The first pool of players in the Icons of Darts event conclude their week on Friday and all eyes will be on Martin Adams to see if he can complete a clean sweep of group wins for the week when six men once again take to their home oches for our entertainment.
Adams has completely dominated this pool of players so far this week and if he can win the group for a third time it would be quite an achievement. He has five players itching for a slice of the group winning pie though so we should get a competitive 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 @low6bet #IconsofDarts
2/2 for @RitchieEdhouse so far this week ?? pic.twitter.com/4Zn7MIS4wF
— MODUS Sports (@ModusDarts180) June 11, 2020
Thursday Recap
It is not just Martin Adams who is dominating his pool this week, Ritchie Edhouse is doing the same and he won the second pool once again on Thursday, running out a winner with four wins from his five matches. He finished ahead of a trio of players on three wins. They were the experienced trio of Mike Warburton, Scott Mitchell and Mark Webster. There was a brace of victories for Adam Huckvale and it was the turn of Keelan Kay to go winless for his work on Thursday.
It wasn’t the day we wanted from a betting viewpoint. We only went with one which was for Mark Webster to hit more 180s than Adam Huckvale in the final match but even though Webster went into it with a chance of winning the group he saved his worst for the encounter and ran into Huckvale who annoyingly for us saved his best for it so that bet never really got off the ground.
Friday Line Up
Although there are six men on show on Friday there is only one that really stands out and that is the three-time Lakeside winner Martin Adams who bids to win this group for a third time in succession. He has won nine of his 10 matches this week and appears very much the man to beat. Boris Koltsov is slated in as the man most likely to stop him and the Russian will be looking to up his game accordingly to have a chance of doing that.
Mark Dudbridge would have been disappointed with his return on Wednesday and he has one last chance to put that right on Friday. Jarred Cole is another one who has been disappointing all week so far. He will be looking to deliver a better showing. Diogo Portela offered a very competitive outing on Wednesday and if he can build on that he’ll be in line for a high finish. Jose Justicia gave one of his best displays so far and has something to build on.
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Outright Betting
I’m going with the same outright bet that I took on Friday which is Martin Adams to win all five of his matches. I’m going with that because once again I see this as a two horse race and although Adams could still win the group if he loses to Boris Koltsov, given the Russian has been a little inconsistent in recent times, the 5/4 isn’t really a price that justifies backing Wolfie to win the group when there is a good chance that if he beats Koltsov in the opening match he’ll go unbeaten.
Adams did lose one match on Wednesday which was against Diogo Portela which was a big surprise but Portela played out of his skin from 3-0 down and I’m not sure we’ll be seeing that standard from him here. Jarred Cole and Mark Dudbridge aren’t finishing well enough to compete while Jose Justicia is making up the numbers. Adams plays Koltsov in the first match of the day, like he did on Monday when he won all five matches. A win there opens the door to a 5/1 clean sweep.
Match Betting
I will also go with the same bet I took on Wednesday in the match betting as well. Jarred Cole has done nothing to impress me this week and his finishing remains a concern. It was bad enough on Monday when he was finishing at 24.4% but he was even worse than that on Wednesday, finding the double with 13 of his 55 attempts. You could sort of overlook that if he was scoring well enough to earn extra shots at a double but he isn’t really.
Mark Dudbridge wasn’t as good overall on Wednesday as he was on Monday but he was still too good for Cole, seeing him off 5-2 and I’m expecting another comfortable win for the former world finalist. Dudbridge is scoring well and there is still an improvement to come from him there. He isn’t finishing amazingly but he’s getting the job done, and with the way Cole is finishing there is every chance Dudbridge will get all the chances he needs to get the five legs here. Until I see a bit of confidence from Cole on the doubles I’ll look to take him on. Dudbridge can complete the clean sweep on him here.
Tips
Back M.Adams to win all 5 matches for a 2/10 stake at 6.00 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back M.Dudbridge to beat J.Cole for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back him here: