daveg

Cheers mate - well done on your winners too. Looked like being a tricky night, but got some decent winners … roll on tomorrow.

Agree that there are some real tough matches to call tonight. Going with Dobey, Price (-1.5) and M Smith to win which pays about 11/4.

It’s been a great couple of weeks on the Darts Forum with some really big priced winners going in, let’s hope that continues in the European Championships. The tournament features the top 32 from the European Tour Order of Merit, and most of the big names are taking part in the tournament, which starts tonight in Dortmund. Van Gerwen, Price and Humphries are the three favourites for the event, all priced up between 7/2 and 5/1. You can certainly make a case for any of them to win the event, especially Price and Humphries who are both in great form, but I’m going with three Englishmen who are at bigger odds and have impressed me in recent weeks. The first of these is Rob Cross (22/1 Skybet), a former two time winner of this event, and runner up on his debut in 2017. Voltage has been firing in some impressive averages for a while now, and in the recent Players Championship events he only dipped below the 95 average in three of his 13 matches, hitting a ton-plus average in six of them. He was also in good form at the last European Tour event, also in Germany, reaching the quarter-finals before running into a very hot Luke Humphries. Cross has already won on the ProTour, Euro Tour and picked up two titles on the World Series this year, would be nice if he could add a Major to that list this weekend. Second on my list is the current European Champion Ross Smith (50/1 Skybet). Ross Smith owes me nothing after picking up a title on the ProTour last weekend, his second win on the floor this year, and he’s playing some really nice darts at the moment. His 180 hitting is right up there with the best in the World, so he’s always going to get chances at the back-end of legs. The draw pits him against home favourite Ricardo Pietreczko in the first round, so it’s a tricky start for Smudger, and then it’s probably van Gerwen in the second round, but he should be feeling pretty confident about making a strong defence to the title he won 12 months ago. Finally I’m going with Stephen Bunting (66/1 General), another player in fine form and a big title could be just round the corner for The Bullet. Bunting didn’t really threaten at the business end of the tournaments on the floor last week, but he was consistently throwing averages in the high 90’s. After the events he revealed he had been suffering with flu throughout the week - making those averages even more impressive. He’s another player who’s got to face home opposition in the opening round in the shape of Martin Schindler, but I’m hopeful Bunting can give me a good run for my money at tasty odds.

I’m sticking with Ross Smith (33/1) and Gurney (50/1), and adding Sedlacek (300/1) and Rupprecht (350/1) as outsiders.

Can’t believe those odds on Pilgrim 😳 - not got a Betway account unfortunately, but I’d be all over that if I did.

Going with similar to yesterday … Ross Smith (40/1), Gurney (80/1) and Kist (150/1), and adding in Van Den Bergh (33/1). Worth noting that PaddyPower are going 4 places today.

Get in there - was getting pretty nervous there, but he held it together.

Missed all the action from yesterday as I was working away, but looking at the stats Ross Smith averaged over 102 in all 3 of his matches. So I’m also going with Smith, along with Gurney, Joyce and Kist.

Unbelievable- his finishing in that final - wow. Great stuff @Fader

Wright played very well in arhat semi-final, but I think I’d prefer Pietreczko to play Snakebite in the final compared to Humphries.

Got a couple of quid on him at 200/1 e/w 👍

Good luck with these @fader, I’m also on Bunting for the outright win. Got a feeling van Gerwen will bring his A-game, so going with him as well.

Cheers @fader - followed you on that 4/1 shot.

I’m going Price to win and both players a ton plus checkout AND Cullen to win and both players a ton plus checkout. The double pays just over 7/1.

I’m just having a small Acca tonight on Price -1.5 sets / Smith win and most 180s / Humphries win and most 180s / over 3.5 sets in Dobey v Cullen. Pays just over 7/1 - let’s hope it doesn’t fail at the first hurdle like yesterday.

Yeah agree Humphries should do Wright tomorrow - a bit surprised Wright has been priced up as big as 7/4 though

That sums up my tournament so far … the two bets I liked but didn’t back go on to win, the one I did back loses by a whisker.

We’ll played Chris Dobey - deserved that !!!

Geez - so many chances, but couldn’t take any of them.

Good write up Fader. I was actually tempted with Wright tonight, he’s had a pretty dreadful season, but there have been a few sparks of life in recent weeks. The over 8.5 180s in the Smith v Cullen match also interested me, the line is high but I do expect it to be quality match and both players are pretty consistent 180 hitters. However, I’m going to try and keep things simple tonight and have an Acca on all four matches going 4 or more sets, which pays just under 3/1 at Bet365.

Well done on the 6/1 win mate. Nothing went my way tonight … onto tomorrow, fancy the Cullen v Smith match to be a good game.

Yeah, agree we should be watching four fairly straightforward wins for the favourites tonight. So going to have a pop at the -1.5 handicap bet that @Fader highlighted above at 7/1.

Good call on Gilding @ThunderDan9 - I hadn’t appreciated just how poor a record Cross has at the Grand Prix !!!

The World Grand Prix starts tonight, some brief thoughts from me on the tournament; which is unique on the tour as players must start each leg on a double, which makes for an interesting twist. Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price come in as the favourites, both generally available at 4/1. it’s then 9/1 Michael Smith, 10/1 Luke Humphries and 20/1 and bigger the rest. I think Price is the most likely winner of the event, but the 4/1 odds aren’t very tempting, particularly as he faces a very tricky first round tie against Danny Noppert. I reckon six-time champion van Gerwen has been handed a relatively easy draw, none of the other seven players in his quarter are in particularly great form right now, so I can see MvG reaching the semis without too much difficulty, but I’d prefer to play a couple of players at bigger odds. The first is Gary Anderson at 22/1 with Coral (25/1 is available if you have a Betway account). The Scotsman played really well at the recent set of Players Championship tournaments, and is in pretty buoyant mood after taking the title in the last of those events. Doubling is even more important in this tournament, and only Price and Clayton (in this field) are hitting a higher percentage of doubles than Anderson on the Players Championship Tour this year. The former two-time World Champion has nothing to prove to anyone, and seems to be enjoying his darts again - if the Gary Anderson of the last week can turn up on the big stage in Leicester, he has to have a chance this week. The other player I like is Dave Chisnall, to be honest I was torn between Chizzy and his potential second round opponent Luke Humphries, but Chisnall at 20/1 is double the odds of Humphries. Chisnall is another player in form, picking up a Players Championship title in the last week, and also winning on the Euro Tour eight days ago. Chisnall is a twice beaten finalist in this event in the past, hopefully he can go one better this year.

Cheers @ThunderDan9 - yeah, one leg away from the big payout. The bookies have unsurprisingly trimmed his price for todays event, but William Hill are still going 4 places, so I’ve had a dabble on Kevin Doets and Jules van Dongen. Neither did much wrong yesterday and they can each be backed at 250/1 today. But the player I really like today is Stephen Bunting - averaged 106, 110, 111 and 107 in his four matches yesterday, and looked unplayable for much of the afternoon. I think he’s changed his darts recently, he used to throw with the lightest darts on the tour, I think these ones are a bit heavier. Bet365 are offering 100/1 on Bunting today - I just have to have a bit of that.