Woodhouse Wilts Under Hildesheim ‘Heat’

Damon Heta picked up his seventh PDC title on Tuesday, after a dominant 8-2 victory over Luke Woodhouse in the final of Players Championship 14, as the midweek PDC Pro Tour double header concluded at Halle 39, Hildesheim.

Heta, who lost out in the Semi Finals of Monday’s PC13 to Gary Anderson, went a step further on Tuesday, as he reached the final firstly by recording victories against Owen Roelofs, Vladimir Andersen, Martijn Kleermaker, Bradley Brooks, Mickey Mansell and Christian Kist, to set up a clash with Woodhouse.

The final began with Heta racing into a 3-0 lead, with winning legs coming in a total of 56 darts, before Woodhouse ended the drought in leg four with a 19-dart hold of throw to move within two of the Aussie Number One. Heta went on to dominant the remainder of the final, by winning five of the following six legs, sealing the victory in Leg 10 with a 17-dart break of throw to scoop the £12,000 top prize and a first PDC title of 2023.

Woodhouse’s run to a first senior final saw the Englishman record victories on the day against Graham Hall, Rowby-John Rodriguez, Dom Taylor, Jose De Sousa, Danny Noppert and Mensur Suljovic, before being denied by ‘The Heat’.

Elsewhere, there were Quarter Final runs for UK Open Champion Andrew Gilding and Belgium’s Mario Vandenbogaerde, with 2023 Premier League stars Gerwyn Price, Dimitri Van den Bergh and Chris Dobey among the high-profile names to suffer first round exits. The day also saw two nine dart legs hit by Northern Ireland’s Josh Rock and Former World Youth Champion Bradley Brooks.

The PDC Pro Tour returns on 10-11^th July with Players Championship Fifteen & Sixteen taking place at Leicester’s Morningside Arena, with the 128 players competing for £100,000 in prize money each day, with play beginning at 12:00 BST. Play will be broadcasted across four streaming boards on PDC.TV and various bookmaker websites worldwide, with all live scores and results on tv.dartconnect.com.