We begin Saturday with the second day of the WDF Lakeside World Championship 2024 as 'Prime Time' Matthew Edgar takes centre stage and top seed Danny Porter makes his bow.
We begin the afternoon session with Jordan Brooks and Jun Matsuda. The latter viewers may recognize, as Matsuda was in action for Japan at the 2023 PDC World Cup of Darts. Brooks is competing in the WDF World Championship for the third time, but is still waiting for his first win. Anca Zijlstra has been a regular at the women's World Championships for years. She will take on Jitka Cisarova in the first round. Later in the afternoon, we also get a women's match between Greta Tekauer and Wendy Harper.
Mark Barilli may compete for the seventh time at Lakeside on Saturday afternoon. The Scot has not been very successful in the past, because only last year Barilli reached the second round and that was only because he had a bye in the first round. Against Shane McGuirk from Ireland, Barilli can try to reach the second round with a win. We close the afternoon session with a duel between Patrik Kovacs from Hungary and Swedish darter Bjorn Lejon. For Lejon, it will be his debut in Frimley Green, while Kovacs has already competed once in 2023.
The evening session kicks off with a fun affair between Matthew Edgar and Jarno Bottenberg, two of the more familiar names in the field of participants. Edgar held a PDC Tour Card for seven years in the past. After the 2021, however, he lost his Tour Card for a third time and Edgar has not earned it back since then either. Edgar, who has a popular YouTube channel on which he makes all kinds of videos about darts, has been at the PDC's World Darts Championship three times but is now making his baptism of fire on the Lakeside stage. Bottenberg already experienced that baptism of fire last year. The 23-year-old Dutchman qualified for the WDF Championship in the qualifying tournament. He beat Jamie Lewis 2-0 in sets, before 'Bottie' lost to Danny Lauby. Early this year Bottenberg already had qualification for Lakeside in his pocket by winning the Dutch Open.
Saturday night will also see another two women's matches. The first is between Amanda Loch and Finnish player Kirsi Viinikainen, while later in the evening we are also going to see Veronika Ihasz and former Lakeside finalist Kirsty Hutchinson on stage. Francois Schweyen won 2-0 in sets over Michael Cassar in the first round and now gets to face of with Danny Porter, the number one seed at this tournament. Brian Raman also gets to make his appearance again. He beat Corné Groeneveld and will face Martyn Turner in the last 32.
All the tournament will be broadcast on the YouTube channel of GREAT! game. This means anyone with an Internet connection can watch all 10 tournament days for free, no matter where they are in the world. It shifts onto Blaze in the UK for the final weekend.
The total prize pool for the WDF Lakeside World Championship includes £221,000 in prize money. That is a lot less than in 2023, when it was £257,000.
The main prize for the winner of the men's and women's tournament did remain the same. The winner in the men's will take home 50,000 pounds in prize money. The winner in the women's will receive a check for 25,000 pounds.
Gentlemen
First round: Best of 3 sets
Second round: Best of 5 sets
Third round: Best of 5 sets
Quarterfinals: Best of 7 sets
Semifinals: Best of 9 sets
Final: Best of 11 sets
Ladies
First round: Best of 3 sets
Second round: Best of 3 sets
Quarterfinals: Best of 3 sets
Semifinals: Best of 5 sets
Final: Best of 7 sets
Saturday, Nov. 30
Afternoon session (from 1 p.m.)
Jordan Brooks v Jun Matsuda (R1 men)
Anca Zijlstra v Jitka Cisarova (R1 ladies)
Mark Barilli v Shane McGuirk (R1 men)
Wendy Harper v Greta Tekauer (R1 ladies)
Patrik Kovacs v Bjorn Lejon (R1 men)
Evening session (from 7 p.m.)
Matthew Edgar v Jarno Bottenberg (R1 men)
Amanda Loch v Kirsi Viinikainen (R1 ladies)
Danny Porter v Francois Schweyen (R2 men)
Kirsty Hutchinson v Veronika Ihasz (R1 ladies)
Martyn Turner v Brian Raman (R2 gentlemen)