The PDC Home Tour Championship Group is here after 43 nights of action, we are down to the final four who will battle it out to be crowned the inaugural champion in the online tournament.
The four players left are all of different nationalities - Scottish, Dutch, English and Welsh and all have made an impression throughout the tournament which was brought in to fill the void left by the Coronavirus putting sport on hold.
Starting with PDC Darts at Home, the
PDC Home Tour had it's issues to begin like any new format with it's free to air nature while still signing up seeing issues.
With traffic on the opening night; as well as other dramas including the quality of the streaming and even
accusations of cheating levelled at
Jelle Klaasen - who is in the final.
It's premise though saw all Tour Card Holders invited and 101 out of 128 were. The likes of
Michael van Gerwen,
Daryl Gurney and even
Gary Anderson - up till late on decided against being involved due to a medium of issues including WiFi which the latter sorted and now he is in the final.
Nine-Dart Brilliance and Top Players having mixed success
It all started with
Peter Wright and
Gerwyn Price and showing the phrase any Tour Card holder can beat anyone on their day rang true. They both headed out early - to
Jamie Lewis and
Luke Woodhouse - with the latter hitting the first and only
nine-dart finish on the PDC Home Tour (so far).
These players weren't left empty handed though as the likes of Wright and Price returned for a second chance and while for the World Champion - he found a way through for 'The Iceman', it didn't ascertain the same result.
The Last 32 saw the established names such as
Gary Anderson and
Dave Chisnall come to the foray - as well as a closeness which could have seen
Scott Waites and
Jose de Sousa in the line-up instead of
Nathan Aspinall and
Jonny Clayton. The fine margins at times have been key in the PDC Home Tour due to the short format.
From there, the top two would move through and this saw Gary Anderson storm through in a clean sweep while
Jelle Klaasen joined him with Dave Chisnall and Mike de Decker left behind. While this was clean cut two games in, the final group was not as easy.
Two straight shootouts would dictate the winners -
Joe Cullen who was one of the stars of the PDC Home Tour lost out to
Nathan Aspinall; while former World Champion
Rob Cross was soundly beaten by
Jonny Clayton.
Who will become the first PDC Home Tour champion
For Anderson in particular, he will head into tonight as favourite. 'The Flying Scotsman' has proven the decision to get his WiFi problems sorted has been vindicated with him being unbeaten in his campaign so far.
Aspinall despite seemingly having an ankle ligament injury stormed through with a clean sweep in his opening group and did the same in the Last 32 before suffering his first defeat. Can the former UK Open champion add to his increasing title wins?
Or will it be Klaasen, like alluded to a player who despite not playing at his best has gone under the radar in groups where he hasn't began as the favourite. He has been showing he is a classy operator again even before lockdown and this will be shown if he can win the PDC Home Tour.
Finally Clayton who has also remained unbeaten throughout until tonight. One of the highest performing players of the line-up. Could 'The Ferret' continue this into the Championship Group?
The action will begin at 7:30pm BST with the round robin format continuing into the final group with the winner being decided through these means.
The PDC Home Tour Championship Group will be broadcast live
on PDCTV for free to all registered PDCTV users; regardless of whether you have a paid or free membership.
In addition all live-scores can be followed
on DartConnect; with match statistics being available after every match.
PDC Home Tour schedule
Friday June 5
Championship Group
19:30 Nathan Aspinall v Jelle Klaasen
20:00 Gary Anderson v Jonny Clayton
20:30 Jelle Klaasen v Jonny Clayton
21:00 Nathan Aspinall v Gary Anderson
21:30 Gary Anderson v Jelle Klaasen
22:00 Jonny Clayton v Nathan Aspinall
https://twitter.com/OfficialPDC/status/1268660935612403718?s=20