The fourth day of action in this week of the Icons of Darts sees the second pool of players back on the oche in their own homes as they ramp up their practice by providing us with some entertainment to help pass the lockdown.
We’ve had three pretty good days of darts to get the week underway so from that point of view there is a lot for the seven men in action on Thursday to live up to. A repeat of what they produced on Tuesday would be lovely.
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 pic.twitter.com/mNYUrd0xuF
— MODUS Sports (@ModusDarts180) May 6, 2020
Wednesday Recap
It was another really good day of darts on Wednesday even allowing for the late withdrawal of Fallon Sherrock due to illness. David Evans showed his class with five wins out of six on the day which saw him finish a couple of points ahead of Jarred Cole and the surprise package of the day Jose Justicia, with both men picking up four victories. Martin Adams won three of his six matches and there were a pair of wins for Paul Nicholson and Keelan Kay, who came in late for Sherrock. Ritchie Edhouse went from almost winning the group on Monday to propping it up with just one win on Wednesday.
It wasn’t the day we wanted betting wise. Martin Adams played well in the main on Wednesday but one match he was terrible in was his opener against Paul Nicholson but thankfully Jarred Cole did do the business against ‘The Asset’. Sadly although he beat Jose Justicia he couldn’t get the break of throw we needed early enough and won in a deciding leg which was of no use so it was the first day of losses for us this week, something we’ll hope to recover from on Thursday.
Thursday Line Up
I’ve been trying to work out which of the two pools is the best and I’m coming round to the idea that it is this one. In Arron Monk it has the man who has produced the best darts of anyone so far this week and he’ll be looking to do that again on Thursday. Wessel Nijman was as flat as a pancake on Tuesday and he’ll be out to deliver a much stronger performance here while Jason Askew is another who will start out on Thursday with his eyes on winning the daily title.
Andy Jenkins put up an excellent bid for the crown on Tuesday but fell just a little but short. He’ll be out to go a little better here and the four of them will be looking to keep Scott Mitchell, Mike Warburton and Mark Webster quiet. That trio played well in patches on Tuesday but lacked any consistency. They will all need to find it if they are to be in the mix here.
Special Offer
OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH 888SPORT AND BET £10 TO GET £30 IN FREE BETS PLUS A £10 CASINO BONUS! PERFECT OFFER TO USE ON THIS TOURNAMENT! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO JOIN. USE CODE 30F. NEW ACCOUNTS ONLY. 18+ T&Cs apply (See image for significant terms). Gamble Aware.
Outright Betting
Wessel Nijman was as good as done before he got going on Tuesday but he doesn’t come into the fold until later in the piece on Thursday and when he does enter his first three matches are against Scott Mitchell, Mike Warburton and Mark Webster, the three strugglers on Tuesday, so there is a good chance he can play himself right into the mix before the heavy hitters come in his way. That makes me think he is worth getting on side at 3/1.
With Jason Askew, Arron Monk and Wessel Nijman playing their matches against each other in the last three matches of the day, we might have to wait a while for this group to sort itself out but it would be a surprise to me if the Dutchman is not in the mix come then. We may never know if Nijman was so bad on Tuesday because the amount of darts he has played has caught up with him or because he knew early on that he wasn’t in with a hope. I’m taking a chance on it being the latter and if it is he has shown on plenty of occasions he can still be the one to beat here.
Match Betting
I’ll take a couple of bets over the course of the day and they both involve going against Mike Warburton. The first man I’ll take him on with is Andy Jenkins who beat him 4-0 on Tuesday and who I’m expecting to beat him pretty comfortably on Thursday too. The Welshman won his final match on Tuesday but prior to that he lost his opening five and only won two legs in those matches in the process. More worrying for him were his averages over the course of the day. Bearing in mind these best of 7s often inflate an average, for him to produce 87.80, 84.26, 85.96, 80.90, and 71.38 before a winning average of 85.40 shows up a lack of scoring power. Jenkins doesn’t have that issue and if he clocks his doubles he’ll come through this no worse than 4-2.
Much later in the day Warburton goes up against Arron Monk and I don’t think there is much doubt the Englishman will come out on top in that match but you can bump up the price by backing him to nail the most 180s in beating him. He did that on Tuesday, coming out 4-1 in 180s in a 4-1 win and something similar is likely here. Across the board on Tuesday, Warburton hit just five 180s and only in his last match did he hit more than one. Monk hit 17 in total and is just a much heavier scorer. The 10/11 on Monk to win with the most 180s looks too good to refuse to me.
Tips
Back W.Nijman to win Group 4 for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back A.Jenkins (-1.5 legs) to beat M.Warburton for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betway
Back him here:
Back A.Monk to beat M.Warburton and hit most 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfair
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020
