Cameron Menzies clinched his maiden PDC rating title with victory in Wednesday’s Gamers Championship 29, beating Stephen Bunting 8-4 in Leicester.
Menzies has been one of many sport’s stand-out performers all through the final six months, and he underlined his progress by capturing the £15,000 prime prize on the Mattioli Area.
The Scot defeated six televised title winners – together with Rob Cross and James Wade – on his method to glory within the East Midlands, which lifts him into the highest 10 on the Gamers Championship Order of Advantage.
“I’ve won a ProTour, and nobody can ever take that away from me,” mirrored an emotional Menzies, a runner-up at Gamers Championship 19 in August. “I wanted to win this title so much; I’m absolutely buzzing. This means so much to me.”
Menzies – having seen off Jose de Sousa and Jacques Labre within the early rounds – produced his efficiency of the day in his third-round victory in opposition to Cross, averaging 107 on his method to a 6-3 success over the 2018 world champion.
He got here via a last-leg decider in opposition to Krzysztof Ratajski within the final 16, recovering from 5-3 all the way down to triumph, then backed up his win with a complete 6-2 win over Wade within the quarter-finals.
A 7-1 demolition of Danny Noppert maintained his cost and booked his spot within the closing, the place he transformed back-to-back 78 and 86 checkouts earlier than Bunting responded with a blistering burst of his personal.
Bunting missed double 12 for a nine-darter in leg 5, which might have been the fourth recorded of the day, however legs of 11 and 12 darts noticed him stage at three apiece earlier than Menzies replied with one other three-leg blitz to guide 6-3.
The Masters champion decreased the arrears with a medical 120 kill in leg 10, just for Menzies to maintain his cool within the closing legs to cap off a landmark day in his darting profession.
“At one stage I never thought I was good enough to win a ProTour, but I believe right now I’m playing the best darts of my life,” Menzies added. “I’m playing against the best players in the world here, and I feel when I’m on my game, I can match them, and I never thought I’d be able to do that.
“Hopefully this can be a stepping stone to profitable a serious Gamers Championship 29: Cameron Menzies beats Stephen Bunting to assert maiden PDC rating title | Darts Information, like Ritchie [Edhouse] and Mike De Decker have executed lately.”
Bunting continues to be trying to find an elusive first ProTour title of 2024, following his sixth runner-up end of the 12 months. The 39-year-old had dispatched World Grand Prix champion De Decker 6-1 within the final 16, edged out Damon Heta within the final eight and swept apart Chris Landman 7-2 within the semi-finals.
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Landman moved into the provisional World Championship qualification locations along with his run to the final 4, which included a nine-dart end in his fourth-round success in opposition to Ross Smith.
The Dutchman additionally accounted for Florian Hempel and Mensur Suljovic in reaching the semi-finals, the place he was joined by his compatriot Noppert – additionally a semi-finalist on the European Championship final weekend.
Noppert gained via a deciding-leg thriller in opposition to Michael Smith within the final eight, because the world No 2 made up the quarter-final line-up alongside Wade, Heta and Suljovic.
Elsewhere, Callan Rydz and Ricardo Pietreczko joined Landman in touchdown nine-darters on an action-packed day in Leicester, attaining perfection in wins over Keane Barry and Radek Szaganski respectively.
The 2024 PDC ProTour season will conclude with Gamers Championship 30 on Thursday, because the race to qualify for subsequent month’s Ladbrokes Gamers Championship Finals reaches its climax.
What dwell darts is subsequent on Sky Sports activities?
Stay darts returns to Sky Sports activities with the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton from November 9-17, as Luke Humphries seems to be to defend his title with Luke Littler and Beau Greaves additionally in motion.
Consideration then turns to the flip of the 12 months and the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship, starting on December 15, because the darts calendar continues to offer pleasure all year long – and you’ll get pleasure from the easiest right here dwell on Sky Sports activities.
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