The opening day of the Grand Slam of Darts sees the 32 man field in action for the first time this week as every man in the competition plays their maiden group game over the course of the two sessions in Wolverhampton.
The big names tend to be saved for the evening session but the afternoon session contains both current world champions. That highlights how good a day of darting action we are in store for to get the competition underway.
Afternoon Session
It is the German superstar Max Hopp who gets things going when he meets Josh Payne in Group E. Gerwyn Price then goes up against one of the qualifiers in the opening match in Group F before the World Youth Championship winner Dimitri Ven den Bergh takes on Ryan Searle in Group H. Stephen Bunting takes us to the halfway stage of the afternoon when he meets the German player Martin Schindler in the first offering in Group G.
The second half of the afternoon begins with Simon Whitlock battling the BDO world champion Glen Durrant before a tasty looking clash sees Mensur Suljovic going up against Scott Mitchell in Group G. PDC world champion Rob Cross is in action in the penultimate match of the afternoon. He faces the BDO world finalist Mark McGeeney before Peter Wright rounds off the session when he takes on Jim Williams.
Evening Session
Two qualifiers meet to open up the evening when Keegan Brown faces Mark Webster in Group C before the opening match in Group A takes place when Jonny Clayton faces Joe Murnan. Ian White and Steve Hine both know Gary Anderson is likely to dominate their group so they face off in a match neither can afford to lose before the halfway mark in the evening sees last week’s runner up Michael Smith taking on the Winmau World Masters champion Adam Smith-Neale.
The winner of the European Championship and World Series of Darts Finals, James Wade, is first up in the second half of the evening. He faces the BDO player Wesley Harms before Raymond van Barneveld collides with Krzysztof Ratajski. Gary Anderson is up on stage in the penultimate match of the night. He plays Michael Unterbuchner before the day is concluded with the battle between Michael van Gerwen and Gary Robson.
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Betting
I’ll take a bet in each session on the opening day with the afternoon bet being on one of my outright picks Stephen Bunting. He takes on the German player Martin Schindler who to be fair to him looks to be flying right now but we should acknowledge that the majority of his good form comes on the floor and he has been known to struggle on the stage. Bunting is rounding into form nicely I’m absolutely convinced of that. He keeps running into insane performances from players but I sense that isn’t going to happen here so I’m happy to be on him in this afternoon session.
Moving into the evening and I like Mark Webster to come through against Keegan Brown. In fairness both these men are on the decline but I like Webster’s solidity in this match. Brown hasn’t won a match on a stage of any kind since the German Darts Grand Prix back in early April so he might have something of an issue going on at the minute. Webster probably didn’t expect this opportunity but he tends to perform well in this format. Webster had a good win over Jeffrey de Zwaan to qualify for this on Monday and he can take the confidence from that into this one.
Tips
WON – Back S.Bunting to beat M.Schindler for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back M.Webster to beat K.Brown for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
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