The Grand Slam of Darts begins with two sessions of action at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall on Saturday as the eight groups all get underway on the opening day of play in the eagerly anticipated event.
The afternoon session sees the beginning of Groups B, C, F and G and we’ve got some big names in action right from the start so this should be a quality session of play.
Group B
The first matches in this group sees Gerwyn Price taking on Dimitri van den Bergh in what is the first match of the day while later in the afternoon the two main men in the group meet when Robert Thornton takes on Scott Waites in game five of the session.
Group C
This group begins with the match between Simon Whitlock and Ted Evetts which is the second match of the afternoon. That is followed by the battle of the former world finalists when Peter Wright and Jeff Smith bring the afternoon to an end.
Group F
All eyes will be on Mensur Suljovic first up in this group. He faces BDO star Danny Noppert in the fourth match of the afternoon while two matches later the former champion Raymond Barneveld gets his quest for a second title underway when he takes on Nathan Aspinall.
Group G
The Group of Death also gets going in this session. The third match of the afternoon, and the first in this group, sees Dave Chisnall facing James Wilson while the penultimate match of the session is the one between James Wade and Jamie Hughes, the local man who should have plenty of support behind him.
Betting
I’ve already got three of these groups covered with outright and group bets so I’m not going to go too mad when it comes to the match betting in this session but there is one I like which I’m going to take.
I’ve a feeling Mensur Suljovic might struggle a touch in this tournament. He isn’t always the fastest out of the blocks and in best of nine leg matches you can’t afford to start slowly and the other concern I have about him is that he isn’t used to being a seeded player who is hunted rather than the one doing the hunting. That is in any tournament least of all a TV one so I’m interesting in how he’ll cope.
In terms of the bare name Danny Noppert is probably the least known of the BDO players but he can play the game that is for sure. He has hit a nine dart finish on the BDO circuit this year and took care of Scott Mitchell among others in the BDO World Trophy earlier in the year. Noppert is a good scorer and if he can pin the doubles sharply he could see off the Austrian at a decent price.
Tips
WON – Back D.Noppert to beat M.Suljovic for a 3/10 stake at 3.50 with Titanbet
Back him here:
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