Van Gerwen and Raymond van Barneveld to repeat their respective comprehensive wins against Taylor and Gary Anderson in the first round of fixtures.
Reigning champion Van Gerwen faces Scotsman Robert Thornton in the final battle of the day. The Dutch world number is in fine form of late – although he recently lost to Wright in the Coral tournament – and is the odds-on favourite at 2/5 to gain a second successive league win.
Van Barneveld faces Wes Newton – who lost to Wright the previous week – and the former is odds-on at 8/15 to come out on top again. Since 2011, ‘Barney’ has won all three matches against Newton.
St Helens’ Chisnall (one half of the English double special) is up against in-form Wright of Scotland. The Englishman won a close encounter in his first round match against Thornton (7-5) and is 7/4 to win this ‘Battle of Britain’.
The remaining fixture is Anderson (6/5) against 2012 league runner-up Simon Whitlock (6/4). ‘The Wizard’ took a hammering 7-1 defeat to Lewis in the season opener, and has lost all three meetings with Anderson in 2013, but will look to make amends against the Scot.
