It is Group 18 of the Unibet PDC Home Tour on Monday night and we have another world champion on show after a few nights where the standout players have been missing. It is England against Europe to keep us entertained throughout the evening.
As ever four men do battle in a round robin format which gives us six matches to enjoy and see who lands top spot and progresses to any future stage of the competition which may be held should lockdown continue to be in operation.
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
Despite playing in the middle of the night it was the man from Australia, Damon Heta, who came out on top in the group. He did much of the damage in his first two matches with wins over Gary Blades and John Henderson and despite a defeat to Krzysztof Kciuk in his final match, he won enough legs to finish above John Henderson by a couple of legs. Kciuk also won a couple of matches but he couldn’t keep up with Heta in the leg difference. It was a night to forget for Gary Blades who went winless for his efforts.
It wasn’t the best night for us betting wise either as John Henderson couldn’t get the better of Damon Heta in what always looked like being the deciding battle on the night so our bet on him to come out on top in the group went unrewarded. That halts a decent winning run that we had been on, one which hopefully we can get going again on Monday.
Group 18 Line Up
Stephen Bunting is the headline attraction on Monday night and will be expected to progress out of the group. One reason for that is he is the highest ranked player on show and a former world champion who has graced the biggest and best stages in the world and the other is that he took part in one of the test events. His form in that was indifferent though it has to be said and he is renowned for being a gamer so how much time he’ll have had on the practice board remains to be seen. The 11/8 on him coming through looks a little skinny.
His toughest challenge is expected to come from the Belgian star Kim Huybrechts. It is fair to say that the ‘Hurricane’ has been more a stiff breeze in recent times but you only have to go back 3-4 years to see what he can deliver and if home comforts bring that sort of form out of him then the rest need to stand up and take notice. I always think Huybrechts’ intensity goes against him on the big stages these days but I can’t believe he’ll be that intense in his own surroundings. The Belgian made the semi-final of the last event before lockdown beating Peter Wright and Michael Smith along the way. The 2/1 on him winning the group is inviting.
The third highest ranked player in the field is Nathan Derry but he is actually the outsider for the group. He is in his second year of his second spell on the PDC Tour but since winning back his Tour card last January, he has only gone past the last 64 of a ranking event twice so he is going to need a severe turnaround to stay in the pro ranks when the proper action resumes. He has lost in the first round of all five events he has played in 2020 and in four Players Championship matches is averaging less than 85. It is hard to see him being involved at the deep end here even at 7/1.
The final man on show on Monday night is a new man to the PDC in the Austrian player Harald Letinger. He has played in six Players Championship events since he picked up his card back in January and has won his first round match in half of them, although Richard North is probably the biggest scalp in terms of ranking that he has claimed so how much we take from that remains to be seen. We’ve seen a few newbies to the Tour be competitive in these events so he shouldn’t be dismissed completely but 6/1 looks a fair price.
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Outright Betting
I wouldn’t say that I’m completely writing off the chances of Harald Leitinger in this group but I do think the winner of the main match between Stephen Bunting and Kim Huybrechts will come out on top and it is the Belgian who I am siding with for a few reasons. The first of those is the more attractive price at 2/1, a perfectly fair price when you think the winner of this match could well win all three matches, but of course backing the group bet allows a slip up somewhere else from Bunting even should be beat Huybrechts.
The other reason I like Huybrechts here is there were signs towards the end of the competitive period that he was finding his mark again and I would imagine he’ll have done some practicing in the off period not least because he’s married to a very good player in her own right so it is something to do. You only have to go to Stephen Bunting’s Twitter page to see other temptations pull him from the practice board and although Bunting has the advantage of having played in one of these events, he didn’t play particularly well in it and I’m not expecting him to do so here. Home comforts can relax the Belgian and he looks the value to come out of this group.
Match Betting
Regular readers will know that we have made a fair bit of cash in this tournament by taking players in relatively even looking matches that have the throw first and we have another one of those kind of contests in the third clash of the night as Harald Leitinger goes up against Nathan Derry, a match that the Austrian has the throw in and in which it is hard to argue that he wouldn’t be the favourite for anyway.
It is difficult to take Nathan Derry here. While we’ve seen some of the lower ranked players improve in their own homes, but there is little to suggest Derry is going to be outstandingly competitive here. Leitinger might not be much but he does have some winning form behind him on the Tour and he beat Martijn Kleermaker to get his Tour card and we’ve already seen in this event how good a player he is. Wesley Harms was one of his earlier victims in that run at Q-School so there is enough to think that with the throw Leitinger is a good thing at 5/6.
Tips
Back K.Huybrechts to win Group 18 for a 3/10 stake at 3.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
WON – Back H.Leitinger to beat N.Derry for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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