The PDC Home Tour draws to a close on Friday night when the four remaining men battle it out in one final group to determine who is the first, and hopefully only, winner of the competition which has taken place in the homes of the players involved.
There was the potential for shocks and surprises throughout the tournament but the final group is made up of two former world champions, a major tournament winner and a major finalist so we are set for a brilliant end of the competition.
The Format
The 32 group winners from the first round of groups have been redrawn into eight groups for the second stage of the event. Each winner moves into one of two semi-final groups with the top two from those two groups progressing to form the Championship group which will take place on June 5 where the overall winner will be crowned. Each match from here on in is the best of 11 legs rather than the best of 9 of the first round. Two points are awarded for a win. If players finish level on points then leg difference will decide the outcome. If that cannot separate players then the head to head will settle the group winner. Were three players to be tied on points and leg difference the player with the highest overall average goes through. The entire tournament is being streamed live on PDC.tv, the Sky Sports App and various bookmaker sites.
Thursday Recap
Forget it being the best night of the tournament so far, Thursday was one of the best nights of darts I’ve seen in quite some while with an exceptional standard and close matches for much of the evening. It was Jonny Clayton who came good when it mattered to top the group on a night where the final two matches basically turned into straight knockouts. He beat Rob Cross while Nathan Aspinall sealed the second spot in the final when he edged out Joe Cullen in a deciding leg after a flurry of big finishes.
It wasn’t quite the perfect night for us but it nearly was. We had three bets on the evening and two of them won with the other so close. We took Jonny Clayton to qualify and also to beat Rob Cross in his final match and they turned into the same bet with the way the evening played out. Thankfully for us Clayton was brilliant in beating Rob Cross 6-1 to bring both bets in. Unfortunately that match was so one-sided that there wasn’t enough time to get any more than two 180s when one more would have brought our bet for three of more 180s in every match on the night in. Despite that it was a good night overall.
Final Group Line Up
Nathan Aspinall hasn’t always been at his best in this competition but he has delivered his best darts when it has counted and he will be hoping to do that here. Aspinall is the favourite to win the tournament in most places now and if he delivers the form we saw on the tour prior to lockdown then he is certainly the one to beat. I got the feeling he warmed to the task on Thursday night and he’ll definitely fancy the job here, especially if he is hitting the combination finishes like he did in his semi-final group.
Gary Anderson came so close to not being involved in the tournament at all due to his poor internet connection, but having rectified that he has made full use of his chance, coming through three groups so far without losing a single match. He appears to be improving all the time and if more improvement comes from him going into this final group then he is probably the man to beat. Anderson is only the second ranked player in the group though which means that in what could be the key match against Nathan Aspinall he doesn’t have the throw. That could be significant.
Jonny Clayton has been in wonderful form throughout the PDC Home Tour and although he only won two out of his three matches in the semi-final group, it took the very best of Nathan Aspinall to deny him in a deciding leg. That is the only match the Welshman has lost in the campaign to date and there was certainly no fading away in big name company from him in his semi-final section. He could be very dangerous if he can get off to a decent start in this group and him winning the title would not be a big surprise.
The lowest ranked player in the final group is Jelle Klaasen, who when you consider his performances so far, has done very well to make it this far in the competition. He is yet to deliver an overall group average of more than 90.43 to date and if the evidence of what we’ve seen in the last few nights is anything to by then he is going to have to deliver a serious upturn on his form. He hasn’t scored anything like we know that he can and I just don’t see how anyone in this group can come out on top if they don’t score consistently. Klaasen has a bit to find in this company I would suggest.
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Outright Betting
My gut feeling is that Jonny Clayton is the man who will win this tournament but he is probably only fairly priced at 9/2. That said it is a good enough price to get involved in. The down side is that he doesn’t have the throw in two of his three matches, but I’m not so sure that will matter against Jelle Klaasen. It might be a different story against Gary Anderson but that is probably why we are getting 9/2 rather than say 5/2.
The key thing is that Clayton does have the throw against Nathan Aspinall. We saw their meeting on Thursday night, when Aspinall had the throw, go the distance and ‘The Asp’ was good enough to get it done in the last leg and were their meeting to go the same way here it would be Clayton who has the advantage. That could very well be the match that determines the winner of the tournament and the way the Welshman is playing he has every chance. I can’t be having Klaasen and while I respect the big two Clayton’s price will do me.
Match Betting
I will go with two bets over the course of the night in the match betting. Both take on Jelle Klaasen, who just looks like the weak link on the evening. The first I’ll go against him with is Jonny Clayton. Clayton is in fine form at the minute and while it isn’t completely ideal that he doesn’t have the throw in the match, over the 11 leg distance I just think his scoring power and consistency will be too strong for the Dutchman. I mentioned Klaasen’s poor averages above but in the play-offs that is down to 87.48 and 87.59 for his two groups. He averaged 91.28 in his first play-off match and that was the highest he has registered. He has to put another 10pts on that to be competitive here. I don’t see it happening. I think the 8/11 on Clayton here is a good thing.
I’ll also take the -2.5 leg handicap for Gary Anderson to beat the Dutchman as well. These two met on Wednesday evening and although it was a dead rubber effectively, Anderson powered clear and won 6-2. Klaasen had the throw on that occasion but made no impression with it. He doesn’t have the throw here so Anderson only needs one break of throw to cover this handicap which makes the 11/10 on him doing so look a big price. It is hard to see this match not counting towards something for the Scot and he is clearly the better player of the two. I’ll take him to show that for the second time in three nights.
Tips
Back J.Clayton to win Final Group for a 2/10 stake at 5.50 with BetVictor
Back him here:
WON – Back J.Clayton to beat J.Klaasen for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with William Hill
Back him here:
WON – Back G.Anderson (-2.5 legs) to beat J.Klaasen for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with 888sport
Back him here:
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