We have another group in the PDC Home Tour on Tuesday evening and it is a night where the current Premier League leader Glen Durrant is on show as four more men battle it out for our lockdown entertainment.
It was largely an ordinary affair on Monday so there is a lot more expected from the group on Tuesday, one which as well as Durrant features a previous winner of PDC events and a couple of interesting Dutchmen.
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.
Monday Recap
It was a pretty ordinary group on Monday devoid of any real shock results and the rankings coming to fruition as Stephen Bunting, who was actually in trouble at 2-4 in his first match, then reeled off 13 of his next 15 legs to completely dominate the group. He had to be careful going into the final match that he wasn’t beaten heavily else Kim Huybrechts would have snatched top spot from him but luckily for the Bullet, he was facing a Nathan Derry who was terrible. Harald Leitinger offered more and won a game but that was it.
Thankfully for us, the match which Leitinger won was his encounter with the aforementioned Derry. He beat him 5-0 in no time at all to give us a match winner on the night but we ended up half a point down overall as Huybrechts was unable to come close to Bunting and snatch the group win away from him. Slight work to be done for Tuesday but not too much.
Group 19 Line Up
The three time BDO world champion Glen Durrant is the headline act in the group on Tuesday night. You just know that ‘Duzza’ will be well prepared for this as preparation is one thing that makes him stand out from the rest. His ranking is only down at 19 because he hasn’t played the whole two year tour yet but make no mistake he’s one of the top 10 players in the world. This is a different kettle of fish to most events but it is hard to argue against him being a worthy 11/10 favourite.
Justin Pipe is a name that darts fans will know all about and will recognise even though he hasn’t been seen on our screens as much recently as he once was. It was only 4-5 years ago that Pipe was dominating the Players Championship scene so clearly he has ability. If playing at home releases some of the shackles then he might still have the game to be more than competitive here. I wouldn’t write him off without a second thought.
Maik Kuivenhoven is the first of the two Dutchmen on show on the night. This is a player who has already reached two quarter finals on the Tour this season so he’s been going pretty well. His 91.25 cumulative average for those events is not too shabby either and on that form he’s entitled to be dangerous at around the 11/2 mark. One issue if you are considering backing him though is that the only match he has the throw in comes against Glen Durrant so that is a concern.
Vincent van der Meer has been on the Tour for a few seasons now but he has never really made much of a breakthrough. I’ve said all along in this competition that you have to be wary of these Dutch scorers because away from the pressurised environment of having to hit doubles to live they can be deadly. He would need that to be the case because his Tour form is not the best but there might just be worse 7/1 pokes out there for those who like to chance an outsider.
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Outright Betting
I respect Justin Pipe here and I’ve got a feeling he’ll give a very good account of himself but the crucial match could be his one against Glen Durrant and it is the former world champion who has the throw in that. We saw with Stephen Bunting and Kim Huybrechts on Monday night the difference that can make. I’m not completely writing off the Dutch pair but they are going to need to show the sort of ‘practice’ form we hear darts players speak about so much to be competitive here.
Ultimately I think the night is all about Duzza. If he plays to anything like what he is capable of he should walk away with this group and do it with three wins to his name. He’s well aware that he is still proving himself to people in the PDC, hence why he is rightly so proud of his Premier League showings, and this is just another chance to highlight that he is one of the very best in the game. As talented and competent as the other three are, Durrant should be on another level to them.
Match Betting
As ever I am on the search for 50:50 looking matches where the throw could be significant but there is only one of those and that comes in the all-Dutch clash between Maik Kuivenhoven and Vincent van der Meer. It is the latter of those two who has the throw in the match but I have to say it is the former who I would fancy to get over the line if all things were equal. The fact he has to throw to win is a concern though and puts me off.
The match between Justin Pipe and Kuivenhoven is similar with Pipe having the throw so based on that the 4/5 could be a fair price but it might be that the Dutchman is a spoiler here and that Pipe isn’t such a good thing. I like to be confident a player will win when I bet and I’m not totally confident Pipe will, but again I don’t really want to go against the throw. I’ll stick with a punt on Durrant to win the group.
Tips
WON – Back G.Durrant to win Group 19 for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
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