We are down to just the one session of play in the Grand Slam of Darts on Monday which comes along in the evening as four groups conclude their matches meaning that by the end of the night we will know the last 16 line up in the top half of the draw.
There are eight matches taking place on the stage with three of those straight knockout matches. The other games could have an impact on finishing positions in those groups so we should get a dramatic night of action.
First Four Matches
We begin the night with three matches which are close enough to dead rubbers with one man already through after two wins and the other out after two defeats. James Wade will be the player playing for pride in the first match when he faces a Ricky Evans who is already through and will win the group if he wins. When they are done the same situation applies for Chris Dobey who has already qualified and will win the group if he can see off the already eliminated Martin Lukeman. Stephen Bunting would have been expected to make it through to the next stage but he will exit after the third match of the evening against a Luke Woodhouse who needs just three legs to ensure he wins the group. We hit the halfway point of the night with the first straight knockout match of the evening which sees Martin Schindler taking on the pedestrian Philippines player Alexis Toylo.
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Later Four Matches
The second half of the evening begins with the other two matches which are straight knockout contests starting in Group B where Damon Heta will look to make it out of the section when he faces the World Youth Championship finalist Jurjen van der Velde. Gerwyn Price was fancied by many to win the tournament this year and if he is to be able to do that he will need to see off the Swiss player Stefan Bellmont. We then conclude the evening with the slightly more complicated Group A where Michael Smith will go in search of a place in the knockout stages when he faces Alex Spellman. A Smith win will all but send him through but defeat would open the door for Nathan Aspinall who is up in the final match of the evening. He meets Luke Humphries who will be through if Smith loses or if he wins three legs in the contest.
Betting
In terms of betting this half of the draw hasn’t really worked out nicely because the three straight knockout games have a bit of a one-sided feel to them. I thought about taking on Stephen Bunting because he looks to be massively struggling with his back but Luke Woodhouse has a terrible record against him and I’m on Woody to win that group which he’ll do with a few legs so in the end I’m targeting elsewhere for a punt.
The match of interest is the Chris Dobey against Martin Lukeman match. I wouldn’t usually bet on these sorts of matches but Lukeman has been so poor this week and Dobey has been playing well so asking the world number eight to win this and cover a -2.5 leg handicap feels ok. Lukeman has now won just four of his last 14 games in all competitions and three of those wins were against players ranked 99 in the world or worse which aren’t great form guides. Lukeman has averaged 83.04 and 79.90 in his two matches this week and is 5/24 on the doubles. That isn’t getting it done against Dobey who I don’t expect to take his foot off the gas as he’ll surely want to avoid Luke Humphries in the next round. I’ll back Dobey to win this no worse than 5-2 but given he has beaten better opponents than Lukeman in Jurjen van der Velde and Damon Heta 5-1, both with 95 averages, I’ll have a dabble in the 5-0 win at 15/2 too.
Tips
Back C.Dobey (-2.5 legs) to beat M.Lukeman for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
Back C.Dobey to win 5-0 for a 1/10 stake at 8.50 with BetVictor
