Just like the opening day of action in the Singha Beer Grand Slam of Darts, there are two sessions of play on what promises to be an outstanding Sunday of darting action in Wolverhampton.
This tournament always delivers big stories and Saturday was no different. The biggest story of them all was Martin Adams showing all his class with a big win over Ian White but perhaps the stage was stolen by the return of the Viking even though Andy Fordham eventually lost the match. It was just great to see the 2004 world champion back on the big stage.
If Saturday generated some stories Sunday is set to create even more as we will lose players from the event on day two of action. This is the day where the groups start to sort themselves out as the losers from the first day play each other as do the winners.
Groups E-H form the afternoon session for the second day in a row with the opening four matches being matches between the opening day losers while the last four sees the winners playing with the majority of those who win a second match likely to book their place in the knockout stage.
The day begins with Keegan Brown taking on Michel van der Horst. This is a match I was going to strongly fancy the PDC star in but the fact he couldn’t keep a dart in the board in his opening match is a worry. Rowby-John Rodriguez faces Martin Phillips in the second match before Andy Boulton goes up against Larry Butler and Terry Jenkins takes on Geert de Vos.
The winners then face each other with Robert Thornton facing Jonny Clayton, Phil Taylor plays Robbie Green in what should be a good match ahead of the battle of the left handers as James Wade plays Mark Webster. The afternoon session then concludes with the match of the day as Gary Anderson goes up against Raymond Barneveld.
Groups A-D feature in the evening session which means the cast list is a strong one again. The same format of losers playing and winners playing make for some tasty match ups too it has to be said.
They all begin with Steve West playing Mark Oosterhuis in a do or die for both men before Ian White looks to bounce back from his defeat to Martin Adams when he faces Steve Beaton. Wayne Jones will look to deny Andy Fordham a fairytale win and Mervyn King faces the Lakeside champion Scott Mitchell.
Business really picks up from there though as Adrian Lewis faces Michael Smith in a massive match before Michael van Gerwen goes for Grand Slam revenge against Kim Huybrechts. Jelle Klaasen takes on Martin Adams in a battle of former Lakeside champions before world finalists Peter Wright and Dave Chisnall end the night with a potentially explosive battle.
I’m going with three bets throughout the card on the second day and I’m siding with the BDO for much of the day. I’ll start off with a PDC player though in Andy Boulton who looks a big price to see off Larry Butler.
Butler did brilliantly well to come through the BDO qualifying for this, beating Glen Durrant and Scott Waites along the way and then he made the Winmau World Masters final before Durrant got his revenge but I suspect that might just have been a hot few days for the American.
Andy Boulton took care of Jamie Caven and Stephen Bunting in the final two rounds to qualify for this event and has a win over Kim Huybrechts since then so he appears to be in decent nick. Of the two he played better in the opening match here and with Butler probably not used to being a favourite or comfortable being one at this level I’ll go with the outsider here.
After that I’m firmly in the BDO camp. Martin Phillips has been one of the better players in that code for a while and he’s gone fairly well here in the past. I’m not going to judge him on Saturday’s defeat to Phil Taylor but I’ve seen worse opening performances.
The Welshman takes on Rowby-John Rodriguez who was much better against Robbie Green on Saturday than he was the previous week but he still needs to improve if he is to win this. I like the steadier veteran style of Phillips here. He’s been there, seen it and done it and I think his game will be too good for the Austrian.
Finally I’ll take one in the evening session which is the BDO champion Scott Mitchell. In fairness to Mervyn King he played pretty well by and large against Dave Chisnall on Saturday but when push came to shove he struggled to find the treble and I noted he was using new weapons which isn’t ideal.
Scott Mitchell did very little wrong against Peter Wright but his scoring was solid throughout and we saw at Lakeside earlier in the year that he can hit clutch doubles when he needs to. With King just looking off form and the pressure probably more on him than Mitchell here I’m happy to take the BDO champ who shouldn’t be odds against in this one.
Back A.Boulton to beat L.Butler for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with William Hill
Back M.Phillips to beat R-J.Rodriguez for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
Back S.Mitchell to beat M.King for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with Boylesports
