The Icons of Darts week draws to a close on Thursday when the second pool of players grace our screens for the third and final time. It is only the second time we’ve seen them this week but this is a split week after the Summer Series towards the end of last week.
We’ve seen five decent groups from the two pools of players involved in this split week setup and there is nothing to suggest we’ve not going to get even more of the same over the course of what looks a promising day on Thursday.
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 #IconsofDarts
A clean sweep for @KeelanKay180 ?? pic.twitter.com/ttwP4nYGLT
— MODUS Sports (@ModusDarts180) July 15, 2020
Wednesday Recap
We got a major shock on Wednesday when Keelan Kay came out on top of the group. Heading into the day we thought it would be a straight battle between Jarred Cole and Scott Marsh. There had been no sign of life from Keelan Kay really but he didn’t just win the group, he won all five matches in a special performance on the day. Cole won four out of his five matches to come second with Marsh finishing third on three wins. There were a pair of wins for Diogo Portela, one for Dave Parletti and it was the turn of Adam Huckvale to go winless.
Sadly it was a small and annoying loss for us on the day. The loss came because our bet on Jarred Cole to win the group was one which hit the crossbar. Never in a month of Sundays would I have foreseen Kay winning all five matches so that was one which got away. Most of the losses were clawed back when Scott Marsh demolished Diogo Portela, comfortably covering the handicap in a routine 5-1 win.
Thursday Preview
We are back with the players that we have seen in the last two Tuesdays and it is the former world champion Mark Webster who will be defending the title after his five wins gave him the group when these players last graced their home oches. Despite that though, it is David Evans and Ritchie Edhouse who are favourites to win the title and are expected to battle it out for the group win, even though neither were anywhere near their best on Tuesday.
Andy Jenkins was actually the man who came second on Tuesday and the former PDC star will be looking to go one better and finish his week with a group title. Stephen Burton has been showing better signs over the last couple of outings but just lacks that ounce of consistency needed to top the group. He’ll hope to show that here. John Brown hasn’t really been competitive in terms of threatening a group title in his short Icons of Darts existence. He’ll be out to change that on Thursday.
Special Offer
OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH 888SPORT AND BET £10 TO GET £30 IN FREE BETS PLUS A £10 CASINO BONUS! PERFECT OFFER TO USE ON THIS TOURNAMENT! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO JOIN. USE CODE 30F. NEW ACCOUNTS ONLY. 18+ T&Cs apply (See image for significant terms). Gamble Aware.
Outright Betting
I’ve not had a huge amount of luck in this group having taken Andy Jenkins to win it on Tuesday only for him to come second to Mark Webster, who prior to doing so hadn’t really looked like winning all five matches. Jenkins only won three matches over the course of the day though and he has this annoying habit of beginning days well and fading away, especially when he’s on the early shift like he is on Tuesday.
That is enough of a concern to allow me to swerve him and I’m not sure I fancy anyone else to beat the main two. That sounds silly given that Mark Webster won all five matches on Tuesday but I’m just not convinced we’ll see that from him again. At the same time, I’m not convinced that we will see David Evans and Ritchie Edhouse as bad again as they were cumulatively on Tuesday. Usually when these groups come along a price naturally jumps out at me. That isn’t the case here which is probably a good sign to swerve it.
Match Betting
I said on Tuesday that this group is not easy when it comes to match betting because the main two are so heavily weighted when it comes to the odds, but they have shown a few too many frailties to trust either at short odds or on handicaps. That said, the outsiders are no more reliable and you have to catch them on a good day which requires a bit of guesswork, something I don’t like to use too often. That takes me back to the bet I had success with on Tuesday.
That was over 3.5 180s between Ritchie Edhouse and David Evans. Even though this line was doubled between the two on Tuesday, the line has remained the same and the odds are still respectable at 10/11. Evans alone in their last three meetings has hit four, four and six 180s but there aren’t many matches where Edhouse doesn’t contribute to the 180 scoring. They hit seven between them in the second match of the day on Tuesday. They meet much later on Thursday when both men should be nicely up to speed and get into their work so in theory the maximums should flow equally as well. I’ll take the over here.
Tips
WON – Back R.Edhouse vs D.Evans – Over 3.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back it here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020
