Is Darts World Grand Prix at the Mercy of Clinical Gerwyn Price?
Author:
Roy Brindley
The unique BoyleSports World Grand Prix Darts competition is underway. It enters its second-round phase on Tuesday night, and all of the remaining action will be broadcast live throughout the week on Sky Sports. Offering a ￡110,000 first prize, this is the only major tournament that features a ‘double start’. It means players must first hit a double before they can begin scoring in each leg.
Gerwyn Price landed 45 percent of his starting doubles and 50 percent of his finishing doubles in a clinical first-round display against Michael Smith. ©Lawrence Lustig/PDC
Traditionally staged in Dublin’s Citywest complex, Covid restrictions saw this event transferred to the Morningside Arena in Leicester in 2020. The action takes place there for a second year and fanatical darting fans are back for 2021.
Price’s Clinical Performance
Current title holder and reigning world champion Gerwyn Price set out his stall early with a 2-0 demolition of former world-ranked number three Michael Smith in his opening game. The Welshman recorded a stunning 100.83 three-dart average in the first-round clash. Given the ‘double in’ Grand Prix format, this was a remarkable performance.
Landing 45 percent of his starting doubles and 50 percent of his finishing doubles Gerwyn Price’s clinical display saw him tighten his grip on favoritism. He is now top-priced 5/2 to win the tournament with the best darts betting sites.
During his post-match press debrief, the 36-year-old player gave his supporters every reason to be optimistic about his chances of retaining the Grand Prix title by saying:
“I thought I played pretty well especially the first set. The problem was I looked over [at the scoring screen] and saw I was averaging like 104. I thought to myself I gotta keep this up and I put a little bit too much pressure on myself. I thought overall this was a good performance.”
Asked about his confidence levels given he has arrived at the competition on the back of victories in two ranking Euro Tour events Price continued:
“Obviously winning breeds confidence so I’m full of it and I know this tournament is a little bit different, obviously double start double finish can get to you a little bit mentally. But I just seem to concentrate a bit more these days and don’t seem to try to put myself under too much pressure.”
Returning to his opening-round match Price later reflected: “It’s good for me I had a tough, tough game in the first round and whatever comes at me now, I am not worried.”
Searle Sends the First Seeded Player Packing
Price will now meet Mervyn King on Tuesday after the 2012 runner-up won the tournament’s opening tie with a straight-sets defeat of debutant Martijn Kleermaker. Other winners from the opening night of action included Luke Humphries, Stephen Bunting, Ross Smith, Dave Chisnall, James Wade, and Ryan Searle.
Ryan ‘Heavy Metal’ Searl knocked the first seeded player, Dimitri Van den Bergh, out of the BoyleSports Grand Prix. ©Lawrence Lustig/PDC
Searle’s victory was notable because, in defeating Dimitri Van den Bergh, he sent the first seeded player tumbling out of the competition. Nicknamed ‘Heavy Metal’, Ryan Searle has steadily climbed up the PDC’s pecking order and now sits 30th in Darts World Rankings.
Just 28/1 in the sponsor’s and William Hill outright Grand Prix betting list Searle, who enjoyed runs to the fourth round of the World Championship in 2019 and 2021, now meets Luke Humphries in a second-round showdown on Tuesday.
World Grand Prix Fact File
- Tuesday October 5 (19.00 BST) Four second round matches
- Wednesday October 6 (19.00 BST) Four second round matches
- Thursday October 7 (19.00 BST) Quarter-finals
- Friday October 8 (19.00 BST) Semi-finals
- Saturday October 9 (20.30 BST) Final
| First round | Best of three sets |
| Second round | Best of five sets |
| Quarter-finals | Best of five sets |
| Semi-finals | Best of seven sets |
| Final | Best of nine sets |
*All sets are the best of five legs.
| Winner | ￡110,000 |
| Runner-up | ￡50,000 |
| Semi-finalists | ￡25,000 |
| Quarter-finalists | ￡16,000 |
| Second round losers | ￡10,000 |
| First round losers | ￡6,000 |
| Total prize money | ￡450,000 |
- 2010 – James Wade beat Adrian Lewis 6-2
- 2011 – Phil Taylor beat Brendan Dolan 6-3
- 2012 – Michael van Gerwen beat Mervyn King 6-4
- 2013 – Phil Taylor beat Dave Chisnall 6-0
- 2014 – Michael van Gerwen beat James Wade 5-3
- 2015 – Robert Thornton beat Michael van Gerwen 5-4
- 2016 – Michael van Gerwen beat Gary Anderson 5-2
- 2017 – Daryl Gurney beat Simon Whitlock 5-4
- 2018 – Michael van Gerwen beat Peter Wright 5-2
- 2019 – Michael van Gerwen beat Dave Chisnall 5-2
- 2020 – Gerwyn Price beat Dirk van Duijvenbode 5-2
