Grand Slam of Darts

The seventeenth edition of the Grand Slam of Darts was held in Wolverhampton from 11 to 19 November. Luke Humphries managed to take the title for the first time after a victory in the final over Rob Cross.

Six Dutch players start the group stage of this tournament in Wolverhampton. Martijn Kleermaker, who announced at an earlier stage that he will temporarily stop playing darts after the World Championships, writes history by being the first player ever to end the group stage with a 5-4 defeat in three games. He loses to Rob Cross, Fallon Sherrock and Michael van Gerwen. The same Van Gerwen wins three times and convincingly advances to the knockout phase.

Danny Noppert also manages to win three times (against Andrew Gilding, Brendan Dolan and Haruki Muramatsu) and advances to the last sixteen. For Berry van Peer, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Gian van Veen, the tournament is over after the group stage. World champion Michael Smith wins his first two matches, but has to leave the tournament after a 5-1 defeat against James Wade. Luke Humphries beats Steve Lennon, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Gary Anderson and continues in the tournament with only four lost legs.

The group stage has a number of notable moments: in addition to Fallon Sherrock, Beau Greaves also managed to win a match (5-1 against Ricardo Pietreczko). But just like Sherrock, she too cannot survive the group stage. It is the group stage of the American sensation Stowe Buntz: in the opening match he beats Peter Wright 5-1 and throws an average of 102.28. In the following match he beat Stephen Bunting 5-3, which means he qualified for the last sixteen. The decision in Group D is spectacular: Ryan Searle and Nathan Rafferty meet for a place in the next round. With a 4-3 lead for Searle, 'Heavy Metal' hits a nine-darter, which promptly wins the match and with it a place in the knockout phase.

Van Gerwen and Noppert play on behalf of the Netherlands in the last sixteen, but the tournament is then over for both: Van Gerwen loses 10-7 to Damon Heta, while Noppert loses 10-4 to Stephen Bunting. For Buntz the tournament continues a little further: he beats Andrew Gilding 10-5. Rob Cross and Gary Anderson win with 100+ averages against Nathan Aspinall and Gerwyn Price (who also throw 100+ averages) and Luke Humphries advances to the quarter-finals after a 10-7 victory over Ryan Searle.

The first two quarter-finals will be played on Friday, November 17 and it will be one of the best evenings of the darting year: James Wade reaches the semi-finals after a thrilling 16-15 victory over Josh Rock, after which Luke Humphries also reaches the last four after a 16-14 win over Gary Anderson. A day later, Stowe Buntz's fairy tale ends, after he loses 16-8 to Stephen Bunting. 'The Bullet' plays in the semi-finals against Rob Cross, who is far too strong for Damon Heta: 16-6.

Four Englishmen will compete in the semi-finals: first it is Luke Humphries who reaches the final after a 16-10 win over James Wade, after which Rob Cross is narrowly too strong for Stephen Bunting (16-13). The final in the evening will be a one-sided one: Cross throws well with an average of 103.61, but has to leave the 16-8 victory to Humphries who throws an average of 104.69. Luke Humphries wins the Grand Slam of Darts for the first time and takes his second major title of this year after the World Grand Prix.