The Remote Darts League is back for a second season and it has grown into an even bigger and better event. The new campaign gets underway on Monday evening with James Richardson looking to defend his title but he’ll have to do so against an enlarged field.
The competition will see 16 players battling out for the title in the second season of the competition, with the top four from RDL1 returning along with eight fresh men. Four leading ladies are also in a ground-breaking tournament.
The Format
The league phase of the competition will see the 16 players play each other once over the best of 10 legs across the first 20 nights of the season, with two points for a win and one for a draw. Four players play each night and compete in three matches in the sessions they play, so all 16 players will play in just five of the first 20 evenings of the campaign.
At the end of the league phase the top four will go into the playoffs on the final night where the semi-finals are played over the best of 15 legs and the winner will be determined over the best of 19 legs. The entire tournament is being streamed on the Remote Darts League YouTube channel and various bookmaker websites.
Returning Stars
The top four from last season were all invited back into the second campaign of the Remote Darts League and all of them accepted their invitations. That means that James Richardson will be looking to retain his title. He was relentless and unstoppable in the first season of the event and will be out to replicate that form. The man he beat in the final earlier this month is also back for more in ‘Crocodile Dundee’ Paul Hogan.
Jim Williams was the ante-post favourite for the first season but lost out in the semi-final. He’ll begin this campaign in a similar position in the market. Tony O’Shea was the other man who made the playoffs last season. He is as big as 33/1 to win the title this term but he did say he benefitted from playing every day in the previous campaign. He doesn’t have that luxury this time around.
European Additions
Of the eight men who are competing for the first time three of them are European and very well known to regular followers of the BDO and WDF systems. Richard Veenstra is the biggest name of the trio. He was the beaten finalist in the World Trophy last year and landed three significant BDO titles but he was unable to deliver the goods at the World Championship at the o2 in January. At his best he’s entitled to be very competitive here.
John O’Shea shot to the forefront of the BDO minds towards the end of last year when he landed the BDO World Masters title, one of the most prestigious in the game. It has to be said that his path through the draw was kind but he still handled the pressure well. He didn’t follow that up in the World Championship though. Thibaut Tricole is the other European competing in the tournament. We saw him at the o2 as well where he beat Ross Montgomery before a disappointing loss to Ryan Hogarth.
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International Quality
There are five players in the tournament from what would be considered the rest of the world in sporting terms. They include the American pair of ‘The Bald Eagle’ Larry Butler, a player who has been around top flight darts for more than 25 years and had his greatest day in the sun when he landed the PDC World Matchplay back in 1994. His compatriot ‘Chainsaw’ Joe Chaney will join him in the tournament. We’ve seen him compete in two of the last three World Championships, with little success it must be said.
The leading Canadian player in the BDO system now that Jeff Smith has won his PDC tour card is David Cameron and he has a place in the field for this tournament. He has shown he can throw some decent darts on many an occasion and could be a dark horse. Justin Thompson, the Australian veteran, pushed Wayne Warren closer than anyone in the World Championship at the start of the year and was ploughing in big scores like they were going out of fashion. If the time of day in his part of the world doesn’t go against him he’s another who could be extremely competitive. The final international is the New Zealand player Darren Herewini who we saw at the o2 and in the PDC World Series events.
Leading Ladies
The final four players in the field are all women. We saw Dean Winstanley in the first season of the competition and we get to see his wife Lorraine Winstanley in action this term. The 2019 Women’s World Championship finalist is more than capable of holding her own in this if she finds her doubles. Laura Turner is a well-known face after her punditry for Sky Sports but she can play as well and made the quarter finals of the World Championship earlier in the year. She is another who will look to show her best.
The other two females on show are from overseas. Stacey Pace is the first of those. We saw her in the World Masters in 2018 but she hasn’t really broken through on the big stage yet. This is a chance to show what she is about. Tina Osborne has made it to the World Championship back in 2016 but lost out in the first round. The Kiwi has done little of late since then though.
Betting
This looks a more competitive competition than the first season. Although a couple of them are good enough to show their worth, I would be surprised if any of the women are good enough to make the top four so I am leaving them out of the reckoning but from there a case can be made for most of the field. I’m keen to find some value if we are betting over the three weeks so while I respect the front three in the market I’m going to look beyond them.
We saw 33/1 shot Tony O’Shea make the final four last season so value picks can go well. He isn’t for me this time round with him only playing five nights in 20. The two that interest me are Richard Veenstra and Justin Thompson. I’ll go with the latter too. There is no getting away from the fact that the time he will be playing is an issue but he’s a steady player capable of bursts of big scoring and in the main he finishes well enough. If he had got the better of Wayne Warren at the o2 we could be looking at the current world champion given how well he played in that match. He didn’t but on that evidence he’s no 16/1 poke in this thing. Four or five players should be respected but there is enough value in the Thompson price to merit a punt.
Tips
Back J.Thompson to win Remote Darts League 2 (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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