The latest week of action in the Icons of Darts event brought to us by the team at Modus Darts continues on Thursday when the second pool of players are back on their home oche for their middle day of competitive practice.
We’ve seen some excellent darts so far this week but the first pool of players took it up a level on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see what the second pool of men have up their sleeves to rival it across the course of Thursday.
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 #IconsofDarts
A clean sweep for @KBarry180 ??? pic.twitter.com/bXYRY3dKBb
— MODUS Sports (@ModusDarts180) August 5, 2020
Wednesday Recap
It has been a week of clean sweeps so far. Martin Adams completed that feat on Monday while Andy Jenkins did it on Tuesday and then on Wednesday it was the turn of Keane Barry to catch fire and completely dominate a group which ended with him beating David Evans 5-0 with a 107.36 average. In total over the course of the day Barry dropped just eight legs. Martin Adams won every match except his one against Barry to come second on four points while Evans was forced to settle with three on six points. The other three men all ended their day with one win each with Diogo Portela having the best leg difference to come fourth ahead of Scott Marsh and Jose Justicia.
We were pretty quiet on the betting front on Wednesday but it proved to be a good tactic with some of the insane averages that Keane Barry was throwing out. The bet was on Martin Adams to cover a 1.5 leg handicap in his match against Scott Marsh. The bet looked good at 3-1, not so good when Marsh pulled back to 3-3 and then in good working order again when Adams broke to lead 4-3 and held throw to bring the bet home. That repaired some of the damage of Tuesday and has us looking in the right direction again.
Thursday Line Up
Andy Jenkins was the man who dominated this pool of players on Tuesday and he will not only be looking to defend his title but also remain unbeaten for the week if he can. He’ll have five players itching to deny him both things however. You would think after his performance on Tuesday that Jenkins would be the favourite for this group. That is not the case though as it is Boris Koltsov who despite having a bit of a mare on Tuesday who is the favourite to come out on top.
Mark Webster enjoyed a much better time of it than he showed previously when he returned to the competition on Tuesday and he’ll be out to better that performance. Scott Mitchell was absolutely terrible on Tuesday. Sometimes that sort of thing can be a kick up the backside but it will need to be if he is to push the group title close. Keelan Kay continues to offer up competitive displays without the necessary consistency while Mike Warburton will be making his first appearance of the week after posting several 100+ averages last week.
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Outright Betting
It is hard to go against Andy Jenkins here given that every match he played on Tuesday he had an average of over 90. In some cases that was high 90s and into the 100+ range too so he looks to be in great touch at the moment. There isn’t a whole lot of juice at around 11/4 or 3/1 though because although he controlled the group on Tuesday, we should remember that this is a competitive group and he is unlikely to be that far clear of everyone else here.
Mark Webster is one who might be able to take advantage should anything happen to Jenkins but even he isn’t the most attractive price of all time. I can’t be having Boris Koltsov after a shocking performance on Tuesday and the same applies to Scott Mitchell as well. Keelan Kay doesn’t have the consistency to do it for me and while Mike Warburton was in great form at times last week, the fact he posted three 100+ averages and never won a group highlights his inconsistency. I’ll leave the group betting alone.
Match Betting
I do want to be on Andy Jenkins though and I’ll take him in his match against Scott Mitchell, the penultimate game of the afternoon. Admittedly there is a bit of a risk involved in that motivation can often be questioned this late in the day but Jenkins also plays in the final match of the day so it would need something a little bizarre for him not to still have a chance to win the group when he takes on ‘Scotty Dog’.
There were signs from Mitchell towards the end of last week that he was beginning to deliver some better performances, but there certainly wasn’t many positives to take from his display on Tuesday. Mitchell won’t be that bad again, it is almost impossible to be, but actually in his 5-0 defeat to Jenkins he averaged 90 so he didn’t actually play bad in that match. That is a concern for Mitchell fans and given the way Jenkins is in good touch and Mitchell isn’t quite at the top of his game I’ve got to think Jenkins can keep up his recent run of three wins in four matches against Mitchell, two of which were 5-0. I’ll take Jenkins -1.5 legs here.
Tips
Back A.Jenkins (-1.5 legs) to beat S.Mitchell for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with William Hill
Back him here:
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