Taylor and Hankey do Battle at Grand Slam of Darts

Phil Taylor takes on Ted Hankey as the massive favourite in the marquee match of the Grand Slam of Darts this Monday evening.

The BDO boys have been doing their organisation proud in the early stages of the Grand Slam of Darts. Scott Waites, Tony O’Shea, Dave Chisnall and Martin Phillips have all caused major upsets in the event so far and Hankey has the game to put Taylor on the ropes tonight.

The two-time BDO World Champion got off to a winning start against in-form PDC player Wes Newton whilst Taylor recorded a comfortable win against an under-par Michael van Gerwen in his opener. And so the winner of this one will almost be guaranteed progression to the knockout stages.

"I'm really looking forward to playing Ted and I know it's a match the fans will want to see too," said the world number one. "Just because we've both won one game we can't relax and it will be a belter."

As an 8/1 favourite the bookmakers clearly believe Taylor will win this one comfortably, however he hasn’t been at his best for a number of weeks now and we saw no clear indication of improvement in his first match against the young Dutchman. On that basis punters can find great value in opposing The Power against a player who showed that he may have learned to handle the sometimes raucous PDC crowds.

Other intriguing matches taking place this evening include a repeat of the BDO World Championship quarter-final between Phillips and Waites and Paul Nicholson versus Ronnie Baxter.

Phillips won the previous encounter 5-4 in what was a high quality match, but Waites gets the nod for this one from the bookmakers at odds of around 4/6 with Phillips available at the reciprocal. In the other, Nicholson now plays up to the role of crowd villain whilst Baxter is one of the crowd favourites. Again the bookmakers are offering around 4/6 for Baxter with Nicholson at 11/8. Both matches could be extremely tight and thus siding with the outsider offers the value bet.