Another week of Modus Icons of Darts begins on Monday and it does so with what they are calling the third phase of the competition getting underway. This time six players will be taking to their home oches in a bid to keep us entertained and them competitive.
There has been a change in the format and as a result we lose six matches on the day but with the distance of matches going up we should probably get a better reflection of the level over the course of the day.
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.
Saturday Recap
It was the final day of the second phase of the competition on Saturday and Andy Jenkins rounded it off with the group win. He won four of his six matches to edge out David Evans on leg difference. There were three wins each for Mark Webster, Scott Mitchell and Arron Monk while Ritchie Edhouse rounded off his week with a couple of wins. Jarred Cole finished bottom of the group for the second straight attempt but he did at least win twice this time.
The day never really got going from a betting point of view as Scott Mitchell wasn’t really at the races even though he finished one win off top spot. What made the day worse was that Arron Monk played pretty well in the main but one match he didn’t play so well in was the one against Mark Webster. Not only did he not cover the handicap in that match but he didn’t even win it so that was extremely disappointing.
Monday Line Up
David Evans is the star attraction on the first day of the third phase of the competition. He was nowhere near as dominant over the best of seven as he was in the weeks when the leagues were the best of nine so he is probably likely to enjoy the change back. Martin Adams was extremely successful over the best of seven but he has been keeping his eye in over the best of nine in between to good order so he should fancy his chances here.
Paul Nicholson heads the other four players. He has found it tough going recently so he’ll probably enjoy the rise back to the best of nine. Whether it will suit Fallon Sherrock as much remains to be seen. James Hubbard gets another chance to show what he can do this week and he will hope the format might suit him a little more too. Scott Marsh is the sixth player on show. His sustained scoring could be advantageous for him.
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Outright Betting
It will be interesting to see how the reduction in players has an effect on proceedings. The general thought is that more players will be in contention for longer with the fewer matches so it might be that everything is more competitive as a result, although that remains to be seen. Although there is a lower number of players, the schedule hasn’t really been spaced out much better and that could be important on what is likely to be a hot day.
I’m tempted to take Scott Marsh at 14/1 but I can’t say I’m massively keen on anyone and so I’ll have a little punt on James Hubbard to lose all five of his matches. I say that because he plays in three of the first four games so if he starts off slowly then any enthusiasm could dwindle away quite quickly. Hubbard hasn’t played for a while so he might need a match or two to get up to speed. There is a chance he’ll pinch a win somewhere but there is enough juice in the 6/1 he loses the lot to tempt me in.
Match Betting
I’ll go with one in the match betting on Monday and it comes relatively late in the afternoon when Scott Marsh takes on Fallon Sherrock. Both players still have a match to come after this one so this has the makings of being significant, which should add to the competitiveness of it. That is good for me because the bet I like in the match is over 7.5 legs, even at 8/11. That means we need it to go 5-3 or 5-4 to be collecting.
These two have met on three occasions in the Icons of Darts so far and they finished 4-2, 4-3 and 4-3 and both have picked up wins in that time so there is a suggestion that they are pretty well matched. I wouldn’t disagree with that actually. A lot of their stats are often close to each other and this one could easily come down to the odd missed double or poor score here and there. Given when this is in the day and their history I like the over here.
Tips
WON – Back J.Hubbard to lose all 5 matches for a 1/10 stake at 7.00 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back S.Marsh vs F.Sherrock – Over 7.5 legs for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with William Hill
Back it here:
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