Darts betting tips: Thursday's PDC Home Tour semi-final preview and stats featuring Rob Cross and Nathan Aspinall

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Semi-Final Stage, Group Two: Odds & Tips

Sky Bet odds to top group: Nathan Aspinall 6/4, Rob Cross 2/1, Joe Cullen 7/2, Jonny Clayton 9/2

The last two spots available for the PDC's Low6 Home Tour Championship Group are up for grabs tonight and it couldn't be much tougher to call.

You can make a strong case for any of this quartet to join Gary Anderson and Jelle Klaasen in Friday's inaugural finale by finishing in the top two, while the group winner odds are as tight as they've been since the first of 41 group nights was staged way back on April 17.

Nathan Aspinall and Jonny Clayton will all take to their home oches boasting perfect records of six wins out of six from their previous two group stage outings, but Joe Cullen is arguably in most confident mood having won eight from his nine matches spanning three appearances.

After finishing runner-up in his first attempt, the Rockstar bounced back emphatically with the best overall nightly performance as he averaged over 105 on three occasions - including a 107.6 in a 5-0 victory over Gerwyn Price - en route to booking his place in the second phase of the online tournament.

Perhaps even more impressively, he then qualified for the semi-finals with three more victories on a hastily arranged set-up having just moved house!

While he didn't average over 100 that night, he still recorded marks comfortably in the 90s and was able to come through hard-fought encounters with Martijn Kleermaker (6-3) and Chris Dobey (6-5) before holding his nerve against Jeff Smith (6-4) in a winner-takes-all showdown.

Although Aspinall and Rob Cross are above him in the betting and clearly boast greater title-winning pedigree in the pre-lockdown era, neither have set this tournament alight in terms of statistics.

The Asp won't care considering he's well-known for saving his mind-blowing performances for when his opponent pushes him to - and so far they haven't. Even in his deciding match against the red-hot Jose de Sousa, who had averaged over 100 in three of his five tournament games until that point, the Portuguese star could only manage 90.7 and Aspinall's 89.7 was enough to triumph 6-4.

As for Cross, he was still mourning the loss of his grandfather during his understandable below-par opening night but after putting in a couple more weeks of practice, he did record his first two 90+ averages in the next round.

An average of 70 in a meaningless encounter with Luke Woodhouse in his last match can be glossed over but I think the value lies elsewhere.

Obviously I'm hoping my sole remaining outright tip Cullen (28/1) will earn a final spot, Clayton's odds of 9/2 to top the group are extremely eye-catching.

In such a potentially tight group, two victories may be enough with a superior legs difference and the Ferret has shown more than enough form to suggest he can achieve this.

Clayton has averaged over 90 in three routinely comfortable wins on his first appearance and then managed to surpass 102 twice against Scott Waites and Max Hopp before seeing off Carl Wilkinson with a mark of 92.

The Welshman has been a key worker for his council during lockdown delivering food to the elderly and disadvantaged, and this could be a contributory factor to the relaxed way he approaches the oche and putting it all into perspective.

• Chris Hammer's Best Bet: Clayton to win the group at 9/2
• Chris Hammer's Match Bet: Cullen v Aspinall to have over 9.5 legs, highest checkout to be over 116.5 and over 4.5 total 180s at 4/1
• Chris Hammer's Double: Cullen to beat Cross and Clayton to beat Aspinall at 4.63/1
• Sky Bet Price Boost: Aspinall to win all his matches either 6-0, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 or 6-4 at 7/1 (WAS 6/1)

Player-by-player form, results & averages

NATHAN ASPINALL

First Stage: Topped Group 10 (Report)

• (91.4) Nathan Aspinall 5-2 Steve Brown (85.8)
• (98.5) Nathan Aspinall 5-2 Ryan Joyce (90.3)
• (65.9) Simon Stevenson 1-5 Nathan Aspinall (85.6)

Second Stage: Topped Group 7 (Report)

• (91.2) Nathan Aspinall 6-4 Jesús Noguera (94.6)
• (86.6) Nathan Aspinall 6-2 Jamie Hughes (84.8)
• (90.7) Jose De Sousa 4-6 Nathan Aspinall (89.7)

ROB CROSS

First Stage: Topped Group 21 (Report)

• (79.3) Rob Cross 5-2 William Borland (77.4)
• (81.4) Rob Cross 5-4 Dimitri Van den Bergh (91.2)
• (85) Karel Sedlacek 4-5 Rob Cross (85.2)

Second Stage: Topped Group 5 (Report)

• (91.5) Rob Cross 6-3 Daniel Larsson (92.3)
• (93.8) Rob Cross 6-4 Ryan Searle (88.8)
• (81.3) Luke Woodhouse 6-5 Rob Cross (70.3)

JOE CULLEN

First Stage: Runner-Up Group 20 (Report)

• (90) Joe Cullen 5-4 Ryan Murray (86.4)
• (89.5) Joe Cullen 4-5 Jermaine Wattimena (86.6)
• (91.3) John Michael 3-5 Joe Cullen (96.9)

First Stage: Topped Group 31 (Report)

• (106.2) Joe Cullen 5-2 Keegan Brown (96.7)
• (103.3) Gerwyn Price 3-5 Joe Cullen (107.6)
• (105.8) Joe Cullen 5-0 Bradley Brooks (81.1)

Second Stage: Topped Group 6 (Report)

• (95.3) Joe Cullen 6-3 Martijn Kleermaker (93.1)
• (96.8) Joe Cullen 6-5 Chris Dobey (93.5)
• (92.4) Joe Cullen 6-4 Jeff Smith (94.5)

JONNY CLAYTON

First Stage: Topped Group 8 (Report)

• (96) Jonny Clayton 5-2 Adam Hunt (90.2)
• (90.5) Jonny Clayton 5-3 Richard North (87.6)
• (77.7) David Pallett 2-5 Jonny Clayton (92.8)

Second Stage: Topped Group 8 (Report)

• (103.9) Jonny Clayton 6-3 Scott Waites (99.5)
• (102) Jonny Clayton 6-3 Max Hopp (81.7)
• (79.9) Carl Wilkinson 2-6 Jonny Clayton (91.9)

PDC Home Tour Darts: Thursday's fixtures

• Click here for Sky Bet odds
• Each night’s action begins at 1930 BST, and will include webcam footage of each player and their dart board, live score graphics and commentary from Dan Dawson. All PDC Home Tour action will be broadcast live on PDCTV for FREE to ALL registered PDCTV users, regardless of whether you have a paid or free membership

Group Two - Thursday June 4

• Rob Cross v Joe Cullen
• Nathan Aspinall v Jonny Clayton
• Joe Cullen v Jonny Clayton
• Rob Cross v Nathan Aspinall
• Nathan Aspinall v Joe Cullen
• Jonny Clayton v Rob Cross

CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE MATCH-BY-MATCH SKY BET ODDS

CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE TOURNAMENT'S RESULTS, FIXTURES & FORMAT

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