The second pool of players flex their muscles in the Icons of Darts competition on Tuesday with much expected from them as they continue to bid to keep us entertained while we wait for the proper darts to return.
We saw some good action to begin the week with on Monday, and while the cast list lacks the standout quality that the Monday one did on paper, this one looks like being extremely competitive throughout.
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 @low6bet #IconsofDarts
Back-to-back titles for Jenks ?? pic.twitter.com/lNO0xDHmiW
— MODUS Sports (@ModusDarts180) June 22, 2020
Monday Recap
We said going into the opening day of the week that there wasn’t a group winner that would surprise us, such was the strength of the field, but it was one who was priced as an outsider who came through to claim top spot as Andy Jenkins won his second group in succession. He won four of his five matches to finish two points ahead of David Evans, Jarred Cole and Ritchie Edhouse who all picked up three wins. There were two successes for Martin Adams, but after winning her group on Friday it was back down to earth for Fallon Sherrock as she failed to register a win.
Last week was terrible for us from a betting point of view so it goes without saying that we were relieved to open up this week with a winner. We only had the one bet on the day which was for David Evans to cover a 1.5 leg handicap in his match against Fallon Sherrock and although it looked a little iffy when he went 2-1 down, he hit the afterburners on his scoring and won the next four legs to run out a 5-2 winner to get the week off to a good start for us.
Tuesday Line Up
There aren’t as many standout campaigners on show on Tuesday but we do still have two former world champions so it isn’t exactly shabby it should be said. Scott Mitchell dominated his pool last week with two group wins and not being far away from a third, and he is back for more here on Tuesday. Mark Webster is the other former champion of the world toeing his home oche on Tuesday. He wasn’t as good last week so he has a little bit to prove here.
In a first for the Icons of Darts, David Evans is slated to compete on successive days. We’ve not had the fixtures for the remainder of the week so we don’t know if this is a one off or not, but either way he’s sure to be competitive here. Paul Nicholson has been playing some nice stuff over the last week or so and he lines up again as does Stephen Burton who has had a week under his belt and who will be looking for group honours. The final man in the field is Mike Warburton, a man who is no stranger to the Icons of Darts.
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Outright Betting
My gut feeling is that David Evans is the one to be on here but I’m not massively rushing in at 2/1 I have to say. Scott Mitchell looks to be the most obvious danger and I’m not really sure that any of the others are capable of getting in the mix over the course of the five matches. We shouldn’t necessarily write off Mark Webster as it wasn’t long ago that he was winning groups but he was pretty ordinary for the most part last week it has to be said.
Paul Nicholson is a decent price at 9/1 but I saw on his Twitter feed that he has an injury which is causing a little bit of grief so I’m not really interested in taking him. I’m absolutely convinced that Stephen Burton has more to deliver and having had a week in the setup it wouldn’t be a complete surprise if he challenges here. I’m less confident about the chances of Mike Warburton I have to admit. Ultimately though there isn’t a price which reels me in so I’ll sit the group betting out.
Match Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of Tuesday and they come midway through the day bordering on the latter part of it. The first is for Stephen Burton to see off Mike Warburton. Quite simply the doubling of Warburton worries me. It has done for much of his Icons of Darts life and it continues to do so and I can’t forget the fact he failed to get down from 61 with six darts in his hand to deny me a bet a couple of weeks ago. Burton was inconsistent last week but in the main he scored pretty well and he’ll have to go some to be as bad on his doubles as Warby can be. I like Burton in this one.
The other bet I like is for David Evans to cover a 1.5 leg handicap against Mark Webster. I mentioned it last when taking Webster on that his doubling has dropped right off over the last few days and his scoring remains inconsistent. You rarely get either from Evans and we certainly didn’t get it on Monday when he averaged more than 95 in three of his five matches and 92 in another. He was only two legs away from a clean sweep of a very tough group on Monday and I expect him to be firing strongly here. This is a long day for Webster and this is his final game. It would be logical for him not to be at best here. Evans should be and that should be enough to see him win 5-3 or better.
Tips
WON – Back S.Burton to beat M.Warburton for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back him here:
WON – Back D.Evans (-1..5 legs) to beat M.Webster for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
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