Grand Slam of Darts Betting: Can Whitlock slow The Power?

Darts / David Croft / 21 November 2008 / Leave a Comment

Betting.Betfair's man for the international fast lane David Croft is relieved of globe-trotting duties this week and back in Blighty to preview the final stages of The Grand Slam of Darts.

After the thrills of Brazil, New York and the O2 Arena where I still don't know how Monte Barrett managed to survive the fourth round and deny me a decent return on my big fight prediction, it's been very pleasant indeed to kick back on the sofa this week and enjoy some tungsten R & R.

The Grand Slam of Darts is back on the box and, fair play to ITV, the coverage, bar some shaky camera work, has been excellent. As has some of the play on the oche, which is what you'd expect from a tournament that pits the best of the PDC against the best of the BDO.

Except, of course, that it doesn't. It pits the best of the PDC - 24 players in total - against some of the best that the BDO has to offer. In this case just eight players have taken part from the rival organisation, which is not enough in my book and certainly not what this tournament was originally about.

Of course, it didn't help that Martin Adams, BDO champion in 2007, refused his invitation. But why have wild-card qualifiers at what is in an invitational event for those who have won major tournaments or appeared in the final?

It's been great to see the women's world champion Anastasia Dobromyslova and she put up one hell of a match while going down 5-4 to Wayne Mardle, but where is the woman she beat to win that title? Trina Gulliver, who has won seven world titles, should have been there. Some of the large opens run by the BDO and WDF should have been included in the qualifying criteria to even up the line-up, then we'd have had something different and unique which is what, as a darts fan, I would prefer to see.

Anyway, rant over.

Well done to the four BDO players who have made it through to the quarter-finals, once again proving that they aren't inferior in terms of ability to their PDC counterparts. In fact the battle of the two current world champions turned into rather a non-event as the BDO king Mark Webster trounced John Part 10-2 the other night.

Of course, the one they all still want to beat is The Power, and rightly so. I believe I opposed him last year and paid the price but I might have to do so again this evening as the Betfair price of [15.0] on his opponent Simon Whitlock is just too good to turn down. Whitlock, with his slow pace, is a nightmare to play against, he's not phased by anyone and showed at the Lakeside last year when finishing as a close runner up just what he's capable of.

Of course, Taylor is the class act here but so far this week he hasn't always found top gear, he certainly wasn't at his best on double 16 against Andy Hamilton in round two, and at [15.0] Whitlock is by far the better value especially if he keeps up his exceptional finishing from earlier in the week.

Mervyn King against Mark Webster could be a close affair and I like the [11.0] for a Webster win by 10 legs to seven or the [9.4] for the BDO champ to win 10-8. He needs to raise his scoring though and King will be a stronger challenge for the Welsh left-hander than John Part in round 2. But that win will give Webster a lot of confidence and he'll be out to prove that his 5-3 defeat to King in the group stage was just temporary blip.

Raymond van Barneveld seems to be rediscovering some of Dutch mastery this week and is priced at [1.42] to beat Terry Jenkins tonight. On paper you'd fancy the 5-time world champion more often than not but Jenkins is a stubborn old 'Bull' and won't be easy to shake off. He proved that against Robert Thornton by the way he fought back and held his nerve to take the deciding leg on a tricky double nine. So once again I expect a close match and the [7.2] for Barney to win 10-7 looks tempting.

Which brings us to the classic match-up of the quarterfinals. The Dazzler, Darryl Fitton against The Dreamboy, Gary Anderson. The two met in the final match of their Group, a match that had darts fans spitting out their beer and protesting of a stitch up between the two when Daryl missed his double top for the match.

Personally, I don't think Daryl would ever let a player win a match just so they could qualify, whoever that player is. He certainly would think twice about allowing Anderson to go through with himself, especially if there was chance the two would meet further down the road.

Anderson as the WDF number one and recent Grand Prix series winner is dangerous, a big scorer and a deadly finisher. When he's in the mood and fully focused he has the game to beat anyone at any time. What's good for this match is that Fitton has the game to match the Scotsman; it's just that he doesn't show it often.

I expect lots of 180's in this match but Anderson to squeeze through. He's [1.5] with Betfair and a highly tempting [10.0] to finish as Grand Slam Champion.

The fact that he won't face Phil Taylor until at least the final makes that price look very good value indeed. Taylor, understandably, is extremely short at [1.44] with Barneveld, who I expect Anderson to play in the semi-finals best priced at [7.8] to win the tournament.

In fact this weekend could be a story of an Englishman, a Scotsman, a Welshman and a Dutchman, and if you're on the man from north of the border his win will give you plenty of smiles, but it'll be no joke!