Grand Slam Day 5

Posted: 16.11.16 in Tournament Analysis Blog category

It's on to the knock out stage in Wolverhampton after an amazing night yesterday!

What a night. I was there to witness a memorable evening in the Civic Hall, Wolverhampton. The night started as anticipated with Scott Waites losing and not anywhere near a knockout spot. Then the fun really began.

Noppert beat Aspinall and then we had Thornton v Price. I was watching this from the privileged position of the press box.  It was chaos in there when first of all  the ramifications of an unfortunate miscount by the ref allowed Price to check out the wrong finish that also happened to be game shot. This then kicked in a 9 dart shoot out for the hard done by Robert Thornton and Dimitri Van den Bergh.The Thorn did go on to win this in the final dramatic act of the night.

The drama wasn’t finished! Local lad Jamie Hughes then fought back from 4:1 down to KO one of the more recent BDO defectors, Jamie Wilson 5:4. Barney then dispatched Mensur back to Austria and this meant Danny Noppert was in the knock out stage.

The final match was a classic. Jeff Smith posted his intent with a 170 out to take the first leg and then it was nip and tuck from there on. A last leg shoot out was won by the Canadian with another bull finish. In a night of mainly highlights this was the pinnacle.

So 5 qualifiers and some “darts experts” made to look rather foolish with their predictions of how many of the BDO lads would get through.

There are 4 games tonight, straight knock out. They are:

Gerwyn Price (8/15) v Brendan Dolan (13/8) 19.15

Phil Taylor (1/8) v Jeff Smith (7/1) 20.00

MVG 1/11 v Robert Thornton (10/1) 20.45

Peter Wright (1/11)  v Darryl Fitton (9/2) 21.30

It’s first to 10 in these games.

Gerwyn Price also has the benefit of playing Dolan instead of MVG and I expect him to win that comfortably. Taylor v Jeff Smith. The Power is 1/8 on but was awful in his last game and was white washed. Should we disregard that “dead rubber” and look at a win for Phil without breaking sweat as the bookies predict? No way-The Silencer was superb last night and can give Taylor a scare. Probably looking at the handicap but fancy Smith with a few legs start.

Hard to see past MVG and Peter Wright in the final two games of the night.

Tips: Price and Smith +4.5 (13/10)