Restrictions might slowly be being lifted in the UK but that has not deterred the team at Modus Darts who are bringing us another week of Icons of Darts, one which gets underway on Monday with six players once again looking to entertain us in a competitive environment.
The change back to the best of nine leg format has dramatically increased the quality of the action and I see no reason why that is not going to continue on Monday, as the first pool of players flex their ability for the first time this week.
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
Scott Mitchell went in search of a third successive group title on Saturday, not only that but also the holy grail of the clean sweep of 15 match wins out of 15, and when he won his opening three games it looked like he might deliver the goods. He came apart at the seams a little after that though and lost his last two games to present Andy Jenkins with the group title. It was actually Mark Webster, who also matched Mitchell with three wins, who came second while Paul Nicholson and Stephen Burton closed out their weeks with two wins apiece. John Brown’s opening foray into the event yielded a solitary success.
Near enough the whole week was frustrating for us betting wise and it finished exactly how it started – with a bet losing which should never have done so. We took Paul Nicholson to beat Mark Webster for the third time in the week and when ‘The Asset’ went 4-1 up he looked to be coasting to another win and an even money winner to finish the week with for us. He then proceeded to lose four legs in a row to lose 5-4 which summed up the whole week really.
Monday Line Up
We have an excellent line up on Monday. Whoever put this pool of players together has done a great job as this could be the best group yet. Martin Adams has been in amazing form in the Icons of Darts over the last couple of weeks and he is back in action here. His closest challenger with some odds compilers is Ritchie Edhouse, who returns from a week off. Others have David Evans as the second favourite for the group which just highlights the sort of competition we are in for.
If those three were not enough we have the group winner from Saturday back on show in this first pool of the week too when Andy Jenkins goes in search of successive victories. Fallon Sherrock won the group on Friday and she is also in the field here and certainly cannot be discounted based on the standard she delivered on Friday. Jarred Cole must be wondering what he has done to land himself in with this lot but he isn’t guaranteed to be just making up the numbers.
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Outright Betting
This is another really tough group to bet on. Last week it was because certain players stood out and offered no value despite being the likely winner. On Monday it is because there is a genuine case to be made for all six players but the prices are probably in the right order, maybe with the exception of David Evans who might be a click or two shorter in terms of his price alongside Ritchie Edhouse but I think in the main they are right.
My gut feeling is that this company will bring the best out of Evans but at 3/1 there isn’t a lot of juice in the price. If you did want to bet then you could do worse than take the 9/1 on offer for Andy Jenkins, who must be full of confidence after winning on Saturday. My only concern with him is that Scott Mitchell largely handed him the group win. The beauty of this group is whoever you back you should get a run for your money but we’re in the winners business and I can’t pick one.
Match Betting
I’ll start the week off with just the one bet, which comes fairly late in the day as David Evans takes on Fallon Sherrock. Evans is the favourite to win the match but is tight at 8/15 however the odds against on him winning 5-3 or better looks much more attractive. These two have met 12 times in the various Modus events and Sherrock has only won two of those matches, and in both of them David Evans had absolute mares on his doubles, which really is unlike him.
Nine of their meetings have been over this nine leg distance and only one of Evans’ wins have come in a deciding leg, so basically what we have seen when these two meet is that if Evans is anything like reliable on his doubles over this distance he wins, and wins well. This match is Fallon’s last and when you’re on first these can be pretty long days so it wouldn’t be a complete surprise if she is a little weary by this time. Even if she isn’t this is all about Evans hitting doubles and although he wasn’t spectacular at doing it last week, with a bit of rust shaken off I’ll take him to be more effective here.
Tips
WON – Back D.Evans (-1.5 legs) to beat F.Sherrock for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
Back him here:
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