The opening day of the Grand Slam of Darts sees all 32 competitors in action on what should be a wonderful two sessions of darts in Wolverhampton as the first group games of the tournament take place.
There aren’t many tournaments these days where Michael van Gerwen, Rob Cross, Gary Anderson and Peter Wright are all in action in the first round but that is the case here. Throw in the two women’s players and this looks an intriguing day.
Afternoon Session
It is the Groups E-H that are the focus of the afternoon session this weekend and we get underway with the UK Open champion Nathan Aspinall going up against the German star Martin Schindler in Group H. The World Series finalist Danny Noppert will be on stage after them when he takes on Ryan Harrington while Brendan Dolan will go up against Gabriel Clemens in the Group G opener. Dave Chisnall and Jamie Hughes kick things off in a cracking looking contest in Group E.
The second-half of the afternoon sees Daryl Gurney going up onto the stage for the first time when he takes on the BDO number one Richard Veenstra for the early advantage in Group G. There are three other excellent matches to finish off the afternoon session. Peter Wright meets a Wayne Warren who shouldn’t be underestimated before the battle of the former world champions as Rob Cross takes on Lisa Ashton. The match of the entire group stage rounds off the afternoon when Michael Smith faces Glen Durrant in a right corker.
Evening Session
You have to say the evening card is sizzling with quality as well and it starts in Group D where Darren Webster will go up against William O’Connor in the very definition of a 50:50 match up. Gerwyn Price begins the defence of his title in the second match of the night when he takes on Mikuru Suzuki before Ian White gets his campaign underway. He faces the classy Steve Lennon. Gary Anderson completes the first half of the evening session when he faces the BDO ace Dave Parletti.
We go into the second part of the session with two solid operators doing battle in what be one of the closest matches of the day when James Wade takes on Wesley Harms before Michael van Gerwen opens up his quest for a fourth title against the BDO star Jim Williams. In the same group Adrian Lewis faces Ross Smith in a match neither can afford to lose with MVG awaiting them over the weekend. We finish off the first day with Dimitri Van den Bergh taking on Robert Thornton.
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Betting
Three bets catch my eye on the opening day of action. I’ll begin with Brendan Dolan to beat Gabriel Clemens in Group G. I mentioned last week how Clemens isn’t yet at a stage where he is confident on the big stage and there won’t be many times in which he will have been favourite at this level. Dolan is in decent nick at the minute. He has won a couple of tour events this season, including one as recently as last month where he took down Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright and Ian White in the final three matches to win that. He powered through qualifying earlier in the week and he should be favourite here for my money.
Moving into the evening and I see a shade of value in Darren Webster to deliver the goods against William O’Connor. Webster has forged a reputation as a fast starter throughout the years. He was once 6-0 up on Michael van Gerwen in the latter stages of the Players Championship finals and two weeks ago in the European Championship he jumped out to an early lead over Rob Cross. A fast start in a best of nine is almost the job done. O’Connor is improving all the time but his scoring can still go missing on the big stage. I agree there isn’t much in this one but I think I’d have the odds the other way around so it is Webster for me here.
Ross Smith jumped to prominence a couple of weeks ago when he beat Michael van Gerwen in the European Championship but there has been little either side of that to suggest that was anything but a man not expecting to win playing with freedom. He lost to Ricky Evans quite tamely in the following round of that event and his 2019 results are nothing to write home about. Adrian Lewis has plenty of issues heading into this tournament but I expect him to outscore Smith for the majority of this match and if he is clinical on the doubles he should win a match which he should control a lot more than the odds suggest.
Tips
Back B.Dolan to beat G.Clemens for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Wiliam Hill
Back him here:
Back D.Webster to beat W.O’Connor for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with BetVictor
WON – Back A.Lewis to beat R.Smith for a 4/10 stake at 1.87 with BetVictor
Back them here:
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