Afternoon all. Welcome to the Ally Pally where the atmosphere is building ahead of a quality Quarter Final lineup.

The walk in was misty but brightened by a bus load of Dutch carrots. (Do carrots come in bus loads?). They were already well oiled, so by the time the Dutchmen take the stage this evening, i expect they'll be as limp as the ones on my Christmas Dinner.

First up, we'll have two men who have threatened, but never managed, to take the spoils. James Wade, the 6th seed up against the 3rd seed, Peter Wright.

So far in the tournament, Wade is averaging just 95.78 compared to Wright's 102.66 despite having a huge edge in 100+ scores and 180s. His sub 50% on doubles has dragged him down.

Wright has dropped just one set on his way to the quarter finals. Wade had to come back from 3-1 down last out against Michael Smith

The bad news for these guys is that Sky are going to concentrate on pumping the tyres of the last QF tie to take place. That will be Raymond van Barneveld against Phil Taylor.

Second match of the afternoon session will be Gary "looking for a three-peat" Anderson up against Dave Chisnall. Then in the evening session the games the Dutch carrot army are here for. MvG against Daryl Gurney and RvB v Taylor.

For a two horse race the odds in the MvG/Gurney match are ridiculous. MvG is currently 1/33 with Gurney 12/1. I'm still not willing to risk a £1 on "Superchin"......

Anyway on to the important stuff. Barry Hearn likes his tea with a "bit of colour to it", got to let the tea bag stand.....if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me too.

Walk on time...."The Machine" is back in town........once again sporting the red trews