Mervyn King can subject James Wade to shock defeat
Published:The pick of the second round ties sees PDO Order or Merit No.2 player James Wade take on 6th placed Mervyn King at the Daily Mirror Grand Slam of Darts.
King has been in solid form this week, winning his opening three games to qualify from Group C in comfortable fashion.
It hasn’t been quite so smooth for Wade. The Englishman – fresh off the back of a win at the World Grand Prix in Dublin – won his first game against Justin Pipe before succumbing to a 5-1 hammering at the hands of Tony O’Shea in his second.
He bounced back though and beat Vincent van der Voort 5-4 in their qualification decider on Tuesday to set up this very tasty clash with King.
The players have played each other 22 times over the years, with Wade coming out on top on 13 occasions. However, King has won four of their last five meetings, with their last game at the Championship League Darts in September finishing 6-4 to King.
King has endured a difficult couple of months following the death of his father and still feels he is some way away from his best – an assertion backed-up by his 87.69 three dart average in his last game.
However, despite that less than impressive average, King still managed to come through 5-4 against John Henderson. It’s those fighting qualities that make him a very tempting bet at 13/8 to overcome Wade in tonight’s showpiece.
Elsewhere, Robert Thornton looks set to progress against Wayne Jones at 4/5, while Tony O’Shea should also have too much for Terry Jenkins and can be backed at 4/6.
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