There was a quartet of winners on the JDC advanced tour over the weekend as the 2023 season commenced in Coventry. Thirty-two of the finest junior talents gathered in the West Midlands for the opening events of the year. The field included the previous season’s tour card holder, a brand-new batch of talent from the UK and European Q-Schools, as well two players progressing from the 2022 foundation tour.
Recent star of the main stage at the UK Open in Minehead, Thomas Banks, claimed the opening tournament of the season. After losing out to former World Champion and Premier League star, Gerwyn Price just seven days previous, he was back on the winning trail in Coventry. A 90 average carried him into the semi-finals with a win over Belgium’s Robbe Dasseville. He would then defeat Team 360’s Ryan Branley, in the semi-finals before seeing off former tour winner Henry Coates in the final.
It would be Coates’ turn in the second event of the day, the Derbyshire star whitewashing Banks in the semis to set up a mouth-watering final with Leighton Bennett. Coates emerged victorious with both players averaging over the 90 marks, in a match that went the full 11 legs.
There were yet two more new winners on the second day of action with former JDC World Championship runner-up, Leighton Bennett, returning to form to claim his first title, defeating Banks in the quarter-finals before a 6-3 win over Kieran Thompson in the final.
Jenson Walker would round off the weekend with a victory and send himself to the summit of the order of merit, as he defeated an international batch of players en route to the final title of the weekend. Hungary’s Almos Kovacs was dispatched in the quarter-finals, and he would then defeat rising US star Kaden Anderson to confirm his place in the final. Walker would produce his best performance of the day in the final to see off Jersey’s Lewis Bell and end the weekend on top of the order of merit.
You can find the full ranking table here: https://tv.dartconnect.com/rankings/jdc-at23
The full list of JDC tour dates and more information on the Junior Darts Corporation is available here: https://www.juniordarts.com/index.php/jdc-tour/tour-dates-2020
—–ENDS—–
Image: PDC
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