Express & Star

Fancy dress is order of the day as Grand Slam of Darts returns to Wolverhampton

Crowds of darts fans descended on Wolverhampton when a major sports event returned to the city.

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Sue Deery-Daniels, from Cleethorpes, dresses as a dart board

The 2022 Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts, which is televised globally, got underway at the Aldersley Leisure Village on Saturday.

Pictured from left, Kane Edward, Jack Lambert, Andy Williams and Lewis Rigby, all from Worcester
Fans enjoying the darts

The 16th staging of the Grand Slam sees a star-studded 32-player field competing for a record-breaking £650,000 in prize money and the coveted Eric Bristow Trophy, with the final set for next Sunday.

Hundreds of people turned up during the event's first day, with many donning fancy dress outfits from traffic cones to Spider-Man.

One fan even came as a darts board.

Fans enjoying the darts
Many of the darts fans donned fancy dress during the first day of the event in Wolverhampton

Dave Allen, from the Professional Darts Corporation, said around 15,000 fans were expected to come to the 12 sessions, spread out over nine days, this year.

He said: "For the overall tournament we've had record ticket sales this year.

Fans at the event
Brothers Jack Screen, left, and Tom Screen from Dudley

"We had 1,300 in on Saturday afternoon and are expecting 1,700 on the evening. It's really positive and shows how big the tournament is.

"There's been a great atmosphere. Fancy dress is also a big part of it for the fans.

"We've had people dressed as traffic cones, people wearing replica shirts of their favourite players, Super Mario, people in Hawaiian shirts, someone came as a hot dog with their friend as a burger."

Casper Plant from Newport, Shropshire

Five-time World Darts Champion Raymond van Barneveld, from the Netherlands, won one of the group matches on Saturday.

Speaking afterwards, he said: "The crowd is always brilliant wherever I come and I don't want to let them down."

Matt Johnson, from Shrewsbury, dresses up as Spider-Man

Welsh darts ace Gerwyn Price won his third Grand Slam of Darts title at the venue last year by beating Peter Wright 16-8 in the final.

Tickets are still available for sessions over the next week through seetickets.com

Pictured from left, Sharon Kingston and Angela Stockin from Cannock
Dawn Bursall from Wolverhampton

From Monday to Saturday, sessions start at 7pm. The semi-final is on Sunday at 1pm, with the final due to be held on Sunday evening.