Grand Slam of Darts 2009, 14th-22nd Nov (ITV4)

[PerryPFC]

Still a few days until it starts but should be a great tournament with many tight groups. Its always tough to bet against Phil Taylor in any tournament, but personally I think he's due a lose, he has a couple of bad tournaments from time to time, then all the talk about him retiring rears its head! With a high quality field in this, with all players reaching at least a semi final of a major (mostly televised) tournament or highest continental money earner, there is plenty of talent on show. I'll have a look at tournament odds another day, but 1 bet that stands out for me is: D.Fitton To Qualify from Group C - (Top 2 in 4 person group) Evs. Boylesports 8/10 pts. He's in the group with Mervyn King , Steve Maish and Kirk Shepherd. Mervyn King is rightly the odds on favourite to qualify but is capable of being turned over, he's easily upset and can often beat himself. Steve Maish is the ITV Qualifier from their playoff , no mean feat in itself but he isn't the most experienced player on TV, lost in the worlds in the 1st round 3-0 and is only ranked 40th in PDC. Kirk shepherd has done little since propelling himself to the bright lights with his PDC World final in 2008 with only a Qtr final in the US Open to show for this year. He is also only ranked 28th in PDC. Fitton however is ranked 2 in WDF rankings and 3 in BDO, admittedly not as high a standard as PDC but i'd say he'd be top 20 if he ever stepped across. He is a 2 time BDO worlds semi finalist including this year and has won 2 tournaments in 2009, Isle of Man and Dutch open, the latter being a tournament with 2200+ entries.

[stereoman]

Re: Grand Slam of Darts 2009, 14th-22nd Nov (ITV4) The groups and odds 'to win the group' (from Sky Bet before the name) and 'to qualify from the group' (from Boylesports and after the name): GROUP A 1/12 Phil Taylor (1) 1/250 12/1 Mark Webster 'evens' 8/1 Vincent van der Voort 8/11 100/1 Anastasia Dobromyslova 14/1 GROUP B 2/1 Tony O'Shea (8) 4/5 13/8 Colin Osborne 4/9 9/4 Colin Lloyd 4/5 8/1 Brian Woods 9/4 GROUP C 8/13 Mervyn King (5) 2/15 9/4 Darryl Fitton 4/6 8/1 Steve Maish 15/8 10/1 Kirk Shepherd 5/2 GROUP D 1/2 Raymond van Barneveld (4) 1/8 4/1 John Part 4/5 3/1 Kevin Painter 8/11 100/1 Francis Hoenselaar 10/1 GROUP E 3/1 Ted Hankey (2) 17/20 5/2 Simon Whitlock 5/6 3/1 Wayne Mardle 21/20 15/8 Scott Waites 17/20 GROUP F 8/11 Gary Anderson (7) 2/9 9/4 Steve Beaton 20/21 6/1 Co Stompe 7/5 15/2 Kevin McDine 7/4 GROUP G 5/4 Terry Jenkins (6) 2/5 5/4 Adrian Lewis 2/5 12/1 Darin Young 12/5 5/1 Denis Ovens 8/5 GROUP H 8/11 James Wade (3) 2/9 9/2 Robert Thornton 6/5 9/4 Andy Hamilton 4/6 16/1 Gary Mawson 16/5 http://www.pdc.tv/page/GrandSlamDetail/0,,10180~1867657,00.html