The second pool of players for the week come out to play in the Modus Icons of Darts competition on Tuesday, and with lockdown continuing the seven men will all be in their homes bringing us more entertainment throughout the day.
We saw a competitive group on Monday where the standard was below what we had previously seen so there is a lot of expectancy on the men to deliver a much stronger display on Tuesday. With the talent on show that should come naturally.
The Format
Each day from Monday to Saturday seven 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 seven players will play each other once over the best of seven 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 @justinsmithh3 ?? pic.twitter.com/MsFZ5T2xhX
— MODUS Sports (@ModusDarts180) May 11, 2020
Monday Recap
One player came away from the day with five wins and that was Justin Smith, who actually was only one leg away from winning all six matches. He claimed top spot in the group ahead of Boris Koltsov who had four wins to his name. There was then a trio of players who managed three wins. They were Jarred Cole on his only appearance this week, Martin Adams and a little more surprisingly Keelan Kay, while Diogo Portela picked up a pair of wins and there was just the one success for James Hubbard.
It was one of those frustrating days for us on a betting front with Boris Koltsov having an absolute mare against Keelan Kay. Later in the day Jarred Cole beat James Hubbard but a 170 checkout from the Norfolk man denied him the opportunity to cover the handicap and then if that wasn’t enough, Martin Adams only had to hold throw to beat Justin Smith 4-1 and win the group but he was broken, bust 76 to win in the next leg and lost the match allowing Smith to claim top spot. Much work to do for Tuesday.
Tuesday Line Up
I think it is fair to say we have much the better of the two pools of players on Tuesday. One reason for that is because the opening day winner from last week in Arron Monk is back on his oche here. He will be joined by the two real class acts of the Modus competitions so far in Wessel Nijman and David Evans, who have formed something of a rivalry over the last six weeks or so and who will be out to land the first group they compete in this week.
Scott Mitchell ended up going down on leg difference on Saturday and he gets another go to land that elusive top spot here while Adam Huckvale returns from a week off. He is likely to have to up his game on what we’ve seen so far but that isn’t impossible. Paul Nicholson has been a regular in these things but he’s another who needs to find another gear if he’s to be competitive. We also have a debutant in the field in the form of the BDO star Darryl Fitton.
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Outright Betting
This is another one of those tough days to bet on the group outright because there are three players that look sufficiently better than the rest but they all meet each other fairly on in the proceedings. Those players are David Evans, Wessel Nijman and Arron Monk and they will have played each other inside the first five matches of the day. It might be that they all win one each and it is game on but were one to win both their matches they could be away and gone.
Of course if we look at the Saturday table then Scott Mitchell shouldn’t be discounted completely, but he has a habit of starting weeks very slowly and that has to be a concern. It still looks a grind for Paul Nicholson while Adam Huckvale hasn’t yet shown that he could be competitive in this company. Darryl Fitton at his best could give these a run for their money, but we saw in the recent Remote Darts League that consistency is very much an issue with him. If forced to have a bet the 3/1 on Evans looks the place to be but he’s had a week of not playing Monk and Nijman and that’s a concern. I’ll sit the outright out.
Match Betting
I’ll take a couple of bets on handicaps that I’m expecting players to clear comfortably. The first of those is the one which served us well on Saturday in Arron Monk to cover 1.5 legs against Scott Mitchell. These two met three times last week and Monk won 4-0, 4-1 and 4-1 and I would be surprised if there is a lot that changes here. Monk is a hard player to play in this format. He is throwing as soon as he hears the opponent’s third dart hit the board and generally he’s scoring well too so he puts players under pressure. I expect him to continue to outscore Mitchell and as long as Monk is tidy on the doubles this should be another smooth success.
David Evans and Paul Nicholson meet three times last week and Evans won on all three occasions. His first two wins were by 4-1 and 4-2 while the third was 4-3 but in that match Nicholson threw four 180s at Evans and still couldn’t get over the line against him so that doesn’t bode well because he’ll do well to pop in four maximums in a best of 7 on a regular occasion. I don’t think there is any doubt that Evans is the better player of the two at the minute. If he isn’t peppering the 60 he clicks the T19 regularly and his finishing is often right up there. Barring something crazy like those four 180s from Nicholson I don’t see Evans losing more than two legs here.
Tips
Back A.Monk (-1.5 legs) to beat S.Mitchell for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back him here:
WON – Back D.Evans (-1.5 legs) to beat P.Nicholson for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Coral
Back him here:
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