2018 Grand Slam of Darts

Darts tournamentTemplate:SHORTDESC:Darts tournament
The **2018 bwin Grand Slam of Darts** was the twelfth staging of the Grand Slam of Darts tournament, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. The event took place from 10–18 November 2018 in Wolverhampton, England, but for the first time in the event's history, it was not at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall, as it was undergoing a two-year renovation. The 2018 tournament was held at Aldersley Leisure Village.

The tournament's defending champion was Michael van Gerwen, who won the tournament in 2017 by defeating Peter Wright 16–12 in the final to win it for a third straight year, but he lost 16–12 in the semi-finals to Gary Anderson.

Gerwyn Price won his first PDC major title by defeating Gary Anderson 16–13, in a highly controversial final. Price also became the first Welsh player to win a PDC major title.

The DRA launched an investigation into the behaviour from both players in the final. Price was fined £21,500 for a combination of "bringing the sport into disrepute and gamesmanship" in the final and for his quarter-final clash with Simon Whitlock. Price was also given a three month ban, which was suspended for 6 months. Anderson was given a formal warning for pushing Price on the oche. Price's fine was subsequently reduced on appeal to a total of £11,500.

Dimitri Van den Bergh hit the fourth nine dart leg in Grand Slam of Darts history, in his second round match against Stephen Bunting, and for the first time in the tournament history no Englishman progressed into the quarter-final stage.

Beginning with this tournament, the winner of the title would receive "The Eric Bristow Trophy", named after the legendary player who died in April 2018.

## Prize money

The prize fund for the Grand Slam was the same as in 2017, with the winner getting £110,000.

## Qualifying

The qualifiers were confirmed on 10 October.

### PDC Qualifying Tournaments

1. ↑ Phil Taylor retired following the 2018 PDC World Darts Championship.
2. ↑ Corey Cadby withdrew from the Grand Slam, due to an arm injury.

At most sixteen players could qualify through this method, where the position in the list depicts the priority of the qualification.

As the list of qualifiers from the main tournaments produced fewer than sixteen players, the field of sixteen players is filled from the reserve lists. The first list consists of the winners from 2018 European Tour events, in which the winners are ordered by number of event wins then in Order of Merit position order at the cut-off date.

If there were still less than sixteen qualified players after the winners of European Tour events are added, the winners of 2018 PDC Players Championship events were added, firstly by winners of multiple events, followed by Order of Merit order.

### PDC Qualifying Event

A further eight places in the Grand Slam of Darts were filled by qualifiers from a PDC qualifier that took place in Wigan on 5 November.

These were the qualifiers:

* Martin Schindler
* Stephen Bunting
* Andrew Gilding
* Steve Hine
* Mark Webster
* Joe Murnan
* Keegan Brown
* Ryan Searle

### BDO Ranking Qualifiers

The remaining 5 BDO places were determined via the BDO Invitational Rankings at the end of September.

* Jim Williams
* Wesley Harms
* Michael Unterbuchner
* Scott Mitchell
* Gary Robson

### Pools

  Michael van Gerwen  **(1)**
 Peter Wright  **(2)**
 Rob Cross  **(3)**
 Gary Anderson  **(4)**
 James Wade  **(5)**
 Mensur Suljović  **(6)**
 Simon Whitlock  **(7)**
 Michael Smith  **(8)**
 Raymond van Barneveld
 Jonny Clayton
 Gerwyn Price
 Ian White
 Max Hopp
 Stephen Bunting
 Keegan Brown
 Krzysztof Ratajski
 Martin Schindler
 Andrew Gilding
 Steve Hine
 Mark Webster
 Joe Murnan
 Ryan Searle
 Mark McGeeney
 Adam Smith-Neale
 Jim Williams
 Wesley Harms
 Michael Unterbuchner
 Scott Mitchell
 Gary Robson

### Group stage

*All group matches are best of 9 legs.*

NB: P = Played; W = Won; L = Lost; LF = Legs for; LA = Legs against; +/− = Plus/minus record, in relation to legs; Pts = Points; Status = Qualified to knockout stage

### Knockout stage

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## References

1. ↑ bwin Grand Slam Remains In Wolverhampton.
2. ↑ 2017 bwin Grand Slam of Darts Finals Day (19 November 2017).
3. ↑ Gutsy Gerwyn's bwin Grand Slam Glory (18 November 2018).
4. ↑ DRA Statement: Gerwyn Price Appeal. PDC.
5. ↑ BDO Confirm Grand Slam Qualifiers (10 October 2018).
6. ↑ Cadby Withdraws From Grand Slam. Professional Darts Corporation.
7. ↑ bwin World Series Finals Field Confirmed. PDC.
8. ↑ 2018 bwin Grand Slam of Darts Draw (6 November 2018).
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