November 14-22 at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall
The Partypoker Grand Slam of Darts is the contest between the two major darting organisations, the PDC and the BDO. The tournament is organised by the Professional Darts Corporation, but it invites the best players over from its rival body, the British Darts Organisation. It was originated in just 2007, which was to bring together the major players for a big showdown. It brings together the best in the World, as the tournament works on an invitation basis, welcoming players who have made it to the semi-final or final of major tournaments through the year, or have been sitting atop the rankings of their own country. This is for the best of the best to ply their trade on a big stage, and as tournaments by each organisation are kept apart, this is the rare occasion when players from the PDC square off against the BDO.
History.
Just into its third year this year, there has only been one winner so far. That is the irrepressible Phil Taylor, who is hailed as the world’s greatest darts player ever. This year alone Taylor has won 22 out of the 28 PDC tournaments which he has played in, and has won the World Championships twelve times alone since his first tournament in 1990. At odds of 125/1 Taylor in his inaugural year beat the other darting great, Eric Bristow in the final.
Format:
There is a lot of prestige hanging around the Partypoker Grand Slam of Darts tournament, simply because of the rarity of facing darters from the other organisation, including the 2008 BDO Women’s World Champions Anastasia Dobromyslova. The format of the competition is a Champions League style group stage of four players per group, which houses the 32 competitors. Everyone plays each other in the group stage one, in a round-robin format with the top two from each moving through to the second round. For any players finishing on the same amount of points as well as having the same leg-difference (darts are played over legs, there is the potential of a nine-dart shoot out to confirm qualifiers.
Group Highlights:
Group A: Phil Taylor was drawn in Group A along with Dobromyslova and men’s 2008 BDO World Champion Mark Webster, plus Holland’s Vincent van der Voort. Taylor demolished Dobromyslova 5-0 in his opening match, before the young Russian fought back in her second game, to earn herself a famous win over van der Voort, becoming only the second woman to beat a man on television in a PDC event. Dobromyslova, although believing that should could have done a lot better on the PDC tour, has been making waves by matching her male opponents, and certainly not being any kind of a pushover.
The only other female competitor in the competition is current Women’s World Champion Francis Hoenselaar. She almost achieved the same feat as Dobromyslova, as she gave Canadian John Part a good run for his money in Group D. Another familiar name in Group D, is that of Raymond Van Barneveld, seeded fourth, and the big Dutchman, scrapped his way past Kevin Painter for a 5-4 victory. This is a supremely tough group, as the competitors have eight World Championship (men and women) between them.
Ted Hankey, who is the current BDO World Champion has been drawn against Scott Waites, Wayne Mardle and Simon Whitlock in his group, and Hankey has been seeded as number two for the tournament, behind Phil Taylor of course. He didn’t get off to a great start though, a Britain’s Scott Waites took him down five sets to three.
Partypoker Grand Slam of Darts Tournament Seeded Rankings (along with odds):
1) Phil Taylor – 4/11 at Bet365
2) Ted Hankey – 125/1 at Boylesports
3) James Wade – 10/1 at Totesport
4) Raymond van Barneveld – 16/1 at Totesport
5) Mervyn King – 25/1 at Ladbrokes
6) Terry Jenkins – 22/1 at SkyBet
7) Gary Anderson – 11/1 at Ladbrokes
8) Tony O’Shea – 50/1 at Totesport
Tournament Group Draw:
GROUP A
Anastasia Dobromyslova
Phil Taylor (1)
Vincent van der Voort
Mark Webster
GROUP B
Colin Lloyd
Colin Osborne
Tony O’Shea (8)
Brian Woods
GROUP C
Darryl Fitton
Mervyn King (5)
Steve Maish
Kirk Shepherd
GROUP D
Raymond van Barneveld (4)
Francis Hoenselaar
Kevin Painter
John Part
GROUP E
Ted Hankey (2)
Wayne Mardle
Scott Waites
Simon Whitlock
GROUP F
Gary Anderson (7)
Steve Beaton
Kevin McDine
Co Stompe
GROUP G
Terry Jenkins (6)
Adrian Lewis
Denis Ovens
Darin Young
GROUP H
Andy Hamilton
Gary Mawson
Robert Thornton
James Wade (3)
Dates
The Group stages take place over four days, between November 14 and 18
Second round takes place on November 19th and 20th.
Quarter Finals: November 21st
Semi’s and Final November 22nd
With Phil Taylor looking to make it a hat trick of wins, it will be hard to see anyone stopping the big man aiming for that £100,000 Partypoker Grand Slam of Darts title prize money, and the honour of winning the tournament of course. While the tournament may be still gaining ground in terms of popularity and reputation amongst more established title champions, this is some kind of glamour tournament. Although it has happened on other occasions, it is not very often that all of the biggest names from the BDO and PDC are seen battling it out on the same ochy. With all the big names coming together, it makes the interest even higher. Phil Taylor is keen to get that third title under his belt, and to let his supremacy rule across both organisations, and it could all come to a head in the final of the tournament. If all goes as expected, the draw will see PDC World Champion Phil Taylor and BDO World Champion Ted Hankey come together in the final of the 2009 PartyPoker Grand Slam of Darts.
