We have potentially one of the tightest groups yet on the PDC Home Tour on Wednesday evening, as four players return from their initial failure to get out of a group to keep us entertained as the lockdown continues.
The cast list for Group 27 consists of four men who were runners-up in their original group so they all know what this format and setup is all about and that should lead us to a high quality and competitive night of darts.
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.
Tuesday Recap
We got a pretty competitive night of action on Tuesday to be fair and it was the favourite going into the evening, Mike de Decker, who came out on top. He needed to beat Steve Brown 5-2 or better in his last match to win the group, any other score would have given the Bomber the spoils, but the Belgian won 5-2 to take full use of his second chance. Both he, Brown and Martin Atkins all won two matches but it was the youngster who had the better leg difference. Conan Whitehead failed to find a win on his return to the competition.
It was a mixed night for us betting wise. It looked bleak when Brown fell 2-0 down to Atkins in a match we needed the Bristolian to win, but thankfully he went up a few gears to come out with a 5-2 win. We couldn’t come away from the evening with a profit though because Whitehead and de Decker could only produce two 180s rather than the four we needed, in a match where the Englishman never got going really.
Group 27 Line Up
The highest ranked player in the group on Wednesday night is Steve Beaton. We have seen him twice in these home games now and he hasn’t particularly impressed on either occasion. He actually won his opening match on his previous night in the PDC Home Tour, but then proceeded to lose heavily to Matthew Edgar and Carl Wilkinson, with averages of 82.68, 88.13 and 87.88. It is fair to say he is going to need to improve a bit on that to be competitive here. The other issue to remember with Beaton is on both occasions he hasn’t had his score in front of him and if he isn’t warned early enough he could leave bogey numbers which wouldn’t be ideal in any close match.
Ross Smith is the second highest ranked player in the field here. We have to go all the way back to Group 4 for his first appearance in the tournament, one which got off to a positive start with a 5-1 win over Lisa Ashton with a near 100 average but he faded fast after that and was no match for Geert Nentjes over the remainder of the evening. He remains a handy player though who on his day is more than a match for anyone, as he showed when beating Michael van Gerwen at the European Championship last year. He shouldn’t be dismissed lightly.
Ron Meulenkamp is another player who gets a second chance in Group 27. He was involved in the first intercontinental group that saw him going up against Kai Fan Leung among others back in Group 14. He was a little unlucky to be in a group with Chris Dobey, who was excellent on that evening, but the Dutchman did pick up wins over Leung and Ciaran Teehan, with 93.60 and 100.93 averages. If he has that sort of form with him here he could be the one to beat but the battering he took off Dobey does show he remains a little vulnerable.
Scott Waites is the lowest ranked player in the group although much of that is only down to the fact that he is only a couple of months into his first spell as a PDC Tour card holder. When he’s done the two year circuit he won’t be outside the top 50 in the world that is for sure. Waites played pretty well in his first effort at this gig, way back in Group 3. He was unable to match Dave Chisnall, nobody could on the night, but he only dropped two legs in his other two matches. Waites is a heavy scorer and if his finishing works the others are in trouble.
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Outright Betting
It is Scott Waites for me in this group. This is a very competitive group but he has that extra bit on all of them I think. If there is a concern it is that he throws second in two of his matches but one of those is against Steve Beaton who I think will be the weakest player of the quartet in action here. Waites was in good form in his first group in this thing and only a couple of missed doubles against Dave Chisnall stopped him from progressing.
I respect Ross Smith and certainly Ron Meulenkamp but Waites will know both from their days in the BDO and if he doesn’t have a psychological edge over them he certainly won’t be fearing them which is good. My gut feel is that Meulenkamp will be the biggest danger to Waites and the match between the two is the one that Waites has the throw in so that should be significant. 3/1 on the former world champion looks too big to me in this company.
Match Betting
This is my sort of group as far as the match betting goes as there isn’t a whole lot between the odds on both players in all six matches. I am wary of getting too stuck into these things though because there is an air of lottery in all of it, and given that I am already on Waites to win the group I don’t really need to be getting too involved in any of his matches as a win for him enhances that and defeat wouldn’t help.
That leaves three matches though and I’m happy to take a bet in one of them. That comes in the final match of the night where Ron Meulenkamp takes on Steve Beaton with various bookmakers unable to split the two. I’m not always a fan of betting in the last match as there could be nothing on it by then, and hopefully Waites has won all three matches and that is the case, but I can’t be having these two level odds. I’ve seen nothing to suggest that Beaton is going to be competitive in the two nights he has played so far and if he’s out he might turn this into a bit of an exhibition. I don’t see Meulenkamp being anything but serious and he has the game to take care of the ‘Bronzed Adonis’.
Tips
WON – Back S.Waites to win Group 27 for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with Coral
Back him here:
WON – Back R.Meulenkamp to beat S.Beaton for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfair
Back him here:
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