Snakebite to bring colour to the Civic
World No.2 Peter Wright is targeting glory in Wolverhampton at the Grand Slam of Darts, which gets under way today at Civic Hall, writes Paul Joannou.
The event sees the very best players from the PDC and BDO organisations battle it out for the trophy and £450,000 in prize money.
Wright – known for his colourful hairstyles and painted snake on his head – is looking to take the title away from world No.1 Michael Van Gerwen, who’s won the previous two Grand Slams.
“Winning it is definitely on the agenda,” said Wright. “Since coming back from the previous tournament last weekend, I’ve been on the practise board sharpening up my doubles.
“I fancy do my chances, I got to the semi-finals last year and there’s definitely more to come from me. There’s three tournaments left this year and I want to win all three. There’s no point being in them if you don’t believe you can win them.
“It’s a good tournament, plenty of winners throughout the year. Michael will be the favourite but I don’t think he’ll win it.”
‘Snakebite’ has been drawn in a tricky group against BDO World Champion Glen Durrant as well as world No.15 Alan Norris and Corey Cadby who qualified as PDC World Youth Champion but the Scotsman insists a difficult draw is better for him.
“I’m in a tough group but I’m glad I’m in a tough group because you have to be at your best and give 120 per cent right from the start,” he commented.
“Cadby beat me in Australia this year, he’s a real handful. He’s also beat Phil Taylor a few times as well. Durrant as well, the BDO world champion is a great player. I met him last year, sat down with him and we practised together, although I won’t be doing that now I’m playing against him.
“Norris has done very well as well in qualifying as he did last year, he won some tough matches to get here. He’s produced some great out shots.”
This will be the 11th edition of the Grand Slam of Darts, all of which have been held at the Civic Hall which is a venue the 47 year-old always looks forward to playing at.
He said: “I love the Civic Hall. Sometimes you can move to bigger venues and lose the atmosphere. It’s great here because the crowd are on top of you, it’s really special.”
The Grand Slam of Darts will also be live on Sky Sports Arena and gets under way at 1pm, Tipton’s Jamie Hughes will also be taking part.
