We have one more group in the PDC Home Tour 2 to take place this week and it does so on Wednesday when seven more players rig up their phone and tablet cameras to their oches to battle it out for a place in the second phase of the competition.
The household names are beginning to come pretty swiftly in the event now and we have the nine dart man from Home Tour I on show among others over the course of what looks like another competitive day on Wednesday.
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 5 Recap
We expected a competitive group on Tuesday and that is exactly what we got as for the second day in a row five players picked up three wins or more. It was the Finnish player Marko Kantele who topped the table with five wins, one ahead of our outright bet for the group Daniel Larsson who came second on leg difference with four wins from Damon Heta. They were the three qualifiers while Devon Petersen was the man left to wait and see if his three wins and healthy leg difference will be enough for him to advance. There were three wins for Kai Fan Leung and solitary wins for Ryan Joyce and John Michael.
It was close to being the betting day that we wanted but Daniel Larsson couldn’t quite get top spot in the group and it wasn’t helped when John Michael was unable to beat Marko Kantele in our first bet despite the Finn only averaging 80. We got most of the losses back when Devon Petersen was too good for Ryan Joyce so it wasn’t all doom and gloom but it was a disappointing day nevertheless.
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Group 6 Line Up
The Favourites
Gabriel Clemens is one of the rising stars from the soon to be hotbed of darts that is Germany and with an Autumn Series on his doorstep he is sure to be looking to go into that with some decent form and he gets the chance to pick that up here when he is the Group 6 favourite. William O’Connor, his fellow World Cup star, is the second favourite to win the group at 3/1 ahead of the veteran Dutch player Ron Meulenkamp who can be taken at a potentially big looking 6/1 to come out on top of the pile.
The Outsiders
Luke Woodhouse made shockwaves across the world when two nights into PDC Home Tour I he landed a nine darter in his kitchen. That got him through his first group but he went no further than that. On that evidence he could be value here at 8/1. The other three men in the group are all a double figure price to win it. Ryan Meikle has been prolific on the Development Tour and he can be taken at 12/1 to win the group while it was less than a year ago that Ross Smith was beating Michael van Gerwen in the European Championship. You can get him at 12/1 to top the pile here. As far as the odds go Vincent van der Meer is out of his depth in this group. He can be backed at 50/1 to win it.
Outright Betting
This feels a little more competitive than the odds would suggest but at the same time I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if Gabriel Clemens runs away with the group. I believe he sets a pretty decent standard both in quality and consistency and so he could well be hard to get the better of over six matches. We’ve seen this week though that the best players don’t always win the group, in fact we’ve had two major upsets so far so I can’t be rushing in on the 2/1 on Clemens.
If I was going to take on Clemens I would probably take the Dutch player Ron Meulenkamp who can be pretty streaky when he puts his mind to it but his form on the Tour this year has been very ordinary which puts me off in a major way. Of the rest you’d expect Luke Woodhouse and William O’Connor to win matches but consistency is an issue with the both of them. All in all I find myself not really rushing to bet on this section.
Match Betting
There isn’t a whole lot that I like in the match betting either in truth. I say that because regular readers of our Home Tour previews will be all too aware by now that I like to take the player with the throw in a 50:50 looking contest when the price doesn’t match the advantage that having that throw gives them. There aren’t many of those scenarios around on Wednesday although there is one in the middle of the morning which is of interest.
That sees Luke Woodhouse with the throw in his match against Ron Meulenkamp, a player who while he is usually consistent, especially on the big stages, but who seems to be in absolutely no form whatsoever at the minute. Woodhouse is very intense as a darts player but he generally scores pretty well and if he finishes strong he can be hard to beat, as shown when he went the distance with Michael Smith before losing in his last Summer Series match. Given that he has the throw here I’d have expected Woodhouse to be more of a favourite than he is but as he’s in better form the 10/11 looks a decent bet on him to win..
Tips
Back L.Woodhouse to beat R.Meulenkamp for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back him here:
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