The Wolverhampton Civic Hall opens its doors to darts fans for the next week as the Grand Slam of Darts takes place. Tonight, it was the turn of groups A-D to begin their quest to become the 2012 champion.
Group A: Phil Taylor began his plight with an extremely convincing victory over Co Stompe. The Dutchman has been away from the tour events in recent times and that clearly showed. The only leg Stompe managed to record was in the third, allowing Taylor to win 5-1 with an average of just over 100.
The 2010 champion, Scott Waites, tried to show once again what the BDO has to offer. But he came up against a Mark Webster who was in drastic of a victory. The Welshman stormed into a 3-0 lead with a 131-checkout giving him that margin. Three legs on the spin ensured Waites levelled the match and missed two darts to force a deciding leg, leaving Webster to hit 56 to win the game 5-3. Table:
Phil Taylor 2 +4
Mark Webster 2 +2
Scott Waites 0 -2
Co Stompe 0 -4
Group B: The recently crowned Grand Prix champion, Michael Van Gerwen, continued from where he left off with victory over Steve Beaton. The Adonis did miss two darts at the double in the opening leg and ended up finding himself 2-0 behind. That turned into 4-2 before the Dutchman completed a very thorough performance, winning 5-2 with a 103.5 average.
Just before that, the UK Open champion, Robert Thornton, completed the first whitewash of the tournament against Ted Hankey. Hankey started last year's tournament in the same fashion but did manage to get out of the group. The Scot remained completely oblivious to Hankey's mind games to pull off a well oiled performance. Table:
Robert Thornton 2 +5
Michael Van Gerwen 2 +3
Steve Beaton 0 -3
Ted Hankey 0 -5
Group C: Kevin Painter began the night with an extremely tough fought win against Dean Winstanley. The Artist went 2-0 up before Winstanley pulled one back with a 120-checkout. Painter would restore his advantage before Winstanley once again hit back to level the match at 3-3. The next leg was very sloppy from both players as the nerves shone through, Painter managed to take it and would have to win the match via a deciding leg.
It wasn't so difficult for Simon Whitlock who saw off 20-year old James Hubbard. After the pair traded the opening legs, Whitlock managed to lead 3-1 before taking the game 5-2. Table:
Simon Whitlock 2 +3
Kevin Painter 2 +1
Dean Winstanley 0 -1
James Hubbard 0 -3
Group D: The surprise result of the night saw the returning James Wade lose to Arron Monk. After his distressing loss in the Grand Prix, it was good to see Wade back in action and he looked fresh to begin with. But he lost the opening leg and was 2-0 down after Monk posted a double-18 double-20 finish. Wade responded with a terrific 116-checkout but that would be the only leg he would win.
There was no upset for Mervyn King to faced BDO's Jan Dekker, the same age as Monk at 22. Dekker did look quite suave with his walk on but his game was anything but. The Dutchman did level the game at 1-1 courtesy of King missing three darts at the double. But King didn't allow for any more mistakes and also ran out as a 5-1 winner. Table:
Arron Monk 2 +4
Mervyn King 2 +4
Jan Dekker 0 -4
James Wade 0 -4
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