Mighty Michael van Gerwen wins Grand Slam of Darts

Mighty Michael van Gerwen wins Grand Slam of Darts

Michael Van Gerwen Grand Slam

On Sunday at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall, Michael van Gerwen beat Phil Taylor before taking down Peter Wright in the final to claim his third straight Grand Slam of Darts. The world number one now adds the title to his World Championship and Premier League crowns in what has become yet another imperious year for the Dutch master.

A strong final eight

The group stages had seen a number of spirited performances from some of the field’s outsiders, but in the end the final eight was about as good as could have been expected.

The Order of Merit’s top four – Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright, Gary Anderson and Daryl Gurney – all took their place in the Quarter Finals. They were joined by the 16-time world champion Phil Taylor, a 2017 televised major winner in Mensur Suljovic, BDO champion Glen Durrant and Rob Cross, considered by many to the game’s hottest emerging talent. This was not a view shared by Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor regarding Daryl Gurney, who when quizzed by Sky Sports if Superchin represented the future of Darts, laughed it off and humiliated his young opponent 16-4, 24-hours later.

Back to Sunday’s action and Peter Wright, who had earlier fought back from being six legs down to beat Gary Anderson 15-16 in the semi-final, couldn’t keep up with MVG in the final. van Gerwen averaged over 50% throughout the whole event and won six of the last eight legs to win 16-12 and claim yet another major televised title.

Only hours earlier, the Dutchman had beaten Phil Taylor, the only other man to win three Grand Slams, 16-8. The final paired the newly top ranked pair in the world who went on to share seven 100+ finishes before Mighty Mike hit the after burners and stormed off with the win becoming only the second man to lift the Grand Slam trophy on three successive occasions.

Looking ahead

As the players prepare for the Players Championship in Minehead this weekend, many eyes are turned towards Alexandra Palace and the World Championships, now little under a month away.

Michael van Gerwen heads into the Ally Pally chasing a third world title and his second in as many years. He currently a 4/5 favorite at Betway to do so. Gary Anderson (11/2) and ‘Snakebite’ Wright (7/1) in particular should be considered the biggest threats to the Dutchman’s growing immortality.

Elsewhere, the traditional top eight of the past few years is finally being threatened by Daryl Gurney, Mensur Suljovic and Rob Cross as they begin to challenge the likes of Adrian Lewis, Dave Chisnall and James Wade in hunting down the leading pack of Van Gerwen, Wright, Anderson, Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld. Come February, Wade, Lewis and Chizzy will have a battle on their hands when it comes to the Premier League matches and other majors.

That said, it’s inevitable that the departing legend that is Phil Taylor will be where the pre-tourney narrative is. He enjoyed himself in Wolverhampton, where he made life miserable for the Sky Sports’ cameras. During the event he playfully cursed live on air and dismissed the challenge of Gurney, whom he destroyed in the QF’s. On this form, he will not be going quietly come North London. Taylor is a respectable 8/1 at current prices for one last shot at World Championship glory.

The Power will not be at Minehead this weekend, where the PDC go it alone and where 27-year-old Rob Cross is the top seed. Cross’ good form continued with a run to the quarter-final last week, making it easy to forget that this is his first year on the circuit and was not even a professional this time last year. Now Cross, who has risen to world’s top 20, finds himself top seed and fourth favourite for a live televised event. If you fancy Cross to win live on ITV2 this weekend, get on him now at 9/1 at Betway. Or, of course, you’ll find the big three, MVG (10/11), Anderson (11/2) or Wright (8/1) also available.

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Grand Slam of Darts Group Stage Roundup

Grand Slam of Darts Group Stage Roundup

Phil Taylor Qualifies for Group Stage

Despite suffering defeat to James Wade, Phil Taylor joined Michael van Gerwen, Rob Cross, Raymond van Barneveld and Daryl Gurney in the last sixteen of the Grand Slam of Darts. Wade, Peter Wright, Gary Anderson, Daryl Gurney and Dave Chisnall will all be there too as the Round One Group Stage threw up little in the way of surprises.

The path to the final 16

For Taylor, progression into the knockout stages of his last ever Grand Slam was secured without even throwing a dart following Robbie Green’s shock 5-3 defeat to the BDO’s Peter Machin who had already been eliminated.

Green almost beat The Power on Sunday before the departing legend showed the class of old to fight back to a 4-3 win. However, last night in a match against James Wade The Power wasn’t able to match his opponent, averaging just under 85 and missing 11 darts at doubles in a 5-3 defeat that saw both men progress.

Elsewhere, two-time defending champion Michael van Gerwen — who was already guaranteed a place in Round Two — topped Group A after he made it three wins out of three following a 5-2 victory over Joe Murnan in which the Dutchman averaged over 108.

The world number one and pre-tournament favourite was followed out of the group by Rob Cross who secured a runner up spot with a 5-2 triumph over the BDO’s Ross Montgomery. In Group B, Raymond van Barneveld and second-placed Steve Lennon both moved into the last 16 at the expense of Gerwyn Price, the biggest name eliminated so far.

Group D was sorted in dramatic style after a nine-dart shootout was required to decide the result between Websters, Mark and Darren. The pair — which are no relation — returned to the oche after their match was tied with Mark scoring 298. Darren, who had previously lost 5-1 to Daryl Gurney, landed a brilliant win-or-die treble 19 with his last shot to total 301 and take the group’s second place behind Gurney.

