Wright is Given Youthful Slam Group

Peter Wright will bid to go one better and win the bwin Grand Slam after being drawn in a youthful group for Wolverhampton. The 32-player tournament features stars of the PDC and BDO systems from November 10-18 at the Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton, live on Sky Sports. Snakebite, who lost to Michael van Gerwen in last year’s final, faces Max Hopp, Josh Payne and Jim Williams in Group E. Gerwyn Price, who reached the semi-finals of the World Series at the weekend, takes on reigning Lakeside champion Glen Durrant, Simon Whitlock and Andrew Gilding. Michael van Gerwen will begin his defence of the Slam of Darts title against Jonny Clayton, Joe Murnan and Gary Robson. Van Gerwen is remarkably aiming for a record fourth successive Grand Slam of Darts crown in the £450,000 tournament, with the World No.1 and top seed heading Group A. The Dutchman opens his title defence against debutant Robson on Saturday, and will also face Players Championship Finals runner-up Clayton and qualifier Murnan in the round-robin phase. World Champion Rob Cross has been drawn with reigning World Youth Champion Dimitri Van den Bergh, Ryan Searle and Mark McGeeney in Group H. Newly-crowned back-to-back televised title winner James Wade heads Group C, where the two-time Wolverhampton finalist is joined by Keegan Brown, Mark Webster and Wesley Harms. Raymond van Barneveld, a winner of the Slam six years ago, joins seeded star Michael Smith, Poland's Krzysztof Ratajski and World Masters winner Adam Smith-Neale in Group B. Former Grand Slam finalist Gary Anderson headlines Group D alongside Ian White, qualifier Steve Hine and German debutant Michael Unterbuchner. Mensur Suljovic plays Germany's Martin Schindler and former Lakeside Champions Stephen Bunting and Scott Mitchell in Group G. The opening group matches will be held on Saturday November 10, with play across two sessions, before Sunday November 11 sees the second group games. The final group matches will take place on Monday and Tuesday, with the top two players from each group progressing to the last-16 knockout stage. 2018 bwin Grand Slam of Darts Group A (1) Michael van Gerwen Jonny Clayton Joe Murnan Gary Robson   Group B (8) Michael Smith Raymond van Barneveld Krzysztof Ratajski Adam Smith-Neale   Group C (5) James Wade Keegan Brown Mark Webster Wesley Harms   Group D (4) Gary Anderson Ian White Steve Hine Michael Unterbuchner   Group E (2) Peter Wright Max Hopp Josh Payne Jim Williams   Group F (7) Simon Whitlock Gerwyn Price Andrew Gilding Glen Durrant   Group G (6) Mensur Suljovic Stephen Bunting Martin Schindler Scott Mitchell   Group H (3) Rob Cross Dimitri Van den Bergh Ryan Searle Mark McGeeney By Phil Lanning (@lannomedia)