Another week of action begins in the Icons of Darts on Monday when six more players line up for a daily title and to keep themselves in a competitive environment while the wait for the lower levels of the game to come out of lockdown continues.
We saw a great week of darts last week, which further emphasises that the best of nine leg format is the way to go. Some big names are taking a break this week but there is a competitive feel about the first pool on Monday.
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.
Saturday Recap
We were treated to the tightest group there has been in the Icons of Darts on Saturday when three wins were enough to win the title on a day when just two points separated the six players. David Evans was the man with the best leg difference of the three on six points with him coming ahead of Ritchie Edhouse and Mark Webster, the latter wasting a great chance to win the group having won his first three matches before losing the last two. Mike Warburton was fourth with Andy Jenkins fifth and Scott Mitchell last.
It was a losing day for us on Saturday and a bit of an annoying one as our 25/1 group winner bet on Warburton finishing a win short but he lost two of his three matches in a deciding leg which made it hard to take. It didn’t get a lot better when our first match bet went down when Andy Jenkins was unable to beat Mark Webster let alone cover the handicap against him. Some losses were recovered when Ritchie Edhouse once again beat Scott Mitchell.
Monday Line Up
When you look at the line up on paper, although all six men are known to us in this tournament, you’d have to say it is a weak one overall. That might just make it nice and competitive though. Jarred Cole is the favourite to win the group with the bookmakers. They think Scott Marsh will be refreshed from a week or so off to be his closest challenger, while another returning player, Diogo Portela, is the third favourite.
We have two more players coming back into the fold on Monday as well. Adam Huckvale hasn’t been seen for a while and struggled to be competitive when he was. Keelan Kay is also back for another go and he’ll have to have found much more from his game since he was last involved in the competition. The other man in the field on Monday is the BDO star Dave Parletti, who should be tuned in having also competed last week.
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Outright Betting
I was on Jarred Cole towards the end of last week in a much stronger group than this one is and although we’re not getting the 12/1 prices on him to come out on top, given the opposition he is going to come up against, the 3/1 is still perfectly acceptable. I just don’t see where Cole gets beaten here because he is the most consistent scorer of the lot and as I’ve highlighted recently his finishing is a lot better than it was when the format was the best of seven.
I look at the other five men and while I’ve liked what I’ve seen of Scott Marsh, he hasn’t been the most consistent and although Diogo Portela is competent he has the same problem. I’ve seen little from Adam Huckvale, Keelan Kay or Dave Parletti that suggests either of them can pick up four wins which are likely to be needed to top this group. The 3/1 looks skinny in comparison to last week but I actually think Cole is a stronger favourite than that. I’m on.
Match Betting
I’ll go with the one match bet to get the two days underway, one which comes midway through the morning as Scott Marsh takes on Dave Parletti in a match I expect Marsh to win with a bit in hand. To be fair to Parletti, when he’s been good in this competition he’s been tough to beat but we’ve not seen that nearly enough from him which is a concern. Marsh generally plays to a high standard and while he has a habit of losing deciding legs, his general play has been more consistent than Parletti’s.
Parletti has only won eight of his 30 matches in the Icons competition and almost a quarter of his losses have been 5-0. This is his first match of the day so you’ve got to think he might take a while to get up to speed. He has only won two of his six opening matches and one of those was against Jose Justicia with a 76.50 average. That isn’t going to cut it here. Marsh has the early shift on Monday so by the time this one comes along he should be nicely into his work. I think he can win this no worse than 5-3.
Tips
Back J.Cole to win Group 1 for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
WON – Back S.Marsh (-1.5 legs) to beat D.Parletti for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betfair
Back him here:
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