Finals Day

Phil Taylor	-	Raymond van Barneveld	16-8
Scott Waites	-	Terry Jenkins	14-16
Phil Taylor		Terry Jenkins	16-6

Quarter Finals

Phil Taylor	-	Tony O'Shea	13-8	16-7
Raymond van Barneveld	-	Kevin Painter	13-11	16-6
Simon Whitlock	-	Scott Waites	13-10	13-16
Robert Thornton	-	Terry Jenkins	13-12	9-16

Second Round

Phil Taylor	-	Colin Lloyd	10-3	10-4
Tony O'Shea	-	Mark Webster	10-6	10-9
Mervyn King	-	Raymond van Barneveld	10-8	6-10
Kevin Painter	-	Kirk Shepherd	10-3	10-5
Simon Whitlock	-	Steve Beaton	10-8	10-1
Gary Anderson	-	Scott Waites	7-10	9-10
Robert Thornton	-	Darin Young	10-4	10-9
Terry Jenkins	-	James Wade	9-10	10-9

First Round

It is almost there, the annual party where the best players from the PDC and the BDO come to do battle for the Grand Slam of Darts title. All the champions of the last two years, supplemented by the losing finalists, some semi finalists and some other top players complete the 32 man and women players that start the torunament. The only player who again will not be there this year is Martin Adams. I read a lot about darts, both serious literature, the darts magazines and most of the the gossip on the various forums and I hope that most players skip the latter. What you sometimes have to to endure as a top player, is nothing to be happy about. A great example is Martin Adams, it is said he is afraid to play the Grand Slam because he is afraid to get whipped, he is nothing short of a coward! Nothing could be further from the truth, I've met Martin regularly over the last 10 years and talked with him on numerous occasions. The one thing he certainly isn’t is a coward. He is a man of principles. He can not agree with the organization that is called the PDC and will therefore not play in tournaments under their flag. He has played, long ago, a few times in the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix and with success, but has since decided not to do any more. Now I think that if that is your choice, that is your personal choice and nobody has anything to do with it. I sometimes get an invitation to a  party, and don’t go, even if I did have time to go there, but I just did not feel like going. That is my choice, right? Why would that be any different for Adams?
Back to Wolverhampton and back to the players who will compete. Like every year we will  start with a group phase. Four players in a group will decide which two players progress to the second round. I'm not a big fan of a group system, in the past it has all too often been important how many friends you have in your group. Sometimes more important than your talent. Fortunately there is only one group stage and then we'll have just knock-out games. I've polished the crystal ball and this is what came out:

Group A: Of course, Phil Taylor will go to the next round, but who will join him? That is the question. I certainly do not think it’s Dobromyslova she just is not good enough to beat the man regularly. And so the match between Vincent van der Voort and Mark Webster will be decisive. I go with Vincent, he has played better than Webster over the last eighteen months.
Group B: A very tough group to predict four players on form, Osborne recently won the Championship League of Darts, Woods the Tops of Holland tournament and O'Shea was crowned World Cup singles champion. Add to that one of my favourite players in Colin Lloyd and I have a difficult choice to make. However you have to choose and I will say that Osborne and O'Shea progress to the last 16.
Group C: Mervyn King and Darryl Fitton are my favourites in this group. Shepherd has done little over the last 2 years after his surprising run to the final of the PDC World Championship back in 2008. After the upcoming World Championships, he will fall back into anonymity. Steve Maish surprisingly qualified through the qualifying tournament for the Grand Slam and perhaps he is the one King and Fitton have to look out for.
Group D: Francis Hoenselaar will make her debut in a televised PDC tournament and that automatically means playing against the men. Now that is nothing new to Francis because she has always played men in her local league in the Netherlands. But it will still be strange for her to do so on a big stage. What makes her debut even more special is that the two Dutch players with the most titles play each other in the first game. Hoenselaar plays on Saturday against Van Barneveld. Van Barneveld will of course go to the next round, just like Kevin Painter. For Hoenselaar it will be over after three matches and I think it will also be for John Part.
Group E: is also not an easy group to predict. Ted Hankey is probably the major attraction at this tournament, it is his debut at the PDC. I expect the gentlemen of ITV (the TV channel that broadcast everything) and the PDC will have a nice entrance for Ted. You can leave it up to them to make it a good show. Hankey generally plays well in a group system so I think he will make it through. The others in the group are Whitlock, Mardle and Waites. A tough choice, but I’ll go for Whitlock, we have not seen him since January in a major tournament so he has had plenty of time to practise. Although I do think that everyone in this group will at least win one game and everyone will lose one too.
Group F: In group F Kevin McDine seems least likely to advance if you like at his form the past season, but McDine is one of those players who are at home on the big stages and particularly in Wolverhampton. Both years he played at the Grand Slam, he got through the group fase. Gary Anderson is the big name in this group, but he has difficulty each year in the first game of the tournament. In 2007 he lost to Kevin Painter, last year to Paul Nicholson. Yet Anderson is gonna get to round 2, along with the man in form, Steve Beaton. Unfortunately for Co Stompé and Kevin McDine.
Group G: Not exactly the pool where I most look forward to. The American Darin Young, Terry Jenkins, Adrian Lewis and Denis Ovens. Actually, Jenkins and Lewis are almost obligated to come through, although Young last year at this tournament was too strong for Jenkins in the first round. But I do not think that this will happen two years in a row.
Group H: James Wade is going be there for round two, but who goes with him? My first impulse was Andy Hamilton when looking at this group for the first time. The others in the group are Gary Mawson, he needs to be on form to have any chance of getting through. If he is he has proven he can beat them all. And finally, Robert Thornton, just about “The Invisible Man” of the PDC last year. Has physical problems that slowly dissolve and he played a reasonably good match in the first round of the European Championships against Wes Newton. And it is that game that made me decide to choose Thornton as the last player in the last 16.

This is my preview on the first round, unfortunately the tournament will not be broadcasted in the Netherlands on TV, but for the true followers dart there is a solution. Via PDCTV you can legally follow the tournament live for a small fee. I'm even happier because I've managed to get tickets for Monday and Tuesday. So I will travel Monday to Wolverhampton. From Wednesday on I will do predictions on the second round and beyond!

Jacques Nieuwlaat