Scott Waites assesses the eight BDO representatives at the Grand Slam of Darts

Coverage underway on Sky Sports Arena from 1pm with the evening session on Sky Sports Action from 7pm

Image: Scott Mitchell is in good form and Scott Waites joins Wayne Mardle and Colin Lloyd in tipping the former BDO champion for a good showing at the Grand Slam

We asked Scott Waites, the only man from the BDO to claim the Grand Slam title, to run the rule over this year's eight representatives......

The first game is huge for every player in the Grand Slam. If you lose your first game, there's major pressure not to lose the second, where the two losers play and the two winners play.

If you lose the first, you need to win the second game no matter what. There's a lot of pressure riding on those second round games rather than the first round games where you can relax a little bit and try to play darts.

The second round games, that's when you get to squeaky bum time. If I'm going to back anybody from the BDO to get out of the group, it's Michael Unterbuchner or Jim Williams. Here's how I rate the chances of all eight.

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      Glen Durrant

      Image: Glen Durrant reached the Grand Slam quarter-final in 2017 and has already set his sights on at least matching that

      Scott's verdict - Some of the groups are quite tasty to be honest. Glen Durrant's group has got Gerwyn Price, Simon Whitlock and Andrew Gilding.

      Glen could finish top of that but as easy as that, he could finish bottom. None of those games are straightforward - I think they'll all be quite close.

      Also See:

      Two-time world champion

      Glen Durrant is a back-to-back BDO World Champion, winning at Lakside the last two years

      Scott Mitchell

      Image: Mitchell has yet to get out of the Grand Slam groups

      Scott's verdict - Scott Mitchell has got a chance in each game. He's got Martin Schindler and Stephen Bunting in the group.

      Scott's going to throw about 100 average, so I think he's going to give either of them two a good game. Then obviously he's got Mensur Suljovic who can be absolutely brilliant, but if he has a bit of an off-game, Scott might be able to take advantage.

      First round woes

      Scott Mitchell has failed to qualify from his group in the Grand Slam in three previous atempts

      Mark McGeeney

      Image: Waites beat the BDO no 2 Mark McGeeney a couple of years ago

      Scott's verdict - Mark McGeeney's fate could depend on Dimitri Van den Bergh.

      Dimitri plays absolutely awesome on TV - he plays absolutely brilliant. But if Mark McGeeney can get one over on Rob Cross, I don't see why he can't get second place in that group.

      Adam Smith-Neale

      Scott's verdict - It's not going to be easy, but Adam played well in the World Masters and went through the qualifiers and ended up winning it overall. So the lad can play darts.

      The problem is he's got Barney and Michael Smith who are probably two of the best darts players in the world at the minute, and even Krzysztof Ratajski who won the World Masters the year before.

      I think Adam has got his work cut out and I can only see Michael Smith and Raymond van Barneveld getting through that group.

      Michael Unterbuchner

      Image: Unterbuchner is in with a fighting chance

      Scott's verdict - Michael Unterbuchner is such a good scoring player, but he misses a few doubles. So playing against the likes of Gary Anderson will be tough.

      But Michael has got a chance against Ian White and Steve Hine. He can outscore the pair of them, it's just hitting the double at the end of it.

      If he can find his doubles, he might get second place in that group.

      Jim Williams

      Image: Unterbuchner is in with a fighting chance

      Scott's verdict - Jim Williams is playing Peter Wright and Wright's style of play will suit Jim.

      Snakebite didn't play well in his last competition. So if Jim can get on top of him straight away, I think he's got a chance of getting through that group.

      Gary Robson

      Scott's verdict - First up is Michael van Gerwen. Basically Gaz is just going to go there and enjoy himself.

      It's been a while since he's played with the PDC lads. I think Michael is going to give him a bit of a lesson in darts in that first game.

      Wesley Harms

      Image: Wesley Harms is back in Wolverhampton

      Scott's verdict - I don't think Wesley's darts have been going as well as they should be going.

      I mean hopefully he's been putting in a bit of practice at home, but I don't think he likes playing in front of big crowds either. So just on what I've seen lately with Wesley, I'm not too sure if he's going to do well.

      The Grand Slam of Darts gets underway live on Sky Sports on Saturday, November 11 with a double session as the best of the PDC compete against the best of the BDO.

      Keep up to date with the news as the tungsten enters its busiest time of year, with the PDC World Championships just around the corner, get all the latest at sky.mnosports.com/darts and join in the conversation @SkySportsDarts.

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