Sunday 11^th October

Final

Phil Taylor v Raymond van Barneveld – 7.30pm

Taylor and Barneveld meet in this final for the second year running with Taylor aiming for a ninth World Grand Prix title. Taylor ran out a convincing 5-2 winner in his semi final against Terry Jenkins posting an impressive 3 dart average of 99.76, and completing checkouts of 146 and 117. Barneveld has been my nemesis this week as I’ve been keen to take him on in each round he’s played. He looked far from confident at the start of the tournament but he reached the final after shaking off Andy Hamilton 5-2. The sharpness that Hamilton showed around the doubles in previous rounds deserted him at crucial times last night and Barney took full advantage. It was Barney's best display this week but he’s under no illusions that he needs to improve further to give himself any chance of beating Taylor. Taylor’s superiority is reflected in his odds of 1.15 but I find Sportinbet’s line of 16.5 for the total 180’s scored quite interesting. At 16.5, they seem to be banking on a tight match that could go the distance, which is unlikely in my opinion, add to that the double start format which restricts the amount of maximums scored, and to date they’ve each averaged around only one maximum per set. Bearing that in mind,  the 16.5 line looks very high to me and the under at even money looks a great bet.