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Heta And Dobey Share Players Championship Titles On The ProTour

Heta And Dobey Share Players Championship Titles On The ProTour

Alex Moss |

A WEEK IN DARTS – AUGUST 27, 2024 – HETA AND DOBEY TASTE SUCCESS IN PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP DOUBLE HEADER

The PDC ProTour resumed after a summer break with a double header of Players Championships, whilst two more international qualifiers were confirmed for the PDC World Darts Championship. Here’s our round-up of all the darts action from the last seven days…

HETA AND DOBEY DOUBLE UP ON THE PROTOUR

Damon Heta and Chris Dobey both doubled their title tallies for 2024 with Players Championship victories in Milton Keynes last week.

Australia’s number one Heta, a winner of Players Championship 4 back in February, produced a stunning display to beat Ryan Searle 8-3 in Wednesday’s Players Championship 18 finale.

‘The Heat’ averaged 106.80 in the decider to deny Searle and pick up his second ranking title of the season.

“I’m really stoked about today,” Heta reflected. “I look at my world ranking and my ProTour ranking, and I don’t want to slip. I don’t want to put pressure on myself in other tournaments.

“I’m going to play in everything while I’m here, because I’m not here forever and I’m trying to make a massive impact.

“I’m really pleased with the way I played today. This is a massive bonus for me, and I’m going to keep working hard and keep plugging away.”

On Thursday, Dobey followed up his Players Championship 7 triumph with a second title of the campaign in Players Championship 19.

‘Hollywood’ joined Luke Littler and Heta in becoming the third player to win multiple Players Championship titles this year.

The former Masters champion edged past first-time finalist Cameron Menzies 8-6 in a high-quality contest that saw both players average over 100.

“Cammy is up there with some of the biggest scorers in the game,” Dobey said.

“I was on the receiving end of that scoring yesterday, so it was nice to get a little bit of payback today!

“I’ve known Cammy for many years now. I’ve known his potential and how good he is for a long time, and I’m not surprised he’s coming here and doing what he’s doing.”

DE GRAAF AND LABANAUSKAS SEAL ALLY PALLY RETURNS

Jeffrey de Graaf and Darius Labanauskas have secured spots in the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship after finishing in the top two on the PDC Nordic & Baltic Tour.

Dutch-born Swede de Graaf, who finished second in the rankings last year before winning back his PDC tour card at Q-School in January, went one better this time round as he topped the Order of Merit after winning three titles from the 10 events.

The season concluded with the last two tournaments in Reykjavik, Iceland and saw Andreas Harrysson and Labanauskas win the titles.

Sweden’s Harrysson defeated Labanauskas 6-5 in the Event 9 final, before Lithuania’s top star Labanauskas went all the way the next day, beating Teemu Harju 6-4 in the Event 10 decider to pip Johan Engstrom to second spot in the rankings.

For Labanauskas it will be a sixth appearance at the sport’s showpiece event at Alexandra Palace, having qualified for five straight years from 2019 to 2023.

‘Lucky D’ reached the quarter-finals in 2020 and the following year achieved perfection with a nine-dart leg during his second-round game against Mike De Decker.

GATES STRENGTHENS GRIP ON CDC TOP SPOT

Leonard Gates extended his lead at the top of the CDC Tour rankings after winning his third title of the season in New York at the weekend.

The penultimate weekend of North America’s leading darts tour took place in Niagara Falls last week and saw three different winners across the three events.

Gates saw off the challenge of Adam Sevada 7-4 in an all-American final of Event 9, before Jim Long defeated Jacob Taylor 7-3 in a clash of the Canadians to decide the winner of Event 10.

Two Americans contested the final of Event 11 with Alex Spellman getting the better of Stowe Buntz 7-4 to clinch his first title of the campaign.

The CDC season concludes with Events 12-14 in Brownsburg, Indiana from September 20-22.

Spots in the PDC World Darts Championship are on the line with the top American and Canadian in the final rankings both qualifying, along with the next highest-ranked player.

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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