Monte's Multiple: The BDO is winning the war but PDC boys can still win the battles

Monte's Multiple / Jaymes Monte / 17 November 2009 / Leave a Comment

Tony O'Shea is the BDO's brightest hope in their attempt to disrupt the PDC dominance at the Grand Slam of Darts.

Back Tony O’Shea to beat Colin Lloyd @ 1.8
Lay France to beat Ireland @ 1.55
Back Stephen Hendry to beat Marco Fu @ 2.5
Treble pays @ 13.0

Jaymes Monte travels from Wolverhampton to Paris then Llandudno, Wales to make up his weekly treble....

Bet 1: Darts - Grand Slam of Darts

It promised to be an entertaining tournament and it certainly hasn't failed to deliver. In just the first few days we've seen Anastasia Dobromyslova record her first televised victory, Ted Hankey's now infamous outburst and some top quality darts for good measure. With the PDC World Championships now only a month away I am not ashamed to pull out an old cliché and say this really is the business end of the darting season.

With more and more players defecting from the BDO to the PDC the argument of which organisation contains the better players is proving to be increasingly one sided. However, the BDO do still have a few top quality players who can more than mix it with the PDC boys. At the top of that pile is the number one ranked Tony O'Shea who got this competition underway with a 5-3 victory over fellow BDO competitor Brian Woods then beat the in-form Colin Osbourne 5-2.

His third and final group match will be against Colin Lloyd who produced a 101.5 average to beat Brian Woods 5-0, having been previously beaten by Colin Osbourne with an 85.7 average. Those two performances are typical of the inconsistent Lloyd and at [1.85] I am going to side with the man from the BDO.

Selection: Back Tony O'Shea to beat Colin Lloyd @ [1.85]

Bet 2: Football - World Cup Qualifiers

It was more a case of the luck of the French than the luck of the Irish on Saturday night as a fortuitous Nicolas Anelka strike deflected its way past a helpless Shay Given. In truth it was a fairly balanced first half and the Irish were certainly not completely outclassed upon reflection on the game as a whole. But Giovanni Trapatonni's men appeared to tire in the second half and Anelka's goal was a result of some persistent probing at the heart of the Irish defence.

Both Trapatonni and captain Robbie Keane remain insistent that this tie isn't over yet, and with only one goal in it they certainly have a point. France are rightly installed as clear favourites to qualify but I feel that the [1.55] on them to win the match outright is too short.

The longer the game progresses at 0-0 I feel that the French will become increasingly inclined to sit back and protect what they have. Whether Ireland have enough to break them down is another matter but I definitely think there is value in taking on the French at the short odds of [1.55] in the match odds market.

Selection: Lay France to beat Ireland @ [1.55]

Bet 3: Snooker - Premier League

It is arguably one of the tightest Premier League tables that there has ever been with only Marco Fu being cast adrift as the league's whipping boy. There are plenty of permutations that will see one of Judd Trump, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Shaun Murphy or Stephen Hendry miss out on a semi-final berth, all each player can do is win their respective matches.

Stephen Hendry has arguably the easiest task as he faces the winless Fu where a victory would see him almost certain to snatch a ticket to finals weekend. Despite Fu only winning ten frames throughout the tournament you can back Hendry at a very generous [2.5] to get the result that he needs, a price which again sees the Scot being underestimated in this competition.

Selection: Back Stephen Hendry to beat Marco Fu @ [2.5]