We head towards the end of the first week of what is being called ‘Phase 4’ of the Icons of Darts on Thursday as the second pool of players are back in action for the penultimate time as they continue to keep us with live darts while we wait for the sport to return later in the month.
This group was dominated by David Evans on Tuesday and it will be interesting to see what the other five men have to offer as another group title is up for grabs on what will hopefully be a decent day of darts.
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.
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Wednesday Recap
We thought it was a day to take on the youngster Keane Barry, and that was how it proved as the veteran in the field, Martin Adams, was the only man to win four matches and pip Barry to the group title. There were three wins for the Irishman which was good enough for him to come second, ahead of Boris Koltsov on leg difference. There were a couple of wins for Jarred Cole and Dave Parletti while Jose Justicia had to wait until the final match of the day before picking up his only win.
You had to be an early bird to watch our bet for the day as it came in the opening match, but if you were logged onto the stream in time you were nicely rewarded for doing so. We went with over 2.5 180s in the match between Keane Barry and Jarred Cole and Cole himself hit three even though he lost 5-3. Barry hit two 180s himself so that bet was never in danger. Unfortunately Cole couldn’t get in the mix to win the group but it was a profitable day despite that.
Thursday Line Up
David Evans is almost the poster boy of the Icons of Darts since Wessel Nijman disappeared off the face of the earth and he is back in action on Thursday and is the favourite to win the group once again. After five wins on Tuesday it is hard to dispute that but Ritchie Edhouse will be out to show that he is capable of overcoming the challenge of Evans and run away with another group title to add to his collection.
There are four veterans looking to get their hands on the title over the course of Thursday as well, two of whom are former world champions. Scott Mitchell is the first of those but his form looks to have completely disappeared recently. Mark Webster is the other world champion in the field but he doesn’t really look like he’s at it either at the minute. That might present an opportunity for Andy Jenkins or Mike Warburton to be competitive.
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Outright Betting
I don’t find this group a particularly easy one to bet on I have to say. I say that because it is hard to go against David Evans, and it might be that I reflect on this at the end of play and realise that 7/4 on him winning the group was a bit of a gift but it feels more competitive than that. The big problem is that there isn’t really a price that jumps out at me from the other five men. They all look pretty reflective of the chances of the player they are attached to.
Andy Jenkins has been on my radar for a bit recently but he developing this annoying habit of getting himself into a good position with a good start to his day and then finishing badly to undo all of his hard work. If he can just see out the whole day then the 6/1 on him could offer a bit of value but whether he will or not is guesswork. Nothing else really floats my boat so I’ll sit the group out and wait for better value to appear.
Match Betting
I’ll go with one bet over the course of what looks a tricky day actually on Thursday. It comes relatively early in the day as Ritchie Edhouse takes on Scott Mitchell. Edhouse has the early shift so this is actually his third match of the day, even though it is only the fourth game on the schedule. The positive of that is that he should be fully into his work by this point and ready to throw his best darts. Scott Mitchell starts off his day here so he might need a leg or two to get up to speed which could be significant.
Since the format for this competition has changed back up to the best of nine legs these two have met on four occasions and Edhouse has actually won all four matches. The first three of those were when Mitchell was in pretty impressive form. I wouldn’t say that Mitchell has an issue playing Edhouse, but clearly the heavy scoring of Edhouse puts pressure on the former Lakeside champion. It isn’t as though Edhouse has been perfect on the doubles either. He has hit 5/12, 5/15 and 5/11 in three of those wins so there might even be more to come from him. I think the 1.85 about an Edhouse win look more than fair to me.
Tips
WON – Back R.Edhouse to beat S.Mitchell for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Coral
Back him here:
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