O’Connor set for Durrant Duel

Limerick’s William O’Connor is faces three-time BDO World Champion, Glen Durrant, in Round Two of the William Hill PDC World Darts Championship on Wednesday afternoon. Despite being the unseeded player, O’Connor is expected to defeat an out of form Englishman.

O’Connor was successful in round one, last week, defeating American Daniel Lauby 3-2 having held a commanding two set lead. Indeed, Lauby missed D18 to win the match. That said, O’Connor turned in a fine performance, averaging 96.02 and landing an impressive seven 180’s over the course of the match.

The Cappamore native returned home to Ireland in between matches, despite the threat of Covid-19. Should he secure the victory on Wednesday afternoon, he’ll set up a round three clash with Michael Smith, who eased to a 3-0 victory over Ron Meulenkamp on Tuesday evening.

Speaking to Sky Sports after that first round victory ‘The Magpie’, “Danny kept me under pressure, he kept me honest. I made a silly mistake and almost paid the price… I’m just happy to get over it.”

Round three is the best result for O’Connor in his previous visits to the Alexander Palace, which he achieved in the 2019 competition, losing 4-1 to Ryan Searle. Victory would see O’Connor’s prize money rise to a minimum of £25,000, with £15,000 already secured for his efforts.

For Durrant, 2021 has been an extremely disappointing year, the Englishman has taken time away from some events and has struggled with his throw, which had given him great success in 2019 and 2020. Following a string of poor results, he withdrew from the final two Players Championship events in November, and failed to quality for the Players Championship Finals.

The Middlesbrough man won the Premier League in October 2020, but since then it has been a darting disaster. ‘Duzza’, has lost his last 10 games, and shows just one victory in his most recent 27 PDC contests, which is why O’Connor is heavily fancied to dump out the number 24 seed. O’Connor will take inspiration from Steve Lennon who knocked out Krzysztof Ratajski, who was 12th seed.

O’Connor takes to the oche around 1.30pm, with the action live on Sky Sports Darts.