Dave Chisnall won the first European Tour Event of 2023 after beating Number 1 Seed Luke Humphries 8-5 to win the Baltic Sea Darts Open, picking up £30,000 in Kiel.
Chizzy wins his fourth Euro Tour in the PDC and makes it two victories in two years after also winning the Belgian Darts Open in 2022. The Englishman included 8 180s in the Final and averaged 101.31 in beating the World No 5.
The St Helens-born thrower played his best darts during his last 16 clash with former World Champion Gerwyn Price, winning 6-4 with an average of 107.04.
The Iceman scored the best of the two players on the oche, missing just the three darts at double and averaging 108.29 over the ten legs played. Both players included ton-plus checkouts with the newly crowned champion hitting the highest off 116 in the seventh leg.
Price and Chisnall found 15 maximums between them in the final match of the Third Round, with the World No 16 hitting 9 on the oche.
Luke Humphries, the Euro Tour No.1, showed just how much he loves these competitions, having won the four events in 2022. Cool Hand Luke claimed success on three occasions in Germany last year winning the German Darts Grand Prix, the European Darts Matchplay and the European Darts Grand Prix.
The World No 5 came agonisingly close this year, beating Premier League participant Dimitri van den Bergh 6-3 in the Last 16 with 7 x 180s, before claiming a 6-4 win over Players Championship 4 winner Dirk van Duijvenbode in the Quarters.
The Englishman has kickstarted his European Tour campaign well and will hope to continue in the same manner in future events as he remains the Number 1 player on the circuit.
Steve Beaton reached the Quarter Finals this weekend in Germany, playing sensationally to dispatch of former back-to-back World Champion Adrian Lewis 6-2 on Friday. The Bronzed Adonis averaged 106.10 on the oche missing just four darts at double against Jackpot, including a 103 check out in the fourth leg to level the match at 2-2.
The Coventry-born tungsten legend then recovered from 5-3 down to beat Premier League star Nathan Aspinall 6-5 in the first tungsten tussle of Saturday’s evening session, before reaching the Last 8 with a 6-4 win over former Masters Champion, and Winmau stablemate, Joe Cullen, including a 142 checkout to break in the third leg.
Jonny Clayton can take some confidence into the Premier League and the UK Open next weekend, after reaching the Semi Finals of the Baltic Sea Darts Open.
The Ferret has been showing good form in the last couple of weeks both on the floor and now on stage, his best performance of the weekend came in his Quarter Final victory over the 58-year-old Beaton, averaging 102.84 in a 6-2 win. The Pontyberem thrower also prevailed against the likes of Ted Evetts in the Second Round and Michael van Gerwen’s conqueror Stephen Bunting, in Sunday’s afternoon session.
The former Premier League champion’s run came to an end in the Semi-Finals against eventual winner Chisnall, but the Welshman can be pleased with his ranking performances so far this year with Last 4 appearances on both the Euro Tour and Pro Tour.
But, despite the early shocks and the eye-catching form of both Beaton and Ryan Searle, The in augural Baltic Sea Darts Open belongs to Dave Chisnall after yet another brilliant display, winning the first event of the year as he prepares to travel to Minehead next week for the 2023 Cazoo UK Open.
—–ENDS—–
Images: /PDC Europe
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