Just eight players remain in the PDC Home Tour and on Wednesday evening we will lose two of them when the first of the Last Eight groups of the play-offs take place with four men returning to battle it out for a place in the final group on Friday.
In these Last Eight groups it is the top two who progress to the final group rather than just the winner so there is a completely different dynamic to the action and the play. That might make for more tension and drama for us to witness.
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.
Tuesday Recap
We saw another group go down to the final match on Tuesday and it was the favourite heading into the evening in Jonny Clayton who came out on top in it. He won all three matches with some scintillating darts along the way to completely dominate the section. Scott Waites had a great night himself but did not get the defeat he needed for Clayton in the last game to progress. Max Hopp ended his tournament with one win while Carl Wilkinson bowed out quite tamely.
It was a decent night of betting for us all in all on Tuesday. We didn’t quite get the Scott Waites group win in even though he won two of his three matches 6-0 and 6-1. A defeat to Clayton in the opener proved costly. However the 6-0 win was over Carl Wilkinson so Waites covered the handicap emphatically there. Clayton beat Max Hopp 6-3 to bring that handicap bet in as well so we ended the night up four points which is a very acceptable return.
Last Eight Group 1 Line Up
Gary Anderson is once again the headline attraction in the group on Wednesday evening. ‘The Flying Scotsman’ continues to maintain that he does little practice but he has looked very good in the tournament so far. He improved in his last 32 group from his first round group and if that natural progression continues he is going to be very tough to beat, despite being in a group full of heavy scorers and dangerous opponents. It would be a massive surprise if the Scot is not one of the two men to progress to the final from this section.
Speaking of heavy scorers we have Dave Chisnall in this group. He didn’t actually score anything like as well as he can do in his second group to make it into this one so if he has found his scoring boots in the week or so since we saw him last the other three could be in a spot of bother here. This sort of setup seems to suit Chisnall perfectly so as long as he doesn’t suddenly have a mare on the doubles he will be expected to join Anderson in the final group.
Jelle Klaasen has seen off the current world champion to make it into this semi-final section and he’ll be out to dispose of one of the two superstars in the group to progress to the final himself. He is a bit of an anomaly here in that he actually played worse in his play-off group than his first one but by virtue of thrashing Peter Wright 6-1 in his final game last week he made it through to this stage. We haven’t seen the best of Klaasen in either of the home games he has played so far but if he is going to extend his campaign we’ll need to see it here.
The final member of the quartet bidding for a place in the final group here is the Belgian ace Mike de Decker, a man who is making a bit of a habit of surprising the big names and coming through here. He got rid of Stephen Bunting and Glen Durrant last week and will be looking to repeat that feat here. He scored pretty well in that group but is likely to need even more than that if he is going to cause what would be a major surprise if he is to take his place in the final on Friday. He should be respected but he has it all to do.
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Outright Betting
Under absolutely no circumstances can I get involved in the group winning in these semi-final groups. The target of finishing second equating to the same as finishing first is an absolute warning not to go anywhere near that here. This format might be good to keep interest in matches throughout the night but when the focus isn’t on actually winning the group I can’t possibly get involved in the outright market.
As it is I think Anderson is a pretty good thing here by virtue of the fact that he has the throw in what looks like being the pivotal and decisive match of the night in terms of his one with Dave Chisnall, but if he has won his first two matches and the air in his balloon goes with nothing to play for in the final game, the last thing I want is Jelle Klaasen to do what he did to Peter Wright and put in a magic spell, win big and overtake Anderson on leg difference. These groups are NOT designed for backing the winner.
Match Betting
There is more potential in the match betting but even then we have to tread carefully and react as we go in a lot of ways, especially in the final matches of the night where the idealism of winning six legs could be replaced with a different target that ensures qualification. Before we get to that stage though we have one of those even matches where the player with the throw is priced nicely which I have been taking my chances on throughout the tournament.
It comes in the third match of the evening where Mike de Decker takes on Jelle Klaasen as an outsider to win even though he has the throw. Klaasen did beat Peter Wright last week but he only averaged a nudge over 90 in the match and never averaged more than 91.28 at any time in the night De Decker saw off Alan Tabern with a 98+ average and was just as solid in defeating Glen Durrant to make it through to this stage, beating him 6-4. Those results stand up nicely and this consistent scorer looks great value to beat a stuttering Klaasen barring any mares on his doubles, which as yet haven’t been seen.
Tips
Back M.de Decker to beat J.Klaasen for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Coral
Back him here:
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