The other groups were all finished on Monday, meaning we already knew Peter Wright had failed to secure the top spot in his admittedly tough Group E. He took second place behind Glen Durrant of the BDO, which we predicted as a possible outcome last week. Stephen Bunting topped Group F at the expense of Dave Chisnall, who still progresses as do the first and second place finishers of Group G — Mensur Suljovic and Michael Smith respectively.

There were also no surprises in the final group as the world number two Gary Anderson ran out the winner and was joined in the last 16 by Berry van Peer, despite his attack of Dartitis on Monday night.

Prices for final 16

Heading into the final 16, Betway has updated their outright odds accordingly.

Michael van Gerwen (8/11), Gary Anderson (11/2), Peter Wright (10/1), Phil Taylor (10/1), Mensur Suljovic (18/1), Daryl Gurney (20/1), Rob Cross (20/1), Glen Durrant (22/1), Raymond van Barneveld (40/1), Dave Chisnall (50/1), Michael Smith (66/1), James Wade (80/1), Stephen Bunting (100/1), Darren Webster (150/1), Steve Lennon (250/1) and Berry van Peer (500/1).

Second Round (Best of 19 legs)

TV Coverage: Sky Sports Action/Main Event (19:00)

Wednesday November 15

Mensur Suljovic v Berry van Peer
Glen Durrant (BDO) v Dave Chisnall
Gary Anderson v Michael Smith
Stephen Bunting v Peter Wright

Thursday November 16

Michael van Gerwen v Steve Lennon
Raymond van Barneveld v Rob Cross
Phil Taylor v Darren Webster
Daryl Gurney v James Wade

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Phil Taylor And Michael Van Gerwen Into The Grand Slam Quarter Finals

The Grand Slam of Darts has provided a week of great darts entertainment leaving us with our final 8.

gsd

Despite losing 5-0 in what is possibly the shock result of the tournament so far, Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor is into the quarter-finals and will step back up to the oche tonight in the stand out match of the round against Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright.

It is the second of tonight’s two games, following a brilliant week at the Wolverhampton where almost everything has gone to plan for the big names, Adrian Lewis aside.

A win for Taylor here in game two will likely see him face MVG, who plays in tonight’s first game against Brendan Dolan which could in turn, lead to a thumping semi-final on Sunday.

In the second stream, whose matches play tomorrow, Gary Anderson will meet Barney first up after just about overcoming Danny Noppert, while James Wade will need to see off the challenge from Chris Dobey, who beat Jamie Hughes last night.

In a week that began with the world’s top players doing their own version of the Mannequin Challenge, the action has been brilliant, not least the 5-0 drubbing Phil Taylor suffered at the hands of Darren Webster, even if The Power had already qualified by then.

Unfortunately, the table topper bet I placed last week didn’t hold up, even though I opted for Raymond Van Barneveld over Mensur Suljovic to top Group F, which he did. Indeed, Michael Van Gerwen, Robert Thornton, Peter Wright, Phil Taylor, Gary Anderson, Raymond van Barneveld and James Wade all won their groups as they were expected to. Then, the round robin stage’s last group, Adrian Lewis incredibly came bottom, winning no matches and shooting down mine and everyone else’s otherwise decent bet. Thanks Jackpot!

Robert Thornton was gone by the second round, however, as he met MVG straight out of the groups and was promptly dismissed 10-5. James Wade who topped his group, which included Dave Chisnall, swiftly saw off Benito van de Pas 2-10 while in the last tie of round 2 Raymond van Barneveld dispatched the last remaining BDO representative Glen Durrant 10-7.

Darts Betting Tips

MVG is first out tonight and it really shouldn’t take him too long to move Brendan Dolan aside who is 14/1 at Bet365 just to come through this evening’s match. It’s game two that should provide the best action of the night as Peter Wright and Phil Taylor face off for the right to play, in all likeliness, Van Gerwen on Sunday. Taylor is odds on across the board, while Wright can be picked up at 7/4 for a win tonight, which I am toying with.

Both Bet365 and Betway are laying odds of 7/1 for The Power to take the crown and there is every possibility that the overall winner will come from his predicted semi-final face off on Sunday. The second batch of matches, to be played on Saturday, sees both James Wade and Gary Anderson odds on to emerge from their respective games and meet up in the second of Sunday’s semis. For the outright winner, I’m sticking with Anderson, MVG aside, and the Scotsman is 4/1 in all of our partner rooms.

Friday November 18 (7pm)

Quarter-Finals (Best of 31 legs)

  • Michael van Gerwen v Brendan Dolan (QF1)
  • Peter Wright v Phil Taylor (QF2)

Saturday November 19 (8pm)

Quarter-Finals (Best of 31 legs)

  • Chris Dobey v James Wade (QF4)
  • Gary Anderson v Raymond van Barneveld (QF3)

Sunday November 20

Afternoon Session (1pm)

Semi-Finals (Best of 31 legs)

  • Van Gerwen/Dolan v Wright/Taylor (SF1)
  • Anderson/van Barneveld v Dobey/Wade (SF2)

Evening Session (7pm)

  • Final (Best of 31 legs)
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