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Crabtree Doubles Up On The Challenge Tour

Crabtree Doubles Up On The Challenge Tour

Alex Moss |

A Week In Darts – August 14, 2023 - Crabtree Wins Second Challenge Tour Title

Welcome back to Darts Corner’s round-up of what happened in the world of darts over the last seven days. Rob Cross doubled up on the World Series of Darts by winning the New South Wales Darts Masters, but on the PDC Challenge Tour the titles were spread out amongst five different players. Here’s our look back at a week in darts.

FIVE PLAYERS WIN CHALLENGE TOUR TITLES

The penultimate weekend of the Challenge Tour took place over the weekend, with Events 15-19 being held at the Marshall Arena, in Milton Keynes.

Berry van Peer went into the quintet of tournaments boasting a commanding lead at the top of the Challenge Tour Order of Merit, having already won a joint record four titles this season.

But the Dutchman left Milton Keynes empty handed this time round, with three players clinching their maiden PDC titles, while two others won their second Challenge Tour events.

On Friday, reigning World Masters champion Wesley Plaisier beat Scott Mitchell 5-2 in the Event 15 final, before Darryl Pilgrim opened his account with a 5-1 victory against Andy Boulton in the decider of Event 16. Watch the video below to see The Darting Nerd reacting to Pilgrim's first PDC title win!

Robert Grundy was another first-time winner, beating Christian Kist 5-2 in the final of Event 17, with Cam Crabtree doubling his tally of titles with a victory in the second tournament on the Saturday. Crabtree saw off Switzerland’s Stefan Bellmont 5-2 in the final of Event 18.

The last tournament of the weekend saw Owen Bates add his name to the Challenge Tour roll of honour, as he edged past Plaisier 5-4 in the Event 19 final on Sunday.

The Challenge Tour season concludes with Events 20-24 on October 28-30, with the top two players earning a two-year PDC tour card and a spot in the PDC World Championship in December. Van Peer (£12,800) still holds a strong lead at the top, while Kist (£7,200) has a narrow grip on second spot ahead of Crabtree (£6,975) and Bates (£6,550).

Shop our Berry van Peer collection of darts and flights here.

CROSS COMPLETES DOUBLE DOWN UNDER

Rob Cross wrapped up a clean sweep on the World Series of Darts Down Under with a victory in the New South Wales Darts Masters on Saturday.

‘Voltage’ had won the New Zealand Darts Masters the previous weekend and made it back-to-back titles with an emphatic 8-1 triumph over Damon Heta in the final to scoop the £20,000 top prize.

The world number five started his campaign with a routine 6-2 win against DPNZ qualifier John Hurring in Friday’s first round, before holding off a 100-plus average from Danny Noppert to win a high-quality quarter-final 6-4.

Cross turned on the style with a 109 average as he whitewashed Peter Wright 7-0 in the semi-finals and would go on to drop just one leg in the final against Australia’s number one Heta.

“It feels fantastic. It feels surreal,” Cross reflected. “I’ve really enjoyed my time in Australia and New Zealand, and I’m very grateful.

“I think I’m in a good place after the last couple of weeks. I’m enjoying my darts again.”

Take a look at our collection of Damon Heta darts.

AROUND THE BOARD

The PDC World Championship is only four months away and the race to qualify for the biggest tournament in darts is heating up.

Over in North America, the third weekend of the Championship Darts Corporation (CDC) Pro Tour took place in Canada on Saturday and Sunday.

The Cambridge Newfoundland Club played host to Events 7-9 where Stowe Buntz completed an impressive clean sweep by winning all three tournaments.

The American’s hat-trick of titles has propelled him to second place on the CDC Points Standings, just two points behind the leader Alex Spellman.

Check out our collection of Alex Spellman steel tip and soft tip darts and our range of American-themed darts and accessories.

And finally, have you seen the video of the nine darter being thrown in a pub league?

Footage has emerged in the last week of Jozef Vavrek completing the perfect leg during his recent match in the Bardejov Darts League, in Slovakia.

Vavrek achieved perfection in the sixth leg of his encounter with Mika Frantisek, throwing two 180s followed by a 141 finish, to spark wild celebrations in the pub!

Pictures: PDC

Alex Moss is a content creator for Darts Corner and the co-host of the Weekly Dartscast podcast. Alex co-founded the Weekly Dartscast in 2017 and has helped produce 350+ episodes of the podcast, with their list of previous guests on the show a who’s who in the world of darts.

Alex also writes content for the Darts Corner blog, including the weekly darts news round-ups and how-to guides.

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