The annual PDC and BDO challenge takes place over the next nine days when 32 of the best players across both codes head back to Wolverhampton for the 2019 Grand Slam of Darts, a tournament that always seems to carry plenty of drama.
Gerwyn Price won his only major title to date here last year and he is back to defend the title as a result, but the great and good in the game will be out to deny him the opportunity of retaining the Eric Bristow trophy.
Recent Winners
2018 – Gerwyn Price
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
2014 – Phil Taylor
2013 – Phil Taylor
2012 – Raymond van Barneveld
2011 – Phil Taylor
2010 – Scott Waites
2009 – Phil Taylor
The Format
The 32 competitors have been slotted into eight groups of four in the opening stage of the tournament. Each group has a seed and a BDO player in it as well as a couple of qualifiers with everyone playing each other in the group over the best of nine legs. When that is done the top two in each group move into the knockout stages of the event. Any ties on points and leg difference is settled by a nine dart shootout.
The last 16 is the best of 19 legs and then the quarter finals through to the final is the best of 31 legs. With the semi-finals and the final on the second Sunday of the competition this is a real stamina test and whoever maintains their form for nine days the best will walk away with a tidy pre-Christmas pot of some £125,000.
Group A
Although he isn’t the defending champion, Michael van Gerwen is the number one seed and he is placed in Group A as he looked to win this crown for a fourth time in five years. He will come up against the last man to beat him on the TV stage in Ross Smith while Adrian Lewis is expected to be a competitive campaigner in this group. The BDO representative in this first group is the former world number one in that sphere in Jim Williams.
Group B
Former finalist James Wade is the man heading up Group B over the first weekend of the tournament. He is in quite a competitive little section with Ian White the leading challenger but we shouldn’t make the mistake of completely disrespecting Steve Lennon, who went so well in the World Cup. Wesley Harms has represented the BDO here in previous years and this is his group for this renewal.
Group C
Gerwyn Price will attempt to begin the defence of his title in this section of the draw. He is in one of the groups which will get a lot of attention, because the BDO star in this one if the Women’s world champion Mikuru Suzuki. Dimitri Van den Bergh sets a decent challenge down to the pair of them, while Robert Thornton was in great nick in the qualifiers which he came through earlier in the week.
Group D
Gary Anderson has made no secret in recent times that he is desperate to add this title to his CV before he calls it a day and having lost in the final last year he will be eager to get out of this group and have another crack at it. You would expect him to have too much here so the other three men should be battling it out for second place. They are Darren Webster, William O’Connor and the BDO player Dave Parletti.
Group E
The World Matchplay champion Rob Cross will continue his quest to chase down Michael van Gerwen in the world rankings this week. Cross, also the European champion, faces the man who ruthlessly took care of him in Amsterdam last week in Dave Chisnall while local lad Jamie Hughes is not going to lack for support at this venue. The best woman player in the world is also in this group in the form of multiple major winner Lisa Ashton.
Group F
The seeded player in Group F this week is Peter Wright. He has a shocking record in this tournament, making it past the last 16 just twice in six attempts. You sense he could have been vulnerable but hasn’t landed too bad a section it has to be said. World Series finalist Danny Noppert is slated as his biggest danger while the other two members of the group are Ryan Harrington and the BDO representative Wayne Warren, who could be underrated here.
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Group G
Daryl Gurney is no stranger to delivering the goods on the big stage, although he hasn’t pulled up any trees recently, and he will be expected to qualify as the seeded player in this group. This is a competitive section though because Brendan Dolan is in great form at the minute and like the ‘History Maker’, Gabriel Clemens came through the qualifier earlier in the week too. Richard Veenstra is having a great year on the BDO circuit and he shouldn’t be ruled out either.
Group H
It seems that whichever group Michael Smith ends up in when the draw is done for this tournament is the ‘Group of Death’ and there is no disputing that is the case here. Every single seeded player in the draw will have wanted one thing when the names came out – not to land Glen Durrant as their BDO rep in their section. It is Smith who has that problem and it is a problem too because the UK Open champion Nathan Aspinall is also in this group. Martin Schindler might be the straggler of the four but he’s no mug either.
Outright Betting
The beauty of this competition is you can plot the draw all the way through a little without it being set in stone due to finishing positions in the group being everything. That makes my main bet this week Dave Chisnall, who is throwing some fantastic darts at the minute. Chisnall should have made the World Series final last week and did make the deciding contest at the World Grand Prix last month. He doesn’t have it easy in the group but I expect him to qualify and then it could open right up. Worst case scenario is he gets Peter Wright in the last 16 but that is winnable and then when you get the quarter final of this thing it is anyone’s. Chisnall is scoring better than anyone right now and if he gets into the longer games he could take some beating.
Long before the draw was made I told myself I had to take someone in Gary Anderson’s quarter because he looks so vulnerable right now. Gerwyn Price is the other seed in the section but I heard him on a podcast claiming he is considering changing his game to avoid getting booed so much. I wish him well with that but let’s be honest when those thoughts are in a player’s head it isn’t a good thing. That makes me turn to Dimitri Van den Bergh here. He could end up slugging it out with Anderson in the last 16 but that suits me as a worst case scenario and then when the longer stuff kicks in he could really come to the fore. He’ll do for me as an outsider.
Group Betting
As ever in this tournament the BDO players, with the exception of Glen Durrant, are all being overlooked but I think there is decent value on three of their players to come through their groups with the first of them being the recent World Trophy winner Jim Williams. We’ve seen a few times that Williams is a class act, who like a lot of BDO players can score for fun. He is a little more hit and miss on his doubles but if he’s winning an event as competitive as the World Trophy he must be finding the outer ring nicely. Michael van Gerwen should win the group but I rate Williams as better than Ross Smith while Adrian Lewis has a shocking record here, having never made the final and bombing out in his group in six of the 10 starts he has had here. Williams is overpriced to qualify.
I understand why Wayne Warren is being overlooked here because Danny Noppert ran really well last week while Peter Wright is a class act but I’ve already made the point about the latter having a poor record here and Noppert needs to back up last week now. If you look at the bare numbers for Warren you might not fancy him but although he lost in the last 16 of the World Trophy recently, he went out with a 99 average so he must’ve run over a few cats and walked under plenty of ladders that weekend! I don’t see Ryan Harrington as a factor so if Warren can be inspired for 20 minutes against one of the other two he could well come through.
Finally I’ll take on the Irish pair of Daryl Gurney and Brendan Dolan in Group G with the BDO number one and World Trophy runner up Richard Veenstra. Gurney should win the group but it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise in the world if he doesn’t but even if he does Veenstra can compete with Dolan and Gabriel Clemens. This is his tournament debut which is a slight issue but he’s the leading light on the other side so he has been winning lots of darts matches in recent times. There isn’t much between the three backing up Gurney so Veenstra is worth chancing here.
Tips
Back D.Chisnall to win Grand Slam of Darts (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 23.00 with William Hill (1/3 1-2)
Back him here:
Back D.Van den Bergh to win Grand Slam of Darts (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with BetVictor (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back J.Williams to qualify in Group A for a 2/10 stake at 3.20 with Boylesports
Back R.Veenstra to qualify in Group G for a 2/10 stake at 2.75 with Boylesports
Back them here:
Back W.Warren to qualify in Group F for a 2/10 stake at 3.25 with Betfair
Back him here:
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