Another Monday in lockdown should go a little easier with the copious amount of darts that is on for us to watch and one of the events in question is Group 11 of the PDC Home Tour, an event which took a while to get going but is coming along nicely.
We’ve seen plenty of big names fall by the wayside in the 10 groups that have been played so far and on Monday another household name will be looking to avoid being the latest casualty in an event which hasn’t respected reputation from day one.
The Format
Each night four players will battle it out in a round robin format with the group winner progressing to the next stage of the tournament. All six matches in each group will be the best of nine legs with two points 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.
Sunday Recap
It was a night where the form book ruled as Nathan Aspinall dominated the play over the entire night. He won all three of his matches, dropping just five legs in the process despite having issues with his ankles. Steve Brown was the man who ran him closest with a couple of wins to his name ahead of Ryan Joyce. Simon Stevenson was very disappointing indeed and barely looked like winning a match let along actually doing so.
The night started off poorly for us when Ryan Joyce just couldn’t find the 60 bed but he has the chance to make amends when he led Steve Brown 3-0 when we needed him to win 5-3 or better but from there on he completely collapsed and ended up losing 5-3 which was most disappointing. That capped off a terrible night and we need to improve for Monday that is for sure.
Group 11 Line Up
The former World Championship finalist Simon Whitlock is the headline draw in Group 11. The Australia declared via his Twitter feed a while ago that he had accepted his invitation and given his appearance fee to a local hospital so you would imagine he will have been on the practice board for a while. Whitlock can be a lot more hit and miss these days but his best game is still very good and if that comes out he is likely to justify the 10/11 quotes about him having success in the group.
Another former World Championship finalist is the second highest ranked player in this group. That is Kirk Shepherd, the man who made the first final at Alexandra Palace before going down to John Part. Those were his heady days and while he has been a regular member of the tour for large parts since, he has never really got back to those heights. His best run before the coronavirus ended the tour was a last 16 spot in a Players Championship event. He is entitled to be more competitive than his 11/2 price suggests.
Alan Tabern got his Tour card back at Q-School in January and has already made it to the last 32 of the UK Open and a couple of Players Championship tournaments. He has had some decent wins on the tour this year and there are signs that he has been fairly competitive. In saying that, his 88.34 three dart average on the pro tour is something that is going to need to be improved on here if he is to land a 4/1 punt.
The last man in the group is Mike van Duivenbode, not to be confused with Dirk van Duijvenbode who has been setting the tour alight this year. Mike is a Dutch youngster who is still competing on the Development Tour as well as the senior one. This is his second year on tour but ranked just inside the top 100 in the Order of Merit, he is going to need to sprout wings and fly when the tour returns to keep his card. Losing in the first round of the last six Players Championship events has done nothing to that quest or his form. He’s 5/1 to win the group but it is a huge leap of faith to back that.
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Outright Betting
It is hard to see Simon Whitlock not dominating this group. He is so far clear of the rest in the rankings and natural talent it is untrue and something would have to go majorly wrong for him to mess this group up. The other reason why he should be fancied so much is he has the throw in two of the three matches he plays. You wouldn’t think he would need that but he has it should be require it and that is no bad thing.
Of the rest I’m expecting Kirk Shepherd to struggle a bit here and although there is the potential for Mike van Duivenbode to be anything, he’ll have to be spot on if he’s to challenge Whitlock, who you would think would carry a decent leg difference from his wins. Alan Tabern is a steady type but Whitlock leads their head to head 12-3 and two of Tabern’s wins were a decade or more ago. The 2/1 on Whitlock to win all his matches interests me but Sky Bet are going 5/1 he wins them all without needing a deciding leg and that is the price that has lured me in.
Match Betting
I’ll go with one in the match betting as well. There is nothing in the form of Kirk Shepherd that makes me think that he is going to do much over the course of the night and the only thing he has going for him in his match against Mike van Duivenbode is the fact that he throws first. I’m still not convinced that will be enough for him to come out on top mind so I’m happy to take the man who goes by the wonderful nickname of ‘The Pigeon’ here.
This is MvD’s second season on the PDC Tour and while he hasn’t done little in terms of tournament results to suggest he’s up to much, this year he has hit a 9 darter against Chris Dobey in beating him 6-5 and he has made the last 16 of a couple of Development Tour events this year too. We’ve seen throughout the Home Tour that the Dutch players are comfortable in their own environments and so I’ll back the youngster to fly past Shepherd here.
Tips
Back S.Whitlock to win all 3 matches 5-0, 5-1, 5-2 or 5-3 (price boost) for a 2/10 stake at 6.00 with Sky Bet
WON – Back M.van Duivenbode to beat K.Shepherd for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
Back him here:
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