The quarter finals of the Grand Slam of Darts begin in Wolverhampton on Friday night when the two matches from the top half of the draw take place. Four men will go to battle for a place in Sunday’s semi-finals so the prize is getting significant now.
Four men who are no stranger to winning major tournaments have made it through to compete in Friday’s action and with the format now up to the best of 31 legs we should see the quality go through the roof from here on in.
James Wade vs Rob Cross
The opening quarter final of the tournament is a repeat of one of the group matches from the first stage of the event where James Wade takes on Rob Cross in a battle of two players who will feel they are capable of pushing on and winning the title from here on in.
Wade thrashed Cross 5-2 in that previous meeting on Monday night but we have to put in place the mitigating circumstances. The first of those being that Cross only needed two legs to guarantee qualifying whereas Wade had to win. Often in those situations the player who has to win does so because the one who doesn’t is focusing on a different target. Wade averaged over 111 in that match and there has to be doubts over whether that can happen again. We’ve seen Cross raise his game when the big occasions arrive in recent times and I’m hoping he does that again here because I’m on him outright and it would be great to have him running for me on Sunday. That’s going to be my only interest in this match but if I was betting I’d chance over 27.5 legs. That line is about right though and the price isn’t reeling me in so I’ll leave this one alone.
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Gerwyn Price vs Jonny Clayton
The second match of the night is the battle of the two World Cup stars for Wales when the world number one and former champion Gerwyn Price takes on his friend Jonny Clayton, who is looking to continue this phenomenal year of televised victories from here on in.
I must admit although I think Clayton will win this, I wasn’t expecting him to be the favourite for the match in some places. It is justified though because he has won all four of his matches this week and averaged more than a ton in three of them and 99 in the other one. Price has already lost once this week to Martin Schindler and nearly lost another to Nathan Rafferty. He is yet to average 100 in the tournament and only once got to 99. His averages have got worse by the match too. There was a time where I didn’t believe Clayton believed he could beat his good pal but he’s won their last two meetings – 5-1 in sets in the World Grand Prix final and 10-9 in the quarter final of the World Series Finals where Price led 7-2 and failed to get over the line. I don’t think Price is playing as well as Clayton and now that ‘The Ferret’ knows he can beat his man I expect his relentless darts to send him to another semi-final here.
Tips
Back J.Clayton to beat G.Price for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Coral
Back him here:
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