Challenge Tour Darts: Ayres Graces Winner's Circle

Wrapping up Challenge Tour proceedings in Germany saw Daniel Ayres take the honours, defeating the vastly experienced Northern Ireland man, Kevin Burness in a high-quality and fitting finale to the weekend’s darts action.

So far in this campaign, Cheshire chucker Ayres had been eliminated at the quarter-final stage, so it must have felt good to firstly hurdle that obstacle and then clear a couple more to finally pick up a maiden PDC title, just over a decade since first competing on the Challenge Tour circuit.

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The 37-year-old edged fellow Englishman Paul Rowley in a last-leg decider to reach the last 16. From that point, 5-3 wins became his trademark, with that scoreline a recurring theme for the remainder of his afternoon.

After seeing off Jack Aldridge, Ayres overcame Poland’s Radek Szaganski in the quarter-finals before securing his place in the weekend’s showpiece with victory over Ricardo Ulrich.

Facing former Tour Card holder Burness in the final, the pair shared the opening four legs evenly before tying things up once more at 3-3. However, the Crewe man crucially edged ahead before sealing that elusive inaugural crown, ten years and change since making his Challenge Tour debut.

That triumph elevates Ayres to fourth in the Order of Merit, leaving him well placed for a call-up to the next Pro Tour double-header after the upcoming events at the same venue where he has just broken his duck.

It is Joe Hunt who leads the standings, and following his win over the weekend, he holds a healthy £3,000 cushion. In a top ten dominated by English players, Wales’ Derek Coulson is the only arrow-smith to break that monopoly, sitting proudly in second spot.