Double for Jamie Hughes with second child

Hughes is the only Black Country player involved when the eight-day tournament begins at the Civic Hall this afternoon, writes Craig Birch.

The only PDC tournament to formally invite players from the BDO again takes place for a ninth year with the 10th edition at the Civic, until November 20.

One player from the BDO will feature in all of the eight four-man groups, with Hughes making the cut as he's ranked fourth with the organisation.

'Yozza' begins his Group G campaign with this afternoon's tie against James Wade, in the penultimate tie of that schedule. Rivals Dave Chisnall and Dave Wilson are on fourth.

And the 30-year-old could be forgiven for having the baby blues after daughter Perri Leigh was born in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Fiancee Jayne Breakspear brought a girl into the world at 4.19am on Friday, weighing 6lbs 7oz. Mother and baby are both fine and Lacey, 7, now has a little sister.

Hughes has been back and forth to Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley but must get his head on the game, with second and third group ties tomorrow afternoon and Tuesday night respectively.

He said: "Jayne was induced on Thursday, the whole process took a few hours and we were hoping it would be quite quick.

"They asked if we wanted to be induced, as the baby's growth had been monitored for a while and it was clear she wasn't going to get any bigger.

"I might be a little tired this weekend, but I'll just chuck a few Red Bulls down my neck if I feel like that. It could make me play out of my skin!"

Tickets for the Grand Slam are still on sale, by calling the Civic Box Office on 0870 320 7000 or online via www.theticketfactory.com/pdc.