BoyleSports Grand Slam Of Darts – Day 3 Review

Rob Cross and Peter Wright were among the five players to reach the last 16 of the 2019 BoyleSports Grand Slam of Darts on Monday at the Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton, alongside qualifier Ryan Harrington.

Day Three of the cross-code event saw the final eight group matches take place in Groups E-H, with Cross surviving a scare from Jamie Hughes in the game of the night.

World Matchplay champion Cross led 4-1 and seemed to be coasting through to the knockout phase, but seven missed match darts across two legs allowed Hughes to take the Group E game to a last-leg decider.

Hughes kicked off the decider with a 180 but failed to hit a treble with his next 12 darts, and Cross took full advantage to win 5-4 and set up a mouth-watering last 16 clash with Peter Wright.

Wright, who knew he needed a win against World Series Finals runner-up Danny Noppert to secure qualification, claimed a convincing 5-2 victory which saw him qualify and top Group F, meaning Ryan Harrington had to beat Wayne Warren to progress.

Harrington’s dream debut continued with a 5-1 demolition of the Welsh BDO representative and the qualifier shared an emotional moment with his father and two-time World Matchplay champion Rod on stage after the biggest win of his career.

Harrington will now meet Dave Chisnall, who made it three wins from three with a comfortable 5-1 triumph over Lisa Ashton to top Group F.

Daryl Gurney hit finishes of 161 and 101 in a 5-2 success over Northern Irish World Cup partner Brendan Dolan to take victory in their Group G shoot-out.

Gurney will now meet Michael Smith in the last 16 after the World Championship runner-up came back from 3-0 down to beat already-eliminated German Martin Schindler to top Group H.

The final game of the night saw a Group H shoot-out between Glen Durrant and Nathan Aspinall, with Durrant whitewashing the UK Open champion 5-0 in a scrappy affair to progress alongside Smith.

Durrant will now take on in-form German Gabriel Clemens, who averaged 110.27 in an outstanding 5-2 demolition of already-eliminated Dutchman Richard Veenstra to top Group G.

Monday night’s winners will return to the stage on Wednesday to play in their last 16 ties.

Tuesday will see the final group games in Groups A-D take place, with Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price and Gary Anderson among the players in action, while Adrian Lewis and Jim Williams face a winner-takes-all shoot-out in Group A.