We head into the second half of the latest week of the Icons of Darts event and as we move closer to Saturday each match is carrying extra importance, as once again five players continue to battle it out in their homes for our entertainment.
After the mess of Monday, the standard in this competition has risen accordingly and we should get another competitive and high quality afternoon of darts as four men battling it out for top spot overall are on show.
The Format
Each day from Monday to Saturday five men will battle it out in a round robin group with the overall champion being determined on Saturday May 2. Matches will see the players compete over the best of 9 legs with each of them at home in front of a webcam throwing at their own individual dartboards. Scores can be found on Dart Connect and the tournament will be streamed on the bookmaker live streaming consoles and for free on Dartslive.tv.
Here’s how the overall Icons Live League table looks after Day Three ??? @reddragondarts #IconsofDarts pic.twitter.com/68TSakvb0t
— MODUS Sports (@ModusDarts180) April 29, 2020
Wednesday Recap
We had another group settled on leg difference on Wednesday as Justin Smith, Jarred Cole and Ritchie Edhouse all finished on three wins each but it was Smith who came out on top courtesy of a couple of huge wins to conclude his day’s play. Edhouse could only win his matches 5-4 so his leg difference was never a factor while a heavy loss to Smith put paid to the chances of Cole. Jose Justicia picked up a solitary win but there was nothing to show for his efforts for Keelan Kay.
It was a hit and miss betting day for us. The first of our two bets won quite comfortably when Jarred Cole got revenge on Keelan Kay, who as I suspected couldn’t keep up his finishing stats and Cole made a significant improvement on his. Unfortunately finishing let us down with our second bet as Ritchie Edhouse missed 11 darts at a double to win 5-2 before eventually winning 5-4, a score which was no use to us.
Thursday Line Up
We see the return of Arron Monk on Thursday after he had his day off with the exception of his catch up match against Justin Smith. Those two will meet again on Thursday because it is Jose Justicia who has his day off after three relatively indifferent days to get his week underway. Jarred Cole will look to extend his lead at the top of the overall table and he’ll be looking to get the better of Ritchie Edhouse and Keelan Kay in doing so, as they are the other two players who will toe their home oches on Thursday.
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Outright Betting
We have seen the table decided on leg difference on all three days so far this week and it would be foolish to think we are going to get anything else on Thursday as we have four players who are all throwing excellent darts who will all fancy their chances of beating the other three, and in turn that is likely to mean nobody wins all four matches over the course of the afternoon. That means we either need some good value to bet or we leave it alone.
As it turns out there is a more than a modicum of value in Jarred Cole. He has won a group this week and lost another on leg difference so the 6/1 on him coming top on Thursday is just too big. If that wasn’t enough reason for it being too big then in all four matches he averaged over 90 on Wednesday. Putting it simply, he is playing very well and if he can avoid a huge defeat along the way there is no reason why with his scoring power he can’t be right in the mix again. I don’t see anyone winning all four matches on Thursday so that 90+ average could lead him to glory once again.
Match Betting
When it comes to the match betting on Thursday, Justin Smith is the man I want to be with and I’m going to take him in a couple of games. I’ve been pretty impressed with him so far this week and I suspect he can come out on top in two matches at least. The first of those is his match against Arron Monk, a man he beat in the final game on Wednesday. Monk is probably the pick of the bunch in this afternoon league but over the last week or so one thing I have noticed is in matches he gets on top early he runs away with it but when he’s under pressure he soon gets wound up and his level drops. That is what happened on Wednesday and Smith has the scoring power and finishing ability to keep him honest on Thursday. You can get 13/10 on Smith who has beaten Monk averaging nearly 97 so the Welshman has to be the call at that price.
Later in the day I expect Smith to do a bit of a job on Keelan Kay. These two have met twice this week and the leg count currently reads 10-1 in the favour of the Welshman, and he hasn’t really played like he can in either of those matches it has to be said. In the 11 legs they have played, Smith has actually only hit seven scores of 140 or more and hasn’t hit a single 180. He’s still won 5-0 and 5-1 and I’m expecting a similarly comfortable score in their third meeting. Kay actually averaged 95 in a 5-0 loss on Wednesday, only the third time he has averaged in the 90s all week. There’s a class gap between these two men and I expect it to be there again on Thursday.
Tips
Back J.Cole to win Group 4 for a 1/10 stake at 7.00 with Coral
Back J.Smith (-1.5 legs) to beat K.Kay for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
Back them here:
Back J.Smith to beat A.Monk for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with William Hill
Back him here:
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