Cameron Menzies won his first PDC ranking title at the 29th Players Championship on Wednesday, defeating Stephen Bunting 8-4 in Leicester.
Menzies has been one of the sport’s standout performers over the past six months and he underlined his progress by winning the £15,000 top prize at the Mattioli Arena.
The Scot beat six TV title winners, including Rob Cross and James Wade, on his way to glory in the East Midlands, which lifted him into the top 10 of the Players’ Championship Medal of Merit.
“I won the ProTour and nobody can take that away from me.” reflected an emotional Menzies, runner-up at the Players Championship on August 19. “I wanted to win this title, I’m absolutely blown away.”
Menzies, who has lost to Jose de Souza and Jacques Labre in the early stages, produced his performance of the day with a third-round victory against Kroos, averaging 107 en route to a 6-3 victory over the 2018 world champion.
In the last 16, he won against Krzysztof Ratajski, recovering from 5-3 down to win, then sealed his victory with a comprehensive 6-2 victory over Wade in the quarter-finals.
Danny Knoppert’s 7-1 thrashing held his charge and booked his place in the final, where he converted back-to-back cashes of 78 and 86 before Bunting responded with a blistering burst of his own.
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Here’s Stephen Bunting’s walk-off during the World Matchplay, where he set the crowd on fire by running them through Titanium.
Bunting missed double 12 to hit a nine-ball in the fifth move, which would have been his fourth of the day, but legs 11 and 12 saw him level on 3 each before Menzies responded with another three-foot lightning to take the lead by 6 : 3.
The Masters champion reduced the arrears with a clinical 120 kill in the 10th leg, only for Menzies to keep his cool in the closing legs to complete a momentous day in his hurling career.
“At one stage I never thought I was good enough to win the ProTour, but I think right now I’m playing the best darts of my life,” Menzies added. “Here I’m playing against the best players in the world and I I feel like when I play I can match them and I never thought I would be able to do that.
“Hopefully this is a stepping stone to a major (title) like Richie (Edhaus) and Mike De Decker have done recently.”
Bunting is still looking for his first ProTour title of 2024 after his sixth runner-up finish of the year. beat Chris Landman by score.
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Mike De Decker believes he needs more experience before playing in the Premier League
Landman moved into the provisional World Championship qualifying places with his run to the last four, which included a nine-dart finish to his fourth-round success against Ross Smith.
The Dutchman also counted out Florian Hempel and Mensur Sujlovic for the semi-finals, where he was joined by compatriot Noppert, who was also a European Championship semi-finalist last weekend.
Knoppert won a decisive thriller against Michael Smith in the last eight as the world No. 2 was in the quarter-finals alongside Wade, Heta and Suljovic.
Elsewhere, Callan Reeds and Riccardo Pietresco joined Landman in landing nine darts on a busy day in Leicester, hitting perfection in wins over Keen Barry and Radek Saganski respectively.
The 2024 PDC ProTour season will conclude with the Players Championship 30 on Thursday as the race for next month’s Ladbrokes Players Championship final reaches its climax.
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Live darts are back! Sky Sports with Grand Slam Darts November 9-17 at Wolverhampton as Luke Humphries looks to defend his title with Luke Littler and Bo Greaves also in action.
The focus then turns to the anniversary and 2025 PDC World Darts ChampionshipStarting on December 15th, as the darts calendar continues to excite throughout the year, you can enjoy the best of the best here live. Sky Sports.
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