We reach the end of another week of action in the Icons of Darts competition brought to us by the team at Modus Darts on Saturday, as six players hit their home oches for the third and final time to battle it out for the daily group title.
We have already seen one man complete a clean sweep of group wins in the first pool of players this week and on Saturday we have another one going for the same achievement, which would be pretty unique it has to be said.
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
Hat-Trick for @wolfiedarts ????
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— MODUS Sports (@ModusDarts180) June 12, 2020
Friday Recap
Martin Adams was that player who completed the clean sweep from pool one this week. He was in danger of not topping the group after he dropped his final game against Jarred Cole but Cole lost his last two leaving Adams in front on eight points. Cole and Boris Koltsov finished on six points while Diogo Portela and Mark Dudbridge managed a couple of wins each with which to end their week. Jose Justicia was bottom again but he did win one match this time.
It was another annoying day for us betting wise. Martin Adams looked to be cruising towards five wins for the day but despite having the throw against Jarred Cole he couldn’t get the job done and that bet fell at the final hurdle. Cole proved too good for Mark Dudbridge too before proceeding to play like a drain for his last match matches to annoy us even more.
Saturday Line Up
We have the second pool of players back for Saturday which means that all eyes will be on Ritchie Edhouse to see if he can follow the lead of Martin Adams and complete a clean sweep of group wins. It remains to be seen who can stop him but if the bookmakers are anything to go by then it is set to be the former world champion Scott Mitchell. If it isn’t him then the biggest challenge could come from another who has lifted the title at Lakeside in Mark Webster.
Mike Warburton knows how to win groups in the Icons of Darts, although his best play has come over the shorter format rather than this one but he could be a threat if given the opportunity while Adam Huckvale showed that he can score heavily on Wednesday. If he can put a slightly strong round of finishing in and Edhouse has a bad day he could contend. Keelan Kay makes up the sextet and looks the weakest player on show.
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Outright Betting
There isn’t anything I like in the outright group betting on Saturday. I haven’t seen anything to suggest that Ritchie Edhouse won’t win again but I’m no huge rush to back him at 11/8 I have to admit. He is the most likely winner though unless Scott Mitchell can find his best darts and give him something to think about. He would have to do that though because he hasn’t been particularly great this week, and has actually looked disinterested at times.
Mark Webster won a group last Saturday so it wouldn’t be the biggest shock in the world if he wins here but he’s priced at 6/1 which is only about right. Maybe there is an ounce of value but not a whole lot. I can’t say I like any of the other three from an outright standpoint so the question for me is whether I want to back Edhouse. I’m in no rush at the prices so I’ll leave the group alone for the final day.
Match Betting
I will make up for that in the match betting though. I’m going with two bets on Saturday and the first of them is on Mark Webster to cover a 1.5 leg handicap against Keelan Kay. Webster has won the last seven meetings between these two and since the format has gone up to the best of nine he has five straight wins and only one of them has gone to a deciding leg, which was when Webster was 5/18 on his doubles which is actually rare for the Welshman. Keelan Kay has struggled throughout the Icons of Darts stuff and the biggest issue he might have here is earlier this week he played well against Webster, averaged 95, which is extremely rare for the youngster, and still lost 5-3. This is the first match of the day for Kay whereas Webster will be nicely into his work. Kay has lost his last four opening matches and in all he’s lost 15 of his last 16 matches. Four of those have gone to a deciding leg but confidence can’t be high. Webster should ease to victory here.
Mike Warburton has had a couple of good wins over Adam Huckvale this week and I’ll back him to complete a hat trick on Saturday. Huckvale has a lot to find on their meetings so far. Warby won 5-3 on Tuesday and averaged more than 10pts more than Huckvale. Huckvale was 3/6 on his doubles that day so he got totally outscored. It was even more emphatic on the scoreboard for Warburton on Thursday. He won 5-1 and missed a load of doubles himself but still had 7.5pts on Huckvale on the averages. Huckvale doesn’t seem to be able to keep up with the Welshman and his finishing isn’t superior to him either. 8/11 on Warburton is still a bit big based on the week so far.
Tips
Back M.Webster (-1.5 legs) to beat K.Kay for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
Back M.Warburton to beat A.Huckvale for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with Coral
Back them here:
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