2023 Friday Grand Slam of Darts Preview & Tips – JP
2023 Friday Grand Slam of Darts Preview & Tips
Now, it is time for James Punt’s 2023 Friday Grand Slam of Darts Tips. His run of good form continued on Thursday. Damon Heta landed our 3.50 bet vs MVG and Rob Cross (just about) covered the 1.5l handicap vs Nathan Aspinall. We now move into the quarter final stage, check out his match previews below.
Quarter Final Overview
We are now down to the last eight and it is safe to say, it is not the last eight that many were expecting. The joint favourites, Price and MVG, are gone and the only seed left in the tournament is the new favourite, Luke Humphries.
Cool Hand is the 3.40 favourite, with Rob Cross 5.25 and Gary Anderson 5.50 as the top three in the betting. Whoever wins, there will be a new name on the trophy.
All of the remaining matches are played over a best of 31 legs format, so a very long format, and with the semi-finals and final all being played on Sunday, mental stamina is going to play a big part.
James Wade vs. Josh Rock
This will be Rock’s first major quarter final and it will be Wade’s forty fifth ranking major quarter final. Advantage Wade in the experience department.
Wade has played five Grand Slam quarter finals and won four, the last two in 2020 and 2021. He beat Chris Dobey 16-5 in 2016, but the other four were all over 27 legs and four went to 28 legs or more. He is the kind of player who will grind away rather than sprint off into a lead.
Rock has never played a match of this duration and he has only played four best of nineteen leg matches in his career, so this will be breaking new ground for the young Ulsterman. He has won seven of his last ten matches but hasn’t been a model of consistency. He played well to beat Ratajski 10-5 in the second round and he will need to play the same sort of game here.
Machine Back In Working Order
James Wade has decided that he didn’t like being outside the top 16 in the World rankings and he has cemented his place back in it by reaching the European Championship final and now enjoying a good run in the Grand Slam. He has won six of his last ten matches and as we saw at the European Championship, the longer the match, the more it suits him.
These two have only met twice, both in Euro Tour qualifiers last year, and Rock won both. Rock averaged 98 in both, Wade 93 and 94. I would not be surprised to see something similar tonight. Rock being the heavier scorer is likely, but Wade’s long game is all about finishing, taking his chances and grinding his opponents down by hitting the target with the last dart.
The trend has been for longer, closer matches in the last three years with eleven of the twelve quarter finals requiring more than 27 legs. James Wade’s quarter finals have tended to be on the long side and a bet on over 27.5 legs looks in order.
2023 Friday Grand Slam of Darts Tip: 1 point over 27.5 legs @ 1.85 with Ladbrokes
As for the winner, I will go for James Wade. His experience, compared to Rock’s lack of it, could be the difference. Rock is a real jack in the box, very high energy sort of player while Wade is more measured, takes his time when he needs to.
He knows the rhythm of these long matches while for Rock it will be a new experience. Will he be able to play at 100mph over a long period, or might he run out of gas?
2023 Friday Grand Slam of Darts Tip: 1 point James Wade to win @ 2.20 generally available
Luke Humphries vs. Gary Anderson
Two of the sport’s heavy hitters going toe to toe should be a good watch. Anderson is seeking his first win in the tournament that he rates as the best there is, his favourite.
His floor form in 2023 has been excellent. His win rate is 71%, his best since 2018, and he won a lot that year, but lost out in the final here. He has won six of his last ten matches and he was in great nick when beating Gerwyn Price 10-6 in the second round.
Luke Humphries is in great form, winning eight of his last ten matches. So far in this tournament he has averaged over 100 in all four matches and improved match by match.
It was a 105 average when beating Ryan Searle 10-7 in the second round. That was better than the 100.87 he averaged when beating Anderson 5-1 in the group phase.
Close H2H
Their H2H record is 4-4. On TV it is 2-1 to Humphries and in 2023 3-1. Of course, that drubbing in the group phase is fresh in both players memories and that should give Humphries confidence, but this is a very different format.
It is a criticism of this tournament that players who played each other in the group phase can meet as soon as the quarter final. It has happened eight times in just the last three years and on six occasions, the quarter final winner was the same as the group stage winner.
Anderson has lost twice to Humphries in the last month and has lost their last three in a row, all in the last two months.
Cool Hand Luke Fav
The market expects that trend to continue and Humphries is the 1.62 favourite to make it four in a row. Anderson is 2.35 to reverse the group stage result, but history and recent H2H form is very much against him.
Anderson has played eight Grand Slam quarter finals and won six. Since the quarter finals were made best of 31 legs, five of his seven have gone beyond 27 legs. One that wasn’t was a 16-6 win over BDO qualifier, Michael Unterbuchner.
That Anderson lost 1-5 in the group phase was a surprise. Not that he lost, but the margin of the defeat. Over a longer format, I expect Anderson to be more in the game. I expect he will lose, but by a smaller margin.
