Ryan Branley was at the double in the final installation of JDC Advanced Tour events as he took the final two titles of the season in Coventry. His first title saw him defeat Mason Teese and then fellow Team360 star Nico Bado in the semi-finals. The North-East thrower then produced his fourth 80 plus average of the day to edge out Archie Self in the final. Branley doubled up his tally in event 14 with another sensational display, again defeating Self in the final.
Mason Teese was again on the end of a perfect performance from Branley before he defeating Winmau duo Jack Nankervis and Aidan O’Hara. It was to be much more convincing in the final this time from Branley, who averaged 90 in a 6-3 win over tour leader Self. The weekends other champion was the aforementioned Jack Nankervis, as he averages continued to rise throughout the afternoon he kept his winning streak going. An 87 average to defeat Cori Wiltshire was followed by a 90 average to see off double winner Branley, before putting Rune van Damme to the sword as he whitewashed the Belgian in the final.
Elsewhere in Coventry there were deep runs for several of our Winmau Team360 stars. Nico Bado and Tergel Khurelkhuu both reached the tour 15 semi-finals, with the Mongolian also reaching the quarter-finals in the previous event. There were also three quarter-finals on the spin for Aidan O’Hara with the third being converted into a semi-final appearance. Cori Wiltshire and Cayden Smith also made appearance in the last eight during a busy weekend in the West Midlands.
The JDC Girl’s Series ran alongside the advanced tour over the weekend, and saw a double semi-final run from Hannah Meek in the final events of the season. Meek was unfortunate to lose out to Paige Pauling in event seven and again pushed the tour champion in the final event of the series. With much of the attention on the final JDC tour weekend of the season, Cayden Smith did find time to reach an ADC Vault final in Tipton.
After a positive run to the final, Smith followed it up with some impressive averages in Coventry and can count himself unlucky not to have found himself in an event final.
Jack Nankervis notched up a win at Superleague along with two maximums as well as taking the
honours in local competition which included a 170 checkout. That makes it two out of two for
Nankervis whilst there was also a recent Superleague win for Fabian Tapner.
It was some weekend for Ryan Branley as he continued his dominance of the North-East scene with
a catalogue of wins. Branley became the singles and league champion, as well as hitting the most
maximums and just fell short in the 1001 competition. The week also saw Keelan Kay qualify for the
Red Dragon champion of champions through his local route at the first attempt, with a trip to Cardiff
now on the horizon.
Cayden Smith hit one of his highest recorded averages in ADC Vault competition in Kidderminster.
The West Midlander landed a 115 overall average with his first nine creeping into the 120 plus zone,
all together with an inevitable 2-0 win. This was followed by another final for Cori Wiltshire who
came up just short against JDC Cadet Shoey Ayres.
Aiden O’Hara and his teammates retained the county league cup with a narrow 13-12 win to take
the title for the second time in a row, just a few days earlier O’Hara had won in local competition
whilst landing a 100 average and beating O’Hara senior in the final.
It was good news all round for Ireland with some top results also coming from the camp of Adam
Dee. The youngster reached finals of the WDF under 23 singles and doubles events in Hungary,
reaching the final of the singles with a 12-darter in the decider!
It was a busy week on the PDC Development tour with several of our young stars descending on
Wigan for the next batch of events. Ryan Branley was one of those stars in his debut season.
The 16 year-old landed back to back last 32 finishes on the Friday before losing out to Nathan
Rafferty in the last 16 on Saturday afternoon.
There were a pair of 64 runs for Cayden Smith in his weekend in Wigan with the West Midlander
also winning all five of his opening round matches. In a mixed weekend for Keelan Kay he
reached the last 16 of event 13 before eventually losing out to event 11 winner Beau Greaves.
Event 12 would prove to be a highlight for Nathan Potter. The former JDC tour winner survived
several last leg shootouts to reach the quarter-finals where he was stopped by Angelo Balsamo.
Just 24 hours later our very own Connor Hopkins was on the charge, reaching the semi-finals of
event 14. Having upped his averages throughout the afternoon, a 5-1 win over Owen Roelofs
would put him into a the final four. It wasn’t to be at that stage for Hopkins as he was defeated
by Marvin van Velzen but plenty to take from a positive weekend.
Elsewhere there was a pair of last 64 runs for Fabian Tapner in a testing weekend, whilst Keelan
Kay picked up a last 16 run. Riley Rees-Tucker and Jurjen van der Velde also picked up a number
of wins throughout a terrific weekend at the Robin Park Tennis Centre.
Outside of Wigan Jack Nankervis picked up another win at Superleague, hitting a maximum on
the way to a 4-2 victory. It was also confirmed that Nankervis along with Ryan Branley would be
representing England at the JDC World Cup in Gibraltar this year. This comes as Aidan O’Hara
ups his effort to make team Ireland as he clinched a qualifier win over Jamie French with a 90
average.
—–ENDS—–
Words and Images: Josh Green and Winmau
