The final day of the European Darts Grand Prix begins on Sunday with the last 16 being played in the afternoon session ahead of the quarter finals, semi-finals and final all played in the evening session.
Saturday saw the biggest shock of the European Tour so far with Mensur Suljovic taking out the number one seed Michael van Gerwen despite the Dutchman averaging over 111! That was a pretty savage outcome for the World Grand Prix runner up.
A few other seeds went but by and large the big names have come through so we’re set for a fascinating conclusion to this tournament with a big crowd likely to inspire the players on Sunday.
The tournament is played out in draw order from here on in so James Wade and Simon Whitlock will get the action underway. Whitlock played well on Saturday but looks up against it there.
Robert Thornton plays Jelle Klaasen after that in what looks a 50/50 match. I’m on Thornton outright and I’m happy to let that run so I won’t get involved there. Kim Huybrechts then plays Steve Beaton who has won here before and that is a game I can’t really get a feeling for while I’m already on Gerwyn Price outright so I’ll leave him in his match with Michael Smith.
I am going to get involved in one match in the last 16 though and that is the one which sees Stephen Bunting taking on Peter Wright. In the last week or two it has just been noticeable that Wright is beginning to struggle with the power scoring and that isn’t going to serve him well here.
Stephen Bunting has gone back to his old darts and that is having a better effect on his game. He averaged over a ton in beating Vincent van der Voort in the previous round with four 180s and some solid finishing so there isn’t a lot wrong with Bunting’s game.
Bunting has a decent record against Wright which is another positive on his side and I like him at odds against in this match.
There isn’t much I like in the rest of the card. Something tempts me with King to beat Suljovic as you would think Suljovic will struggle to back up such a high profile win but he has just averaged 109 and he won’t need to play that well here. I’ll stick with Bunting on Sunday.
Back S.Bunting to beat P.Wright for a 4/10 stake at 2.30 with Paddy Power
Blog darts YTD: +22.69pts
