There are three groups left in the opening stage of the PDC Home Tour and the first of those comes along on Saturday night as four more players once again battle it out in a round robin format to keep us entertained during lockdown.
The early stages of this tournament were dominated by the headlines of Gary Anderson being unable to compete due to a shoddy Wi-Fi but he has attached himself to the modern world and will headline this group.
The Format
Each night four players will battle it out in a round robin format with the group winner progressing to the next stage of the tournament. All six matches in each group will be the best of nine legs with two points 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
We saw a competitive night of darts on Friday night and surprisingly it was the man who was new to the PDC Home Tour in Cristo Reyes who came through. He picked up three wins on the night, winning his first two in deciding legs before coming past Danny Noppert to seal top spot. John Henderson ran him closest and ended up in second while Noppert’s sole win saw him finish third. Ryan Meikle threw good darts all night but went down in three decent matches.
Meikle not getting much luck didn’t help us because we were on him as the value to win the group and that never really got started but it was another profitable night for us because Cristo Reyes hit the four 180s we needed in his match against John Henderson on his own. As it was Henderson also contributed two to the pot so that bet landed safely to see us come out ahead once again.
Group 30 Line Up
We finally get to see Gary Anderson in action on Saturday night and it will be interesting to see what he has to offer. We know he doesn’t need to be pounding a practice board to be effective because he is arguably the most naturally talented player there is but you would have to think he is slightly inconvenienced going up against players who have at least had one tilt at this sort of thing before. Anderson is an 11/8 favourite to land the group which seems fair but it isn’t for me.
In terms of the rankings it is Dimitri Van den Bergh who is the second highest player in the field on Saturday evening. Statistically he was pretty decent in his opening group but he paid the price for missing a whole load of chances in his second match against Rob Cross, the man who eventually came out on top. There was nothing wrong with his scoring though so if he can tighten up at the end of the leg he should be right there, but this looks a much tougher group on paper than his first one.
Kim Huybrechts is the third player in this group, giving it a strong Belgian flavour. He is 4/1 to come out on top in this group but you would think he is going to need to show improvement from his first showing in the competition. He won two matches from his three but didn’t show up in the one he needed to against Stephen Bunting. He’s not likely to outscore many, if any, in this group so he’ll need to be crisp on the doubles to progress. I have my doubts over the likelihood of that.
Dirk van Duijvenbode is the fourth man in this group. He started his initial group out like a house on fire but soon faded and did so pretty quickly and in the end was lucky to get this second go at qualifying. We’ve seen on the tour this season that the Dutchman can be extremely dangerous, and we saw in his first group that there aren’t many scoring better than him at the present time, but he appears to be a volcano ready to erupt and that is never a good thing. If he mellows out and hits his doubles he is more than good enough to come through this. It is a big if though.
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Outright Betting
You need to be a brave man to be betting on the outright group here I would suggest. The primary reason for that is this looks like a group that is going to be showered with missed doubles and given that they can all score this section is likely to come down to who finds the doubles first. That would lead me to look towards the outsiders if I was to have a bet in it, and given that Dirk van Duijvenbode and Kyle Anderson basically turned their dead rubber into a banter-a-thon there could be more from the Dutchman but I’m in no pressing rush to go in again.
Instead I will play the 180s in the group here. The line is at 21.5 which you sense could be slightly high but I’m not convinced it is high enough. I say that because the three men who have played already combined for 19 180s first time around and Gary Anderson is arguably the heaviest scorer of them all. Of the nine matches the other three played in their first groups, only one of them went to a deciding leg so there is the potential for even better scoring if we get a few closer matches here. If you level this out we don’t even need two 180s a player per match for this to cover and it looks to have more than a decent chance to me.
Match Betting
I will go with a couple of bets in the matches over the course of the night. I was tempted to take Dirk van Duijvenbode to see off Gary Anderson in the opening match of the night, purely because Anderson could come in here a little rusty but although the price is attractive, the fact the Dutchman doesn’t have the throw is a concern and ultimately better opportunities lie elsewhere I suspect.
One of those comes in his match with Kim Huybrechts, a clash he does have the throw in and one which he probably has a better chance of winning on paper anyway. DvD has shown that he is a heavy scorer, he’s probably a more consistent scorer than the Belgian anyway so this could well come down to how well he checks out. If he has a few extra darts at a double than his opponent then he that could well be significant enough to make him either relax when throwing for the leg win or placing markers to help hit the doubles. At 11/10 with the throw and the form he has shown this year the odds are just too big.
I’m also interested in a bet in the other match Dirk van Duijvenbode plays against Dimitri Van den Bergh. These two men combined for a whopping 16 180s in their opening groups and as I said above neither were involved in too many close matches. I’m very surprised that two seasoned and sustained scorers have a 180 line of just 3.5 here. It is only requiring a couple from both men for it to be covered but both are actually capable of wiping out the entire total needed on their own. The overs is a must play here even this late in the group.
Tips
Back Over 21.5 180s in the group for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
Back D.van Duijvenbode vs D.Van den Bergh – Over 3.5 180s for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
Back them here:
Back D.van Duijvenbode to beat K.Huybrechts for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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