2019-20 PDC World Darts Championship – Jonny Clayton vs Stephen Bunting Preview & Prediction

THE FACTS

When is Jonny Clayton vs Stephen Bunting taking place? Sunday 22nd December, 2019 – afternoon

Where is Jonny Clayton vs Stephen Bunting taking place? Alexandra Palace, London

What channel is Jonny Clayton vs Stephen Bunting on? Sky Sports Darts

Where can I stream Jonny Clayton vs Stephen Bunting? Sky Sports subscribers can stream the match online via Sky Go

Where can I get tickets for Jonny Clayton vs Stephen Bunting? https://www.pdc.tv/william-hill-world-darts-championship-tickets

What was the outcome in the last meeting? Stephen Bunting beat Jonny Clayton 2-0

THE PLAYERS

JONNY CLAYTON

• Jonny Clayton put in a strong performance with an average of 95.16 and a checkout percentage of 60% to defeat Jan Dekker in straight sets in their second round encounter.
• After winning the opening set in the deciding leg against Dekker, Clayton kicked on and dropped only one leg thereafter to record only his second ever victory on the PDC World Championship stage.
• His only other appearance in this round at the PDC World Championship was three years ago and ended in a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Ian White.

STEPHEN BUNTING

• Stephen Bunting earned his place in the last 32 with a win in a tense tie-breaker against Spain’s Jose Justicia. It was a victory that ended a run of four consecutive defeats at Alexandra Palace for the former BDO world champion.
• Bunting hit a total of ten 180s in the epic encounter against the Spaniard – his second highest maximum count in a match at the PDC World Championship.
• A win here would put him through to the last 16 at the PDC World Championship for the first time since his debut at the 2014-15 tournament when he reached the quarter-finals.

THE PREDICTION

Both of these players ended losing streaks on the Alexandra Palace stage to set up this round three encounter, though they did it in much different ways, with Bunting forced to go all the way into a tie-breaker to get past Justicia, whereas Clayton comfortably won his game against Dekker.

Their head-to-head record reads 5-2 in favour of Clayton, but Bunting won their only meeting in 2019 at the World Grand Prix so not too much can be read into Clayton’s supremacy. There really is not much to choose between them and with only one place separating the pair in the PDC Order of Merit coming into this tournament, you would expect them to be closely matched. The prospect of over 11.5 180s in the match looks a good possibility as they are both capable of landing a good total, especially in a match likely to be closely-fought. In terms of who wins? Just leaning towards Bunting is the answer.