Wizard to Cast His Spell at Grand Slam of Darts

Groups A-D in the Grand Slam of Darts conclude this Tuesday evening with one notable high-profile casualty already confirmed and a couple of other potential upsets on the cards.

Despite recording the second best three-dart average of the event so far Simon Whitlock was beaten by Colin Osborne on Sunday night making it two defeats from two and a surprise group stage exit for the number three seed. His opponent in the final group game is Robert Thornton but the Scot’s 100% record means it is a dead rubber match. The bookmakers make the Aussie a 1/3 chance not to end the group pointless by taking victory here.

Number two seed James Wade also suffered a shock defeat on Sunday evening as he came unstuck against BDO player Tony O’Shea. Wade’s victory over Vincent van der Voort in his opening group fixture means that he can still qualify for the knockout stages but he is also ever so slightly reliant on results in the other game between van der Voort and O’Shea.

Should the Dutchman win Wade will need to beat Justin Pipe by a bigger scoreline in order to progress as van der Voort currently has a marginally better leg difference.

The biggest match of the night, however, is undoubtedly the straight shoot out between Dave Chisnall and Colin Osborne. The winner will book a place in the knockout stages of the tournament whilst the loser will be sent packing.

Osborne showed great skill, and most importantly, tremendous bottle to hold his nerve against Whitlock on Sunday evening and will be full of confidence going into this one.

"It's in my own hands now for me to get through to the last 16 and I can look forward to playing Dave Chisnall on Tuesday," said The Wizard.

Chisnall on the other hand may be slightly down hearted after failing to build on his impressive victory over Whitlock on the opening night of the event. The bookmakers cannot split the pair with odds of 5/6 available on each player, but momentum can be a crucial factor in sport and specifically darts and could be a huge positive in Osborne's favour.