Walking in a Waites Wonderland

Grand Slam of Darts winner Scott Waites kicks off his BDO World Championship campaign when he takes on 2009 champion Ted ‘The Count’ Hankey in the first round at Lakeside this Monday.

The crowd sang ‘Walking in a Waites Wonderland’ as the BDO player beat James Wade 16-12 in the final of the Grand Slam of Darts in late November of last year. It was a result which did as much for the credibility of the BDO organisation as it did for Waites himself. He has a tough opening round match against The Count, another player who proved that the BDO shouldn’t be considered the sport’s weaker sibling when he beat Phil Taylor at the group stages of the Grand Slam.

This is undoubtedly the marquee match of the first round and the fact that these two players meet at this stage of the event shows the strength and depth of the BDO at present. Waites is the slight 8/13 favourite to go through to the second round whilst Hankey is 6/4 to produce a result that wouldn’t really be considered as a shock.

Waites is the 4/1 second favourite, behind defending champion Martin Adams, to win the event. If he were to emerge as the tournament winner then he may gain more than just the title of world champion; with four wildcards available in next season’s lucrative Premier League over at the PDC he may just be rewarded with the opportunity to make some mega bucks in front of the Sky television cameras.

Other first round matches this Monday see Stephen Bunting up against Brian Woods ,with the former as the 8/11 favourite for victory, Robbie Green is favoured to beat Andy Boulton and then the first round action is concluded when Dean Winstanley takes on Martin Atkins in the mid-afternoon.