The opening day of the Grand Slam of Darts sees all 32 players taking to the stage in Wolverhampton to get the round robin part of the tournament underway as two sessions of play will offer the chance for all the entrants to start the event with a win.
It is fast and furious in the group stage with the matches being the best of nine legs so the format is very much set up for shocks and barrel loads of drama. It would be a huge surprise if we go short on either throughout the day.
Afternoon Session
The afternoon session will see the opening games taking place in Groups B, D, F and H and we start in the latter as Danny Noppert meets Lukas Wenig in an all-European clash before the first two matches in Group B are played out. Damon Heta will open up that section when he takes on the man who made the final here a year ago in Martin Lukeman before the first seed takes to the stage as Chris Dobey faces the finalist of the World Youth Championship in Jurjen van de Velde. We get to the halfway point of the afternoon with the opener in Group D as Gerwyn Price faces Ricky Evans.
We remain in Group D to open up the second part of the afternoon session where the seeded player James Wade will look to pick up a first win when he meets the Swiss ace Stefan Bellmont. It is back to Group H for the next match where the seeded player Jonny Clayton will open up his tournament against the dangerous Cam Crabtree. The afternoon is rounded off in Group F which is one of the better sections in the draw. Josh Rock meets Wessel Nijman in the standout clash of the day before the recently crowned European champion Gian van Veen closes the afternoon when he meets Lisa Ashton.
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Evening Session
The other four groups all begin in the evening session where we start proceedings in Group E as the World Cup winner Daryl Gurney meets Connor Scutt to get us underway. When they are done the first match in Group C is played as Martin Schindler takes on Luke Woodhouse before a really juicy Group A clash between Nathan Aspinall and Michael Smith. The last group to begin on Saturday is the one all eyes are on as Gary Anderson and Niko Springer meet to get Group G underway.
The world number one Luke Humphries opens up the second part of the evening session. With Aspinall and Smith in his group, the former world champion knows he can’t afford a slip up against Alex Spellman. Luke Littler gets his title defence started in the next match when the world champion meets Karel Sedlacek before the showstopper of the evening comes along in the penultimate match of the night. That sees Michael van Gerwen meeting Beau Greaves. Stephen Bunting is given the honour of wrapping up the show. He faces the Filipino star Alexis Toylo in the last match of a really good looking day.
Betting
Two bets catch my eye on Saturday and we have to wait for the evening session for both of them. The first is on what I would call the local lad in Luke Woodhouse to get the better of Martin Schindler. Schindler has gone off the boil in recent times and he has done it at the wrong time. He has won just four of his last 10 matches in all competitions and he misses too many doubles for my liking in this format. Schindler does lead the career meetings 5-1 but three of those went to a deciding leg so he could easily trail 4-2. Woodhouse is in good form having made a Euro Tour final and a Players Championship final in recent times and with him being fairly local he should get some good support here. At odds against I think he’s worth a bet.
It has been well-documented that Beau Greaves has twice beaten Luke Littler over the last month. One of those was an exhibition but the other was in the World Youth Championship which was a very significant win. In that match she averaged 105 after averaging in the high 90s for much of the earlier stages of that competition and if she can bring that level with her to the Wolverhampton stage then she will cause plenty of problems for Michael van Gerwen, who is struggling enough to make me think that Beau is worth a bet at just under 2/1. Van Gerwen probably isn’t going to outscore Greaves leg on leg and he has been known to miss doubles a little too regularly for comfort. All the pressure is on MVG here and that might just play into the dangerous hands of Greaves whose confidence should be high enough to come through here.
Tips
Back L.Woodhouse to beat M.Schindler for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betway
Back B.Greaves to beat M.van Gerwen for a 3/10 stake at 2.90 with Coral
