Preview Saturday afternoon Grand Slam of Darts 2025: Price, Clayton, Rock, Van Veen headline opening session in Wolverhampton

Saturday afternoon, November 8, the 2025 Grand Slam of Darts finally gets underway. The first days of play are dominated by the group stages. In this first afternoon session of the tournament, we start with eight exciting fixtures to commence what is going to be a very competitive group phase.

The Grand Slam of Darts is known for its unique format, with, as mentioned above, the group stage first before players meet in a knockout system. In total, there are eight groups of four players, where after three matches played, the top two players from the group advance to the knockout stage. Luke Littler defends his title after defeating last year's surprising finalist Martin Lukeman 16-3 in the final.

Saturday afternoon the tournament gets underway with the first eight matches from groups B, D, F & H. These group matches are in a best-of-9 legs format. In this opening session the likes of Gerwyn Price, James Wade, Jonny Clayton, Gian van Veen and Danny Noppert will take to the stage. Below we preview the first eight matches.

We begin the afternoon with Dutchman Danny Noppert, who opens his tournament against German Lukas Wenig. Noppert has been in excellent form for months, and that is reflected in his results. In September he reached the semi-finals of Players Championship 27, and a week later he reached the final of European Tour 12, where he narrowly lost 8-7 to Niko Springer. He followed this up well in October by making it to the semifinals at both the World Grand Prix and the European Darts Championship. As icing on the cake, he also qualified for the Grand Slam via the Tour Card Holder Qualifier by beating Chris Landman, Alan Soutar and Dennie Older Kalter. Wenig also managed to qualify for the major tournament via the same qualifier, making his debut. The German cleared Tom Bissel, Oskar Lukasiak, Thibault Tricole and Jermaine Wattimena to secure his spot at the Grand Slam.

Next up is Damon Heta and Martin Lukeman. Heta qualified through the Pro Tour, where he had a good year and finished ninth on the Pro Tour Order of Merit. He managed to reach the final three times in total at Players Championship tournaments, two of which he also managed to win. Still, Heta always continues to disappoint on TV. His best performance remains a semifinal at the UK Open in 2024. Who knows, maybe he can finally change that next week. With Lukeman he will meet a fine opponent. Smash' has had a very mediocre year, and only qualified because he managed to reach the final in a surprising way last year. Lukeman played 33 PC tournaments this year, but reached the last 16 only 5 times and never further.

Following this is Chris Dobey against Jurjen van der Velde. Hollywood' is in form, and recently showed that with a title at Players Championship 33. Since reaching the PDC World Darts Championship semi-final, his TV form has gone slightly downhill. This could leave the door slightly ajar for van der Velde to clinch an unexpected win. The Dutchman owes his place at the Grand Slam to his final at last year's World Youth Championship, where he lost narrowly to his compatriot Gian van Veen. Not much is expected of the youngster, which gives him a chance to play freely.

Next we see the three-time winner of the Grand Slam of Darts in action: Gerwyn Price takes on 'Rapid' Ricky Evans. Price always seems to be able to go the extra mile at this tournament, and frankly, he could use it again now. The Welshman has been playing excellently for months, but that new major TV title is still out. His last major TV title dates back to 2021, and that was at the Grand Slam of Darts. Who knows, maybe this will be the tournament that can give 'The Iceman' that push to win titles at the major tournaments on a regular basis. He will first have to deal with Evans. The flamboyant Englishman managed to qualify through the qualifier by beating an impressive list of competitors: William O'Connor, Andy Boulton, Rob Cross and Mensur Suljovic.

In the fifth match, we see James Wade on the oche, and he takes on Swiss number one Stefan Bellmont. Wade may be one of this year's surprises, but can you call it a surprise? Well often written off as "The Machine" he seemed to find some extra again to prove otherwise anyway. This year he has been especially ironclad on TV with finals at both the UK Open and the World Matchplay, in both of which he lost to Littler. Wade is stronger in matches over a longer format, so the group stage will be the toughest for him. If he manages to survive it, he will be a highly dangerous outsider for the title. He will firstly have to deal with Bellmont in his first match, which is not expected to pose much of a problem. Although the Swiss star managed to win the Challenge Tour and qualify for the Grand Slam, he has not performed much else this year. As a result, Wade is expected to win this match without too many problems.

Next, Jonny Clayton and Cam Crabtree may take the stage. Clayton is having an excellent year on TV, reaching the final at the World Masters back in January. He then also reached the semifinals at the UK Open, World Matchplay and World Grand Prix, indicating his consistency on TV tournaments. If he can maintain this level, he should also advance to the semifinals again next week at the Grand Slam. However, then this match could become crucial. Crabtree is a tough customer, and with Noppert still in the group, this match could be the deciding factor. Crabtree convincingly finished first on the Development Tour this year, above Beau Greaves. That shows how talented the 22-year-old is. In addition, he also reached the quarterfinals at a PC tournament at least three times this year. Although 'The Ferret' will be the clear favourite on paper, he should certainly not underestimate Crabtree and a surprise here cannot be ruled out.

Then it was time for the match of the afternoon: Josh Rock against Wessel Nijman. It has been an outstanding year for the Northern Irishman. A World Cup triumph has gone alongside semi-finals in the UK Open, World Matchplay and World Series od Darts Finals. He has also clinched a title on the PC, while mustering up numerous final appearances both on the floor and on the European Tour. His opening test is as tough as it can get. Nijman managed to qualify for this year's edition through the qualifier by beating Radek Szaganski, Justin Hood, Dave Chisnall and Ritchie Edhouse. At the draw, he must have then rubbed his eyes several times when his group was known. Last year: Gian van Veen, Josh Rock and Stephen Bunting. This year? Almost identical: Gian van Veen, Josh Rock and Lisa Ashton. The Dutchman left a great impression on his debut last year by throwing above 105 average in all three of his group matches, but did finish with 0 points at the end. He will want to see that change this year. Last year he lost 5-3 to "Rocky," but a year later, Nijman has become even better than he was then.

Speaking of stormy developments, Gian van Veen may close this afternoon session, and he will do so against Lisa Ashton. Van Veen recently won his first major title at the PDC at the European Darts Championship and with that immediately climbed up to number 7 in the world rankings. Like Nijman, 'The Giant' also left a good impression in his group last year. He won all his matches and then also convincingly defeated Ryan Joyce 10-2 in the last 16. In the quarterfinals, however, he eventually had to bow to Gary Anderson. After his European Championship title, he will travel to Wolverhampton with a lot of confidence, and despite another tough group, he is once again one of the contenders for the title. Therefore, his first match against Ashton should pose no problem. The winner of the Women's World Matchplay, she did the unthinkable and defeated Greaves along the way in a stunning success. In her four prior appearances, she has failed to make it out of the group. Fifth time lucky?