Mission Recap - Academy Trio Secure Places On JDC Advanced Tour

Mission Recap - Academy Trio Secure Places On JDC Advanced Tour

Six Mission Academy players will be competing on the JDC Advanced Tour in 2025 following the conclusion of JDC Q-School yesterday.

A record-breaking field of close to 200 players took part in this year's JDC Q-School in Coventry over the weekend, with 13 spots on the organisation’s premier circuit – the Advanced Tour – up for grabs.

The newly crowned WDF boys world champion Archie Self, Jack Marshall and Daniel Stephenson already had their tour cards for the 2025 season, with a strong contingent of players from the Mission Academy aiming to join them.

Lex Paeshuyse, the 2024 JDC world champion, and Slovakia’s Dominik Kocik booked their places outright on the Advanced Tour by winning Events 3 and 4 at Q-School yesterday.

Belgium’s Paeshuyse, 13, fought back from 3-1 down to defeat Jayden Walker 4-3 in the Event 3 final, before 15-year-old Kocik got the better of Lee Bradshaw 4-2 in the decider of Event 4.

The remaining tour cards to play on the Advanced Tour went to the next highest ranked players on the Order of Merit, with Scotland’s Kyle Davidson claiming the last spot ahead of Jake Hobbs.

The Mission Academy duo both sat on six points each at the end of the weekend, with Davidson (+27) just finishing above Hobbs (+26) on the next tie breaker on leg difference.

India’s Aryaveer Chokhani made the trip over to the UK to compete at Q-School and finished on five points. ‘The Explosion’ caught the eye with a run to the semi-finals in Event 1 on Saturday.

Riley Emery picked up four points over the two days of action, which included a run to the last eight in Event 3 on Sunday.

Graham Hall and Thomas Banks both made a quarter-final during the opening weekend of the 2025 PDC Challenge Tour in Milton Keynes.

Teenager Banks reached his second Challenge Tour quarter-final in less than six months, averaging 95 in a 5-4 victory over Daniel Astbury in the last 16 of Event 3, before losing out in a final-leg decider to Jimmy van Schie in the next round.

Meanwhile, former Challenge Tour title winner Hall appeared in the quarter-finals of Event 5. ‘G Man’ averaged 96 in a 5-3 success against Daniel Klose in the last 16, before losing to the eventual champion Stefan Bellmont by the same scoreline in the last eight.

Mission’s player development manager Darryl Fitton got to the final day of ‘Legends Week’ at the MODUS Super Series in Portsmouth last week.

‘The Dazzler’ picked up wins against Chris Mason, Conan Whitehead and Richie Burnett to finish third in Group B, which helped him to qualify for the six-player finale on Saturday.

Fitton’s run ended with defeats to Neil Duff and Richie Howson in Group 2 of the finals, with Howson going on to beat Steve Beaton in the final to lift the title.

 

Rhian O’Sullivan opened her title account for 2025 with a victory in the WDF-ranked Las Vegas Classic women’s singles yesterday.

The Welsh captain, who turns 44 today, did not drop a single leg on her way to the final, before coming through a nail-biting decider against Japan’s Sayuri Nishiguchi.

O’Sullivan took out a 120 to level the final at two-legs apiece, only for her opponent to win two of the next three legs to move 4-3 up and on the brink of the title.

However, Nishiguchi would spurn match darts in both of the next two legs and O’Sullivan made her pay the price, taking the last two legs to complete a comeback victory.

The previous day O’Sullivan had missed championship darts of her own in losing 5-4 to Deta Hedman in the women’s singles final of the Las Vegas Open.

The two runs have helped O’Sullivan climb up to number two in the WDF women’s world rankings, only behind the reigning world champion Beau Greaves.

Elsewhere, Dennis Nilsson made the semi-finals of the men’s singles in the Las Vegas Classic, losing out to eventual champion Chris Lim 4-2 in the last four.

Recent Mission Academy signing Peyton Hammond won the Las Vegas Classic boys title, defeating Robert Sutherland 4-1 in the final.

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