The first pool of players play their final day of action for the week in the Icons of Darts event on Friday as the revamped format brought to us by the team at Modus Darts during lockdown continues to keep us entertained.
We have had everything in the competition this week from compelling matches to perfect legs along with missed doubles and two group deciders in the final game of the day. That all whets the appetite over what Friday will bring us.
The Format
Each day from Monday to Saturday six players will battle it out for a daily title. There are two pools of players, one which plays on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the other which toe the oche on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Each day the six players will play each other once over the best of nine legs with two points for a win. The daily winner is the player with the most points. If players are level on points it is determined on leg difference and then the record between the two. The entire event can be watched on various bookmaker websites, dartshop.tv or the Modus YouTube channel.
Confirmation of today’s final league table ✅? @reddragondarts @low6bet #IconsofDarts @JAskew93 makes it two from two this week ?? pic.twitter.com/m8vX31ipfs
— MODUS Sports (@ModusDarts180) June 4, 2020
Thursday Recap
For the second day in succession we saw someone win all five of their matches to dominate their pool of action. On Thursday it was Jason Askew who achieved the feat, which meant that he secured the group title for the second time this week and will go into Saturday’s play looking to complete a clean sweep. Askew was in superb form and finished four points ahead of Andy Jenkins who had three wins on Thursday. Mark Webster, Boris Koltsov and Keelan Kay all had two wins to show for their efforts, ahead of Scott Mitchell who registered just a solitary victory over the course of the day.
It was a perfect day for us betting wise as we took three bets over the course of the group and they all landed. Things got off to a good start as early as the second match when Mitchell completely dominated Mark Webster to cover the 1.5 leg handicap and by the time Jason Askew saw off Andy Jenkins 5-1 to cover his 1.5 leg handicap, he had all but won the group. He duly beat Boris Koltsov in his final match to confirm top spot and complete a profit of more than 10pts for us on the day.
Friday Line Up
David Evans was the winner of this pool of players on Wednesday, winning all five of his matches and he will be out to repeat that success here on what should be a brilliant day of darts. Martin Adams had his own taste of perfection on Wednesday when he achieved the coveted nine dart finish. He didn’t win the group though and that will be his aim when he toes his oche the day after turning 64. Scott Marsh was the first winner this week and he is back for more here.
The other three players are all playing for something. Fallon Sherrock hasn’t looked as convincing since the format was elevated but she has another chance to impress here. Paul Nicholson is rebuilding his career so every match that he plays goes another step towards that and he has five of them here. James Hubbard is in the same boat but he’ll be looking for a first win of the week after two very tough days at the office.
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Outright Betting
I wasn’t going to get too involved in this group on Friday but I had such a good day on Thursday that I’ve bought myself another go at Scott Marsh to win outright. He is still acceptably priced at 8/1 when you consider he won the group on Monday and picked up three wins on Wednesday with one of the two defeats in a deciding leg to David Evans when he led 4-2 and would normally have closed that game out.
Over this format I don’t think there is a huge amount of difference between Marsh, David Evans and Martin Adams. The latter two have the experience of these leagues and have been playing regularly to forge a big reputation but in terms of averages and things Marsh can mix it with them. Marsh actually registered the only 100+ average on Wednesday, averaged more than Evans across the course of the day and only 0.03pt below Adams, and was better on the doubles. If Marsh had have closed that match with Evans out 5-2 he would have won the group. I don’t get why he’s four times the price of the main two so a small bet on him will do the job for me.
Match Betting
Scott Marsh will do me when it comes to the match betting as well. I know I probably shouldn’t back bets that one losing can kill the other but if Marsh is to fail to win the group I think it will be Martin Adams or David Evans that denies him and not Paul Nicholson, so I’ll take Marsh to beat Nicholson for what would be a third time this week. Nicholson has the early shift here and this will be his last game of the week.
These are long days when you start the action and if it has gone wrong early in the day the motivation can soon disappear with all the waiting around to play a last game. Marsh has two more matches after this one so there is going to be something riding on this for him. Marsh won both their meetings this week 5-2. He averaged 10.5pts more in the first match despite Marsh only hitting 5/22 on the doubles and 9.5pts more in the second match when Nicholson didn’t miss a double. That highlights that Marsh has plenty in hand over ‘The Asset’ at the minute and I expect that to play out again on Friday.
Tips
Back S.Marsh to win Group 5 for a 1/10 stake at 9.00 with Betway
Back S.Marsh to beat P.Nicholson for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
Back him here:
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