The Grand Slam of Darts gets underway on Saturday afternoon when four groups play their opening match in Wolverhampton in a session where we will see plenty of big names on show looking to make a big step towards the knockout stage.
We have groups B, C, D and H on show in the afternoon session which means that the likes of Rob Cross, Stephen Bunting and Dave Chisnall will be looking to make a positive start to the week in among the eight matches that will take place.
First Four Matches
We open the tournament in Group H which is the one which has been dubbed the ‘Group of Death’. The seeded player Stephen Bunting is first up when he meets a dangerous challenger in Wessel Nijman before the other two men in the group collide when Josh Rock looks to make a positive start when he faces Gian van Veen. We move into Group D for the third game of the afternoon as Dave Chisnall opens up his campaign against Connor Scutt before we reach the halfway point of the session with the Group B seed Danny Noppert facing the women’s world champion Beau Greaves.
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Later Four Matches
The second part of the afternoon session begins in Group B too where the man who was the best player on the European Tour this term, Martin Schindler, looks to get off to a winning start when he faces Cameron Menzies who is playing the best darts of his career right now. Rob Cross then gets his campaign underway in the next match. He meets the Seniors star Leonard Gates in the Group C opener before the other two sides in that section collide as Peter Wright takes on Martin Lukeman. A good looking afternoon session concludes with a match between a former European Championship winner Ross Smith and the current champion of that event in Ritchie Edhouse.
Betting
Regular readers will know that I’m not a massive fan of getting involved in these best of nine sprints and largely I try to tick over in this format until the longer matches come along but there is one in the afternoon that I can’t ignore and that comes in the form of Martin Lukeman to beat Peter Wright when the two meet for the first time in their career. To be honest, I would have been looking to oppose Wright against just about anyone in this field and Lukeman is more than useful enough to fit the bill.
Lukeman arrives at this tournament having gone through the qualifying competition where he won four matches and averaged over 100 in all four of them so if he has that form with him here then he is entitled to be more than just a challenge to Wright here. Wright has put in two absolutely honking performances in his last two stage matches and if he starts slowly there is no real time to recover in a first to five. Just by being here Lukeman is winning so he can play with a bit of freedom that Wright doesn’t have the luxury of so the outsider feels well worth backing here.
Tips
Back M.Lukeman to beat P.Wright for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
