We move into the second half of the first stage of the PDC Home Tour play-offs on Saturday night, where the former champions of the world just keep on coming, as this intuitive competition heads towards its conclusion.
The level of darts we have seen in the first four groups of the play-offs has been very high and with the four men on show on Saturday evening it would be daft to expect anything less as the first spot in the second semi-final group will be earned.
The Format
The 32 group winners from the first round of groups have been redrawn into eight groups for the second stage of the event. Each winner moves into one of two semi-final groups with the top two from those two groups progressing to form the Championship group which will take place on June 5 where the overall winner will be crowned. Each match from here on in is the best of 11 legs rather than the best of 9 of the first round. Two points are 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.
Friday Recap
It was a high scoring night of action on Friday evening and the heaviest scorer of them all in the group came out on top when Dave Chisnall recovered from losing his opening match against Damon Heta to edge out Geert Nentjes on leg difference. Nentjes went into the final match of the night against Chisnall knowing the group was his if he could win, but he was unable to answer the barrage of scoring which came his way. That win over Chisnall was all Heta had to show for his night while Darren Webster could only record a solitary victory as well.
It was a profitable night for us betting wise with Geert Nentjes and Damon Heta producing more than the 4.5 180s we needed them to in what was an entertaining match. Heta actually covered that line on his own so that was never in any danger. We almost picked up the big prize as well with the 10/1 shot Nentjes leading the group after two matches but unfortunately he couldn’t get rid of Chisnall so we had to do without that.
Play-Offs Group 5 Line Up
The headline act in terms of the world rankings and trophy cabinet in this group is the former world champion Rob Cross, but if he is going to make it through to the semi-final he is going to need to show a dramatic improvement from his first outing in this tournament. On paper, overcoming the likes of Dimitri Van den Bergh and Karel Sedlacek looks good but he was the beneficiary of a series of missed doubles by both and he is going to need a marked improvement to come through here. His night average of 82.08 isn’t going to cut it.
In contrast to that, one of the best performers in the early part of the first round was Ryan Searle and he is the second man in this group. Searle won all three matches in a group which included James Wade and Andy Boulton, he averaged over a ton across the evening and ploughed in 180s for fun at times. You always have that doubt about his doubling but if ‘Heavy Metal’ is on it around the outside of the board he is very much the one to beat here for me.
The competition was initially kicked into life by Luke Woodhouse who stole the show on the second night of action when he landed the only 9 dart finish of the tournament to date in a thoroughly convincing 5-0 win over Gerwyn Price on his way to dominating Group 2. That was special without a doubt but the 89.46 and 90.56 averages in his other two matches would make him vulnerable here. Woodhouse certainly shouldn’t be underestimated or disrespected but he might need to sustain his best for longer to come through here.
Daniel Larsson went into his first group as a rank outsider and he is in that position here. He saw off the European challenge of Dirk van Duijvenbode and Martin Schindler and took advantage of Kyle Anderson’s health issues to come through but an 87.58 average across the night, buoyed by a brutal display of finishing in his last game, is unlikely to cut it here. If he finishes like he did against Schindler you could give Larsson a chance of a win somewhere but the extra distance and the class he’s up against go massively against him.
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Outright Betting
It could be that this group is decided quite early in the piece because I have it between Ryan Searle and Luke Woodhouse. I’ve seen nothing from Rob Cross either on the tour this year or in his first group that suggests he is going to rock up and control this group whereas Searle was on fire on the tour and has already won a title seeing off the likes of Michael van Gerwen, Michael Smith and Glen Durrant in the process.
I just wonder whether Woodhouse will be competitive over the course of the night. He was exceptional in that win over Price in his first group but average in the other two matches against lesser opposition. I could see him performing well in one game here and struggling in another which costs him. I don’t see Cross going all that well and Larsson lacks the scoring consistency for my liking. Searle has the throw in that big match with Woodhouse and so that makes me think the 5/2 on him is a touch too big.
Match Betting
It is all about Ryan Searle in the match betting for me as well on Saturday evening. Although he doesn’t have the throw against Rob Cross unless he missed a sack load of doubles I’m firmly expecting him to come out on top in that match. There was nearly 20pts between the two in their respective groups and that is a huge gap to overcome. That wasn’t entirely unjustified for Cross because his tour form hasn’t been great this year. We should acknowledge that he was having some personal issues around the time of that group but even so. Searle is the heavier scorer, more likely to be more at home in the surroundings and if he finishes adequately he can take Cross down.
I also expect Cross to beat Daniel Larsson in the penultimate match of the night. However to get a little bit more juice in terms of value I will take Searle to win and record the most maximums at even money. Searle is a relentless 180 scorer, we actually never saw quite how much that is the case in his first group, whereas Larsson isn’t. The Swede won all three matches in his first group and only surrendered four legs all night, yet only hit one 180 across the three games. He’ll need more than that in this match to live with Searle in the maximums. I expect Searle to dominate the scoring and the scoreline.
Tips
Back R.Searle to win Play-Offs Group 5 for a 2/10 stake at 3.50 with BetVictor
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Back R.Searle to beat R.Cross for a 3/10 stake at 2.40 with 888sport
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WON – Back R.Searle to beat D.Larsson & Most 180s for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfair
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