Mission Recap – De Decker Reaches First Euro Tour Final

Mission Recap – De Decker Reaches First Euro Tour Final

Mike De Decker broke new ground on the European Tour with a run to the final of the Belgian Darts Open at the weekend.

In his first tournament on home soil since joining Team Mission, ‘The Real Deal’ delighted his home crowd at the Oktoberhallen, in Wieze, as he appeared in his maiden final on the European Tour.

After edging past Thomas Lovely 6-5 in the first round, De Decker posted a 100 average and hit five 180s as he saw off the world number one Luke Humphries 6-4 to advance to the final day.

On Sunday, De Decker continued his breakthrough run with a 102 average in beating Martin Schindler 6-3, before firing in a 170 checkout on his way to a 6-4 victory against Gerwyn Price in the quarter-finals.

In his first European Tour semi-final, ‘The Real Deal’ fought back from 6-4 down to beat Ross Smith 7-6 and progress to a final showdown with the reigning world champion Luke Littler.

‘The Nuke’ proved too strong on this occasion, averaging 102 and hitting 8 of his 15 attempts at doubles to run out an 8-5 winner in a clash which saw the pair hit 12 180s between them.

The first European Tour event of the season saw six players from Team Mission in action, with the reigning European champion Ritchie Edhouse picking up wins against Owen Bates (6-4) and Nathan Aspinall (6-5) to make the final day.  ‘Madhouse’ was knocked out in a last-leg decider by Dave Chisnall in the last 16.

Wessel Nijman survived a late fightback from Francois Schweyen in round one to win 6-5, before bowing out to Jonny Clayton in a deciding leg the next day. Cam Crabtree lost 6-4 to the five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld on his European Tour debut, whilst James Hurrell and Ryan Joyce also fell at the first hurdle.

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The PDC ProTour season continued with a double-header of Players Championship events in Leicester this week.

On Tuesday, Mike De Decker backed up his Belgian Darts Open final with a run to the semi-finals of Players Championship 5, where he lost out 7-5 to the eventual champion Joe Cullen.

Madars Razma followed suit with a semi-final run the next day in Players Championship 6. The Latvian number one defeated Michael Smith, Gary Anderson and Stephen Bunting on his way to the final four, where he was stopped by Gian van Veen.

Alan Soutar struck perfection with his first nine-dart leg on the PDC tour yesterday. The new Mission player-ambassador hit a nine darter during his first-round clash with Luke Littler in Players Championship 6.

Elsewhere, Martin Lukeman made the last 16 of Players Championship 5 and Stephen Burton and Ryan Joyce also reached the fourth round the next day in Players Championship 6.

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Ryan Joyce was the top performer for Team Mission at the recent UK Open in Minehead.

‘Relentless’ picked up wins against former UK Open champion Andrew Gilding (10-8) and Danny Lauby (10-3), before being knocked out by the world number one Luke Humphries in the last 16.

Madars Razma, Alan Soutar, Stephen Burton and Dylan Slevin also made it through to the second day of action. For the Irishman Slevin it was his best run in a PDC major to date, with his Minehead campaign ending in the last 32 after losing in a last-leg decider to Martin Schindler.

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Robyn Byrne boosted her chances of a return to the Women’s World Matchplay this summer after reaching a second Women’s Series final of the year on Sunday.

The Irishwoman enjoyed a run to the final of Event 8 in Leicester, where she was beaten by the women’s world champion Beau Greaves.

Byrne also made the quarter-finals of Event 5, losing out to the eventual champion Kirsi Viinikainen, and now sits fifth in the Women’s World Matchplay qualifying race with two weekends of events left to go.

Rhian O’Sullivan’s best run of the weekend came in Event 5 where she reached the quarter-finals. The reigning Dutch Open champion sits in 11th place in the race to Blackpool, with the top eight after Event 12 qualifying for the Women’s World Matchplay.

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Tavis Dudeney celebrated his 21st birthday at the weekend with a visit to the Isle of Man, where he reached the semi-finals of the Isle of Man Open.

The reigning WDF boys world champion Archie Self made the quarter-finals in the same event and also picked up ranking points with a pair of last 16 runs in the Isle of Man Classic and Masters competitions.

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Mission Academy players continue to make their mark in the ADC Vault events with Archie Self, Riley Emery and Addison Hefferon all winning titles in recent weeks.

Self, 15, has won a trio of Vault events held in Reading and Newbury over the last fortnight, including a 107 average in one of the finals.

Emery, 13, picked up a pair of Vault wins in Stone and Stoke with the latter one seeing the teenager beat former PDC tour card holder Mark Frost in the final.

Hefferon, 10, won his first Vault title at the Kempston Conservative Club, in Bedford, last week.

The newest signing to the Academy topped his group without dropping a single leg, before twice coming from a leg behind to win 3-2 in his quarter-final tie with Lucas Swales. Hefferon then beat Chris Dawkins and Joel Salerno (both 3-1) to pick up his maiden Vault title.

Picture: Jenny Segers/PDC Europe

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