Sporting Life
Gerwyn Price and Stephen Bunting
Gerwyn Price and Stephen Bunting

World Grand Prix: Semi-final predictions, betting tips, acca, order of play and TV time

By Chris Hammer
Darts
Fri October 08, 2021 · 3y ago

The Boylesports World Grand Prix semi-finals take place on Friday night so check out Chris Fletcher's match-by-match predictions, best bets and a suggested acca.

Just four players remain in the quest for double-start major glory, with Gerwyn Price odds-on favourite to defend his title ahead of fellow Welshman Jonny Clayton. But will the duo book their place in the final?

Darts betting tips: World Grand Prix semi-finals

1pt Clayton to win, score over 3.5 180s and have a checkout over 105.5 at 6/4 (Sky Bet)

1pt Four or more 100+ checkouts in Price v Bunting at 6/4 (Sky Bet)

1pt Price to win and both players each score 4+ 180s at evens (Boylesports)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

World Grand Prix: Friday October 8

  • TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 BST)
  • Format: Best of seven sets. All Sets are the best of five legs. All legs must begin and end with a double, meaning that a player must hit a double before he can begin scoring in each leg.

SL Acca: Click here to back Clayton and Bunting both to hit two or more 100+ checkouts at 4/1 with Sky Bet

Jonny Clayton (2/5) v Danny Noppert (2/1)

  • Head to Head (TV): 0-1 (0-0)
  • 2021 Head to Head (TV): 0-1 (0-0)

2021 SEASON STATS

  • 2021 Titles (TV): 4-0 (2-0)
  • Three-Dart Average (2021): 98.68 – 96.22
  • 180s per leg (2021): 0.27 – 0.26
  • Checkout percentage (Stage Events 2021): 42.06% - 38.36%
  • 100+ checkout per leg won (2021): 12.82% - 12.75%

WORLD GRAND PRIX 2021 STATS

  • Average: 93.83 - 94.51
  • 180s: 6 - 10
  • Double-in %: 51% (45/89) - 48% (41/86)
  • Checkout %: 65% (30/46)- 53% (26/49)
  • 100+ Checkouts: 6 - 5

Routes to the semi-finals:

JONNY CLAYTON

DANNY NOPPERT

Unless you're coming into this event cold at the business end of proceedings, you'll have no doubt been mightily impressed with a 'new' Danny Noppert, who has looked more like a potential major winner than ever before.

As Wayne Mardle eluded to in his summary of last night's action, the usually quiet Noppie has shown real character that we've not previously seen on stage since he crossed from the BDO back in 2018 and if he can reach his first ever televised ranking final then his career will be launched onto a new level.

As you can see above, his stats have been consistently brilliant throughout the tournament from both a scoring and doubling point of view at each end of a leg, while his three-dart average of 94.51 is the highest of the four remaining players.

He's pretty much put all of his opponents - including Michael van Gerwen - to the sword but he'll need another big performance to see off Jonny Clayton, who has also been imperious so far.

Even when the Ferret was up against it against Krzysztof Ratajski last night when trailing 2-1 in sets following a horrendous busting of 134 in a crucial leg, he won six of the next seven legs to power through and only once did he miss a starting double in that run.

His doubling stats at both ends of a leg in general have been phenomenal and if he ups the scoring side of his game to his usual levels then he could border on unplayable in this format. Of course it's never easy to put all the pieces of the jigsaw together in one performance but I feel his experience of winning the Masters and Premier League this season will also count for a lot when the pressure builds.

Even if Clayton wins 4-0 - which I'm sure he won't - his Player Performance targets of over 3.5 180s and a checkout of more than 105.5 would be fairly easy for him to obtain, so the hardest bit is the victory. That comes to 6/4 but if you want to be bolder, you can get 4/1 on over 4.5 180s and a checkout of more than 121.5,

Gerwyn Price (1/5) v Stephen Bunting (7/2)

  • Overall Head to Head (TV): 7-4 (1-1)
  • 2021 Head to Head (TV): 1-1 (1-0)

SEASON STATS

  • 2021 Titles (TV): 4-0 (0-0)
  • Three-Dart Average (2021): 99.16 – 93.68
  • 180s per leg (2021): 0.30 – 0.26
  • Checkout percentage (Stage Events 2021): 41.14% - 44.93%
  • 100+ checkout per leg won (2021): 11.55% - 16.38%

WORLD GRAND PRIX 2021 STATS

  • Average: 93.86 - 90.92
  • 180s: 10 - 14
  • Double-in %: 50% (38/76) - 34% (41/120)
  • Checkout %: 40% (25/62)- 44% (27/62)
  • 100+ Checkouts: 4 - 9

Routes to the semi-finals:

GERWYN PRICE

STEPHEN BUNTING

  • R1: 2-0 v Daryl Gurney
    Average: 99.05
    180s: 4
    100+ Checkouts: 113, 104, 100
    Checkout %: 60% (6/10)
    Double In: 40% (8/20)
  • R2: 3-1 v James Wade
    Average: 86.63
    180s: 7
    100+ Checkouts: 132, 107, 102
    Checkout %: 48% (11/23)
    Double In: 30% (15/50)
  • QF: 3-1 v Ryan Searle
    Average: 87.08
    180s: 3
    100+ Checkouts: 104, 101, 100
    Checkout %: 39% (10/29)
    Double In: 36% (18/50)

Not only does Gerwyn Price have Stephen Bunting to beat tonight if he's to reach the World Grand Prix final for a second successive year but he'll also have sections of the crowd to win over after branding them "pathetic" for booing him during his victory over Dave Chisnall.

You have to wonder if this is Price's way of reenergising the pantomime booing - which really is a fraction of what it used to be - to fire him up some more or whether he just wasn't thinking about the repercussions of having the pop at the people who have the power to make as much noise as they want! Or he doesn't care either way and was merely using it as an excuse to mask over a below-par performance despite the 3-0 scoreline.

He only averaged 87.58 and failed to hit a single 180 but was let off the hook by a wasteful Chizzy, who missed 17 of his 20 attempts at a finishing double.

That said Price did hit a staggering 86% of his starting doubles which shoes just how mediocre the scoring phase of his game was and if that doesn't improve tonight then Stephen Bunting has a more than clinical enough game to keep it tight.

The duo met in the World Championship semi-finals last December, with Price edging it 6-4 with a 100.92 average compared to Bunting's 96.38 while the duo combined for 26 180s and a whopping 13 100+ checkouts.

Price hit a record-equalling eight of them that night and while that was over 10 sets, we should expect another impressive rate of these type of checkouts tonight.

Prior to this event, Bunting had won 15.60% of his legs with a 100+ finish this season which is a percentage only bettered by Glen Durrant (whose low volume of legs won makes his 17.11% rather misleading) and he's continued to showcase that ability during the World Grand Prix, hitting three of them in each of his three matches so far.

In total that's nine from 41 legs played and while Price has hit four from his 38, the defending champion is clearly ruthless from that range when the pressure is on. You can get 6/4 on there being four or more 100+ checkouts and the only reason I'm not taking 7/2 on their being five or more is the risk that the real Price turns up and blows Bunting away 4-0 or 4-1 and therefore reducing the chance for a lot of ton outs.

As far as 180s are concerned, you'll notice I've gone for both players to hit four apiece in the recommended bets. Price may have been out of range last night but he managed 10 across his previous six sets in this tournament while Bunting has fired in 14 across 10 sets overall. If we can get at least five or six sets tonight then you'd like to think they both achieve this target comfortably.

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