The group phase of the Grand Slam of Darts is a thing of the past and we get stuck into the knockout stages of the tournament on Friday evening when the first half of the last 16 is played out inside the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.
We got drama in spades on Thursday night as we lost the world champion from the field but 16 decent players have made it through, eight of which are in action on this Friday card and who will all be pleased that the format has gone up to the best of 19 legs.
Dimitri Van den Bergh vs Jonny Clayton
The first knockout stage match in the tournament sees arguably the player of the event so far in Dimitri Van den Bergh taking on one half of the World Cup winning pairing of a couple of weeks ago in the form of Jonny Clayton.
Van den Bergh has been exceptional in this tournament so far but the acid test comes now not only to see if he can keep his form up over this distance but also whether he can handle the pressure of knockout darts. He showed at the World Matchplay that he can but he hasn’t really done a huge amount since then until this week. Clayton has shown he can go deep in these events but things like the mess he made of counting in the European Championship semi-final recently highlights the need to tread carefully with him. I fancy the Belgian to win this but the odds don’t do a lot for me so I’ll leave this one alone.
James Wade vs Ian White
The second last 16 clash of the week looks a pretty even match up when James Wade takes on an Ian White who was one of the few players in the history of this tournament to make it out of the group with just two points.
White might only have got two points from his group but he delivered averages in excess of 100 in two of his three matches so he deserved more than what he got. We’re going to need to see more from Wade in this match than he has delivered in his last two matches but generally the longer a tournament goes on the harder he gets to beat. I was tempted to back White to win this match at the prices but I don’t see this not being a tight match so rather than sweat on White getting over the line under pressure, at a price not too much lower the best bet might well be for over 16.5 legs here. Both players will be acutely aware that waiting for them in the quarter final will be a player not too experienced over best of 31 leg matches so there is an opportunity for one of these to go deep. That might only serve to keep this tight. I like over 16.5 legs here.
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Simon Whitlock vs Adam Hunt
Two men who had to come through the PDPA qualifier to make it into this tournament meet with one of Simon Whitlock or Adam Hunt making it through to the quarter final and kicking off a big period for them both with a perfectly acceptable effort.
Whitlock largely dominated his group. He trailed Adam Gawlas 4-0 but he was already through to this stage by then. Even then he won the match. Hunt is another player who came through with just two points although with Michael van Gerwen in his group there were probably only four on offer for him. He will probably feel he is playing with the house money now after Joe Cullen coughed up a raft of chances to knock him out on Thursday. You’ve got to favour Whitlock on experience grounds but I gave up trusting him a long time ago and I’m in no rush to resume that here.
Dave Chisnall vs Jose de Sousa
The last of the matches on Friday night looks to be the pick of them on paper as the former finalist Dave Chisnall takes on a man who has been in supreme from at Players Championship and European Tour levels in recent times in the shape of Jose de Sousa.
De Sousa hasn’t yet cracked the code on TV but he is getting into more and more of these tournaments so it is only a matter of time before he goes very deep in one of these and then eventually takes one down. Chisnall knows his way through these events so it will be interesting to see if his experience at this level stands him in good stead or whether even he is vulnerable to the top class ability of the Portuguese star.
This is going to be a high scoring match I think we can be pretty sure of that. De Sousa is a 180 machine when he gets his line and length and Chisnall has long since been one of the biggest scorers in the game. I’m a little surprised that we can get a 10.5 180 line for this match. That is only five each with one on top and both these men are extremely heavy scorers so I’ve got to think that is well within the reach of both men. I’ll take the over here.
Tips
Back JWade vs I.White – Over 16.5 legs for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
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Back D.Chisnall vs J.de Sousa – Over 10.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.75 with Coral
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