James Wade faces a tough start to the defence of his World Grand Prix crown.
Unicorn’s World No.3 has been drawn to face Bristol’s Steve Brown in the 1st Round at the City West Hotel next month.
And he could face Kevin Painter in the 2nd Round and there is a prospective quarter-final against Raymond van Barneveld!
Barney will play Mervyn King in the 1st Round, while Painter takes on Vincent van der Voort….
Phil Taylor is the 6 to 4 bookies favourite to win another WGP title and he won’t have it easy either in round one, as he will face Peter Wright!
And there could be a grudge match against Paul Nicholson in the 2nd Round after the war of words between the pair during the summer! If ‘The Asset’ can beat Ronnie Baxter, he would play ‘The Power’ if Taylor takes out Wright.
All ten Team Unicorn players were kept apart in the draw….
Gary Anderson will take on Richie Burnett, after the Welshman qualified for the Grand Prix following his tournament victory in Nuland on Sunday.
Also in the top half of the draw, Terry Jenkins has been handed a tough one against Simon Whitlock, and the same can be said for Andy Hamilton who plays Mark Webster.
Jamie Caven will hope to end his nightmare run in TV ‘Majors’ against Denis Ovens and a Caven win could see him playing Anderson in the 2nd Round.
Wes Newton is in the bottom half of the draw and plays former WGP champion Colin Lloyd.
Other highlights include World Champion Adrian Lewis against John Part and the all St Helens clash between Dave Chisnall and Alan Tabern.
The 1st Round draw in full (seeds in brackets):
Phil Taylor (1) v Peter Wright
Ronnie Baxter v Paul Nicholson
Mark Webster (8) v Andy Hamilton
Dave Chisnall v Alan Tabern
Simon Whitlock (5) v Terry Jenkins
Mark Hylton v Mark Walsh
Gary Anderson (4) v Richie Burnett
Jamie Caven v Denis Ovens
Adrian Lewis (2) v John Part
Brendan Dolan v Wayne Jones
Wes Newton (7) v Colin Lloyd
Justin Pipe v John Henderson
Raymond van Barneveld (6) v Mervyn King
William O’Connor v Andy Smith
James Wade (3) v Steve Brown
Vincent van der Voort v Kevin Painter
The World Grand Prix starts on Monday October 3 at the City West Hotel in Dublin….every dart will be show ‘live’ on Sky Sports and tickets are still available from the venue.
By STUART PYKE
Photo courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC