The PDC Home Tour III continues on Tuesday when the fifth group of action takes place as seven men once again set their cameras up in front of their dartboards to compete for valuable points to go towards the overall table.
We are seeing a better standard of player in this competition this season and that is certainly evidenced in this group on Tuesday when two members of the top 25 in the world compete along with a couple of rising stars and seasoned campaigners.
The Format
42 players will compete in PDC Home Tour III and they will all compete in three of the 18 groups in the first round where their results will be accumulated on one overall league table where the top seven at the end of the initial 18 days of action will form a Championship Group from which the overall champion will be crowned. All matches are the best of seven legs and the tournament will be broadcast on PDC.tv or the bookmaker streaming sites.
Group 4 Recap
It was the perfect day for Simon Whitlock on Monday when he warmed up for the World Cup later in the week by winning all six of his matches to put himself in a very strong early position in the overall table. James Wilson, Kai Fan Leung, Richard North and Martin Schindler were the closest challengers to the Australian. They all won three matches on the day to finish with six points while Kirk Shepherd came away from his first group with four points and Krzysztof Kciuk ended up with one win from his six games.
It wasn’t a good start to the week for us from a betting point of view. We put our faith in Kirk Shepherd to win his opening match against Richard North, a player who was a late replacement into the group, but unfortunately the former world finalist couldn’t finish his breakfast let alone the legs and he transpired to not only lose but lose the match 4-0 so we are looking for a big improvement on that on Tuesday.
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Group 5 Line Up
The Favourites
As with Monday there is very much a standout player in the group and on this occasion it is Krzysztof Ratajski, another surprise entrant to this group given that he’ll be competing in the World Cup for his country on Friday. We saw Simon Whitlock warm up for that event by going undefeated on Monday and the Pole will be looking to do likewise here. Stephen Bunting is the other member of the top 25 who is in action in this group and he’ll be looking to get his campaign up and running with a positive showing over the course of the day.
The Outsiders
Ron Meulenkamp made it to the final group of Home Tour II so he’ll be looking for a big start to his campaign here. Martijn Kleermaker had an excellent time of it in the European Championship where he touched off Rob Cross before losing a close match to Devon Petersen so he’ll fancy his chances of going well here too. The other three players in the field look like genuine outsiders although Ryan Meikle has had a fair year on the minor tours. Jonathan Worsley and Nathan Derry are competing for the second time and need to get winning to be competitive in this tournament long-term.
Group Betting
It is incredibly hard to go against Krzysztof Ratajski in this group. He is the class act and by far the best player on show but this format isn’t one for respecting reputations and that is the concern. I certainly don’t want to oppose the Polish player who is going to be a factor in all of the tournaments that are coming up, but at 4/5 in this format I don’t really have any deep intention to back him either I have to say.
If I was to oppose him I would look towards the Dutch pair of Martijn Kleermaker or Ron Meulenkamp. The latter seems to enjoy his home surroundings because he has been competitive in both the tournaments so far whereas Kleermaker could well be suited by this format as it suits the heavy scorers so long as they don’t have too many mares their doubles. Ultimately though Ratajski rarely fails in this event and he’s the most likely winner even if he is too short to back.
Match Betting
I will go with Martijn Kleermaker in the match betting though and I’m happy to take him against Stephen Bunting who played a bunch of groups in Home Tour II and barely had a winning record in any of them, losing five of his six matches in the last one that he played. In truth Bunting hasn’t been in great form for a while and he recently tested positive for Covid-19 which meant he missed some European Tour events which might be an issue here.
Kleermaker didn’t play the last Home Tour but he has been in good form on the actual tour as we saw in Germany over the weekend where he played two very good matches. You sense his form on the European Tour has done wonders for his confidence and that could be key here. Kleermaker has the throw in this match and he’s won two of their three meetings to date. He is a heavy scorer and if those doubles stay true he can get the better of the Bullet.
Tips
WON – Back M.Kleermaker to beat S.Bunting for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
Back him here:
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