The second pool of players are back in action at the Icons of Darts on Thursday when they compete in their middle group of three from their home oches to keep our darting fix very much on the go while we wait for the full schedule of the sport to return.
We were treated to the closest group battle in the history of the Icons of Darts when these six men took to their home stage for the first time this week on Tuesday, and if we get anything like that again on Thursday we should be treated to a wonderful 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.
Confirmation of today’s final league table ✅ @reddragondarts #IconsofDarts
Congratulations to @Fsherrock ?? pic.twitter.com/oOds7XO4PI
— MODUS Sports (@ModusDarts180) July 29, 2020
Wednesday Recap
Without sugar coating it, it has to be said the standard on Wednesday was pretty ordinary although because there wasn’t a standout player the group remained competitive but there were far too many averages below 80 over the course of the day for the standard to be considered anything but poor. That is to take nothing away from Fallon Sherrock who landed top spot with four wins from her five matches. She was the only player to win four matches, with John Brown and Keelan Kay the two players to pick up three wins. There were a pair of wins for Jose Justicia and Scott Marsh with Diogo Portela once again bringing up the rear with one win from five.
It was the first day to forget for us this week from a betting standpoint. We went in with two bets and both of them lost. Scott Marsh never threatened to win the group which was a surprise after he dominated it on Monday and despite leading 3-1, John Brown picked his match against Jose Justicia to play some of his worst stuff and proceeded to lose 5-3 so there is plenty to do on Thursday and beyond.
Thursday Line Up
This second pool of players really is a high quality and competitive line up, as we saw on Tuesday. Boris Koltsov will be the man looking to defend the title, one which he won by the narrowest of margins to kick off the week. Mike Warburton was the player who lost out courtesy of the head to head between him and Koltsov and he is back for another shot at the Russian. It will be Martin Adams who will be the favourite to win the group in most places.
Keane Barry was probably the most disappointing of the players on show on Tuesday and he will be out to show that he is one of the brightest talents in the game over the course of Thursday. Scott Mitchell is another player who disappointed on Tuesday even though he was in the logjam on six points. He has another shot to show his best form here. Stephen Burton is beginning to knock on the door of success. He makes up the group here.
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Outright Betting
I didn’t take a bet in the outright market for this pool on Tuesday and if anything watching it play out has only muddied the waters. One thing it did do was suggest we shouldn’t be averse to siding with an outsider, although I suggested on Tuesday that you could make a case for all six men, which is exactly how it proved. That makes me think the 11/1 on Mike Warburton and 13/1 on Stephen Burton could be a shade of value.
In saying that though, it is hard to believe that Martin Adams and in particular Keane Barry will be as poor again having had a day to blow away the cobwebs that might have surfaced during the World Matchplay. In fact based on that the 3/1 on Barry might look big come the end of the day and we might not be seeing that price on him again but the whole day on Tuesday just threw up even more questions than answers so I’ll sit the day out.
Match Betting
I’ll make up for that with a couple of bets in the match betting on Thursday, the first of which is a repeat of the bet which won for me on Tuesday which sees Stephen Burton facing Mike Warburton. I remain convinced that Burton is the better player of these two and as long as he has no immense mares on his doubles he will come out on top when they meet more often than not. Burton won the match between the two on Tuesday 5-3 and didn’t play all that well apart from a couple of legs. He averaged a shade under 85 overall and was only 5/17 on the doubles without hitting a single 180. There is more to come from him and if it comes here he should have an even more comfortable time of it.
The other bet I’ll take is for Martin Adams to see off Boris Koltsov. It was one of Wolfie’s worst days in the competition for a while on Tuesday but he still had the better of Koltsov and you’ve got to think that he is only going to be better on Thursday, which is ominous for the Russian. Generally when these two meet over this distance it is Adams who wins. The only time Koltsov beat Adams he hit six 180s in the process and performances like that don’t come along too often. There is always that nagging feeling that Koltsov is going to miss doubles and so I’ll go with the history here and take Adams to come out on top.
Tips
Back S.Burton to beat M.Warburton for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with 888sport
WON – Back M.Adams to beat B.Koltsov for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with 888sport
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