The Modus Icons of Darts event enters its second week on Easter Monday with some new players joining the party, replacing those who have left to play their darts in other events. If anything those on show on Monday should make for a very competitive day of action.
As ever the five players on show will compete in their own homes for our entertainment and with the two dominant men being moved to the evening, we should see plenty of close matches and decent enough action.
The Format
Each day from Monday to Saturday five men will battle it out in a round robin group with the overall champion being determined on Saturday May 2. Matches will see the players compete over the best of 9 legs with each of them at home in front of a webcam throwing at their own individual dartboards. Scores can be found on Dart Connect and the tournament will be streamed on the bookmaker live streaming consoles and for free on Dartslive.tv
Saturday Recap
It was a dramatic day on Saturday as Wessel Nijman looked like claiming the daily and overall honours, needing to just beat Mark Webster in the final match but from 4-1 up he lost 5-4 to hand Paul Nicholson a second straight group win and David Evans the honours for the week. Saturday wasn’t a great day for the likes of Andy Jenkins, Mark Webster or Raymond van Barneveld it has to be said.
It was a decent day for us betting wise though as Andy Jenkins cruised past Mark Webster in the opening match of the day to deliver another 2.5pts profit, taking our total for that first week up to +7.89pts. We’ll be out to build on that over the course of the upcoming week where hopefully bets will be just as easy to find as they were in week one.
Monday Line Up
Two players from last week are back for more in this competition this week. They are Paul Nicholson and Andy Jenkins, and both will be looking to build on what were solid weeks for the veteran pair. They take on three of the young brigade on Monday. That trio is headed by Arron Monk, a man who has been a regular on the PDC circuit for a while but who has lost his Tour card now and offered little to nothing at Q-School in an attempt to get it back.
The other two members of the Monday afternoon party are Jason Askew and Robert Collins, neither of whom have a PDC Tour card either. Collins has actually shown his worth on the Challenge Tour circuit however, winning the opening event of the 2020 campaign. That put him in a position to play in the first few Players Championship events where he has a win over Michael Smith to his name. Askew, son of former PDC star Dave Askew, offered little at Q-School but did qualify for the UK Open and made the third round.
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Outright Betting
I’m open to be proved wrong here but of the new challengers in this competition I suspect the only one with serious credentials of winning the group is Robert Collins, but even then I’d need to see it before I was absolutely certain of it. Even if he is the pick of the players on show, I would imagine the competitive edge that Paul Nicholson and Andy Jenkins will have on him will make them favourites to battle out the winner for the day.
The fact that Jenkins has the tougher start to the day makes me think Nicholson can land a third group win in a row. He will be expected to deal with Askew pretty ruthlessly and assuming he does that he’ll be buoyed for a clash with Jenkins in his second game. Jenkins faces Collins first and were he to lose that and lose to Nicholson his day would be done before the easier games come along. I have to admit there isn’t a lot of juice in the Nicholson price but there’s enough to reel me in.
Match Betting
I’ll go with one in the match betting on Monday as well. I really don’t expect to see much from Arron Monk over the course of the day, and potentially even the week, so I’m a little surprised that some bookmakers make his match with Andy Jenkins a pick ‘em match. I certainly don’t see it that way. I think Jenkins will have more than enough firepower to get the job done against his Hampshire counterpart.
Monk has declined in the professional ranks to the extent that he is no longer on the tour and even when he was on it he never really hit the heights. I can see him fading away completely now. Jenkins has shown enough last week to suggest a decent game is still there in him and he has beaten the players he has been expected to beat pretty consistently. I expect him to continue to do that against Monk on Monday.
Tips
Back P.Nicholson to win Group 1 for a 2/10 stake at 3.50 with Coral
Back him here:
Back A.Jenkins to beat A.Monk for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Boylesports
Back him here:
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