The second PDC Home Tour continues on Wednesday when the third group of the first phase takes place, as once again seven players will link up their cameras and iPads and take to their home oches to compete for a place in the next round.
We have a good mixture of players in the group on Wednesday from former world finalists to seasoned professionals and even the best lady player of the current generation so there is a lot to enjoy over the course of the day.
The Format
Each day seven players will be in action on their home oches in a group stage format looking to progress. In every group in the tournament the seven players will each play each other once. In the first round the top three players in each group and the five best fourth-placed players go through to the second stage. Five groups are played out in the second phase with the top four in each making it through to the third stage along with the best fifth-placed player. The final stage begins with three more groups with the top two in each and the best third-placed player qualifying for the Championship Group where the champion is crowned. Each match throughout is the best of nine legs and the tournament will be streamed live on PDCTV or the consoles on the bookmaker websites.
Group 2 Recap
It was a perfect day for Jamie Lewis on Tuesday as he won all six of his matches to dominate the group and make sure that he powered his way into the second stage. Adam Hunt was his closest challenger on the day when he picked up four win while there were three players who picked up six points. Alan Tabern was the man with the best leg difference to claim the third spot in the next stage while Matthew Edgar will have to wait and see if he has done enough. Gary Blades is the unlucky man of the trio. Carl Wilkinson and Barrie Bates picked up one win each from their day.
It wasn’t a good day for us betting wise as Tabern never really threatened to win the group and although he won half of his matches one of them wasn’t in the game we wanted him to win which was the one against Adam Hunt. From 2-2 he was broken twice and ended up losing 5-2 with missed doubles costing him dearly the longer the match went on. That means there is work to do for us on Wednesday.
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Group 3 Line Up
The Favourites
Martijn Kleermaker might not be the highest ranked player in this group but that is only because he’s only had his tour card for a few months. He clearly sets the standard in terms of potential and that is recognised by the bookmakers who make him the favourite to win this group. Mickey Mansell is actually the top ranked player on show in this section. He’ll be out to prove he is better than what he served up in the opening Home Tour. Steve Brown played well in the two Home Tour groups he played first time around and will be out to deliver a good showing here.
The Outsiders
Kirk Shepherd is actually the second highest ranked player in this section but he’s been priced up with the outsiders. He was very unlucky in his group in Home Tour I and a repeat of that display would give him an outside chance here as it goes. Poland World Cup player Krzysztof Kcuik went well in the first event and he could play his way into a good position here. Lisa Ashton will grace our streams for the second time this summer when she competes in this group and it is Nathan Derry who will complete the line up.
Outright Betting
We have had two winning favourites so far and I think that will be three here. Martijn Kleermaker sets a pretty good standard, as he showed in the first Home Tour when he took care of Michael Smith in his first group. He wasn’t as good in his second group but Joe Cullen, Chris Dobey and Jeff Smith were in decent form that night. There is nothing like that sort of level in this group and over six matches I’m finding it hard to see the Dutchman not having the tools to come out on top.
Of the rest, Steve Brown is likely to offer up some competitive stuff but the one thing we’ve seen on the first two days of this tournament is the need for a consistency throughout the day. That makes me lean more towards a pro tour set of results rather than Home Tour stuff and it is interesting that Kleermaker made the quarter final of one of the recent Summer Series events, where Stephen Bunting and Krzysztof Ratajski were among his victims. The 11/4 on Kleermaker looks good to me.
Match Betting
There are a lot of even looking matches on Wednesday and I’m going to return to my original method of picking out the 50:50 looking ones where the odds are generous on the players who have the throw and there are two I like in that bracket over the course of the day. The first is Steve Brown to beat Mickey Mansell. I remember Mansell really struggling in the first Home Tour. He won one of his three matches but lost to Lisa Ashton and could only average 86.91 and 88.51 for two of his matches. Brown actually beat Ryan Joyce in his original group in that event and that form has been franked nicely since then. There isn’t too much between these two men so the throw could be the determining factor. I’ll side with Brown.
The other bet I like is for Kirk Shepherd to beat Lisa Ashton. Ashton is a great player and I hope she does really well here but I’ve always said that she misses too many doubles for my liking and in a race to five that is not ideal. Ashton will score but Shepherd is actually quite underrated in the scoring department and I just don’t believe that he’ll be the sort of mess on the doubles that he might need to be to give Lisa a look in here. Shepherd averaged over 90 in all of his Home Tour matches in the first campaign and if he is anywhere near that here then with the throw he should win this one.
Tips
Back M.Kleermaker to win Group 3 for a 2/10 stake at 3.75 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back S.Brown to beat M.Mansell for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Betfair
Back him here:
WON – Back K.Shepherd to beat L.Ashton for a 3/10 stake at 1.78 with 888sport
Back him here:
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