The PDC Home Tour II continues on Wednesday when the penultimate group of the first stage is played out around the home oches of the seven players involved, each of whom will be looking to book their route into the next part of the tournament.
Once again we have some returning players and one or two players who are in the competition for the first time on what should be a tight day of action with a couple of men standing out but maybe not by as much as they would like.
The Format
Each day seven players will be in action on their home oches in a group stage format looking to progress. In every group in the tournament the seven players will each play each other once. In the first round the top three players in each group and the five best fourth-placed players go through to the second stage. Five groups are played out in the second phase with the top four in each making it through to the third stage along with the best fifth-placed player. The final stage begins with three more groups with the top two in each and the best third-placed player qualifying for the Championship Group where the champion is crowned. Each match throughout is the best of nine legs and the tournament will be streamed live on PDCTV or the consoles on the bookmaker websites.
Group 8 Recap
The odds suggested it would be a day in which Luke Humphries would qualify with ease and that was exactly how it proved after he won all six of his matches to power into the second stage at the first time of asking. Kai Fan Leung lost just the one match, which was to Humphries, so he came through in second place while the four wins for Martin Schindler was enough to nick third spot. Jamie Hughes came fourth but he’ll be out on this effort however his previous fourth gives him a chance to qualify still. Lisa Ashton, Gary Blades and Adrian Gray had disappointing days.
There was nothing disappointing about the day for us betting wise however. We only went into it with one bet but it was a comfortable winner at a decent price to get us moving in the right direction once again. That was on Jamie Hughes to cover a 2.5 leg handicap against Gary Blades which with the throw in his favour was only one break of throw. As it was he got a second anyway and won 5-1 to cover with a bit to spare.
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Group 9 Line Up
The Favourites
The highest ranked player on show in this group is Chris Dobey and he takes his first chance in this second staging of the Home Tour. He begins as a pretty warm favourite after a couple of last 16 finishes at the Autumn Series where Michael Smith, Rob Cross and Jonny Clayton were among his victims. The rapid fire Ricky Evans is the second favourite for the group. He also is competing in this event for the first time, as is the third favourite Callan Rydz, a player with a lot of hype but not quite the senior results to go with it just yet.
The Outsiders
The four outsiders in this group have all had one go at making it through and failed pretty miserably hence why they are all 9/1 or better. Nick Kenny comes in on that mark but you feel he’s better than that and he’ll be out to show that here. Conan Whitehead is more than capable of having a good day although they bookies have him as a 20/1 shot so they don’t agree. Krzysztof Kcuik and Barrie Bates appear to be making up the numbers at 40/1 and 66/1 respectively.
Group Betting
I can’t ignore the 9/1 on Nick Kenny to come through this group on top. I accept that Chris Dobey is the best player in the field and that Ricky Evans is a huge danger I understand all that but Kenny is in decent nick and if he was in any other group to the one he was put in earlier in the competition I think he would already be into the next stage that is how good I think he is and how he is playing at present.
Kenny made a semi-final at the Autumn Series and was in that group with Jonny Clayton, Stephen Bunting, Jermaine Wattimena and Jeffrey de Zwaan. Just qualifying from that group was going to be tough but he picked up three wins, including one over Bunting, and only just missed out on going through. In that run to the semis in the Autumn Series his victims included form horse Devon Petersen, Simon Whitlock and James Wade. He looks in good touch to me and if there is a surprise in this group he could be the one to cause it.
Match Betting
For so much of this tournament I have got myself hung up on backing players who have the throw as an outsider or bigger price than they should be to win their match and I’ve been completely ignoring the bigger players with the throw against the lesser ones when as a result of that advantage bigger handicaps can be covered slightly more easily than if they didn’t have the throw. We were successful with a bet of that kind on Tuesday and will aim to go in again in that way on Wednesday.
That is because Ricky Evans, a player who is rarely off form even if he can be a little erratic, takes on Barrie Bates and only gives up a 2.5 leg handicap here. Bates is in terrible form. On the pro circuit you have to go all the way back to PC2 for the last time he won a match. We’ve just have PC18 which highlights how long that is. His first go in this he beat Matthew Edgar 5-3 in his first game, hardly the biggest win in the world but a win nonetheless to be fair, then lost his next five matches either 5-0, 5-1 or 5-2. 5-2 is the minimum we are after here and given that this is midway through the day this match I expect Evans to have blown any format cobwebs away and take this match pretty comfortably.
Tips
WON – Back N.Kenny to win Group 9 for a 1/10 stake at 10.00 with Coral
Back him here:
Back R.Evans (-2.5 legs) to beat B.Bates for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
Back him here:
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