Last weekend saw the inaugural Trans-Tasman Championship take place in Australia, a darts tournament which saw the best players from Australia and New Zealand compete. The first two events were open singles and pairs, followed by the Trans-Tasman Test Match.
The main event was the Trans-Tasman Championship on Sunday, where the top 16 from the ADA rankings and the top 16 from the DPNZ rankings all fought it out for the title, and a spot at both the World Championships and the ANZ Premier League.
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Open Singles
The first event of the weekend took place on Friday evening, with the Open Singles getting 73 entries across the two regions. The Semi-Finals saw two Aussies taking on two Kiwis, with Jonny Tata getting the better of Mal Cuming, and underdog Seamus Lynch beating Mark Cleaver, both in deciding legs.
Jonny Tata went on to win the title, but it was an impressive run from Lynch, who is ranked down at 24th in the ADA rankings.
The performance of the event came from the champion, Jonny Tata putting in a 96.94 average in his Semi-Final win over Mal Cuming.
Quarter-Finals
Mal Cuming (93.1) 6-1 Tim Pusey (83.1)
Jonny Tata (86.0) 6-1 Howard Jones (80.2)
Seamus Lynch (80.8) 6-5 Harley Kemp (78.0)
Mark Cleaver (77.9) 6-3 Jordan Bennett-Davies (76.8)
Semi-Finals
Jonny Tata (96.9) 6-5 Mal Cuming (93.0)
Seamus Lynch (77.4) 6-5 Mark Cleaver (76.1)
Final
Jonny Tata (89.3) 6-4 Seamus Lynch (86.7)
Open Pairs
Saturday kicked off with a similar style event in a pairs format, with 74 entries making 37 teams. A group stage saw the elimination of just 5 teams, and the remainder played down to a winner from the Last 32 stage.
The Final saw the third and fourth ranked ADA players – Joe Comito and Tim Pusey – taking on the third and seventh ranked DPNZ players – Mark Cleaver and Jaymie Hilton-Jones.
The Kiwi pair managed to secure the second title of the weekend for New Zealand, breezing past Comito and Pusey 6-1 in the Final!
Quarter-Finals
Pullen & Bennett-Davies (84.4) 5-0 Cassar & Kempt (74.6)
Hilton-Jones & Cleaver (76.4) 5-1 King & J Kime (76.7)
Comito & Pusey (83.9) 5-2 Puha & Tata (83.2)
Walters & Sheppard (87.5) 5-2 Fagg & Rundle (80.7)
Semi-Finals
Hilton-Jones & Cleaver (77.9) 5-4 Pullen & Bennett-Davies (78.4)
Comito & Pusey (88.4) 5-2 Walters & Sheppard (86.3)
Final
Hilton-Jones & Cleaver (86.4) 6-1 Comito & Pusey (79.7)
Trans-Tasman Test Match Darts
The action continued on Saturday with a intriguing competition, the inaugural Trans-Tasman Test Match. This saw the top 8 from each tour joined by the top 4 youth players from each tour take on each other to claim the title as the best of the two nations.
Team Australia consisted of Jose Comito, Mal Cuming, Raymond Smith, Tim Pusey, James Bailey, Jeremy Fagg, Michael Bajowski and Stuart Coburn, joined by youth players Jayden Randall, Jayden Wedemeyer, Ky Smith and Mitchel Beswick.
Team New Zealand consisted of Ben Robb, Haupai Puha, Jonny Tata, Mark Cleaver, Craig Pullen, Jack Sheppard, Jaymie Hilton-Jones and Jordan Bennet-Davies, joined by youth players Hunter Eyles, Jovan Tipuna, Livarno du Plooy and Zacarno King.
Team Australia took the early lead, winning all three of the 4’s matches, as well as the opening two pairs matched, but New Zealand won the remaining four pairs matches to keep it close at the break, 5-4 to Australia.
Early wins for Ky Smith, Raymond Smith, Mal Cuming and Hayden Randall saw Australia take a 9-4 lead, only two wins away from the title, before Mark Cleaver, Haupai Puha and Jack Sheppard kept New Zealand alive.
Wins from Mitchel Beswick and Michael Bajowski gave Australia a 11-7 lead with three matches to play, sealing their title as the inaugural Trans-Tasman Test Match Champions.
Jayden Wedemeyer and Stuart Coburn won their matches, with Jordan Bennet-Davies picking up a win too, meaning the final score was 13-8 to Australia.
Trans-Tasman Championship
The final event of the weekend was the big one. Play began on Sunday, with the 16 Australia players all drawn against the 16 New Zealand players in the first round.
With Brody Klinge choosing to take the weekend off, Raymond Smith came in as the overwhelming favourite having had a brilliant year on the ADA so far, as well as a successful few weeks on the World Series.
It was a woeful start to the event from New Zealand, with only Haupai Puha, Ben Robb and Jordan Bennett-Davies picking up wins (beating Rundle, Shreeve and Crane respectively). This meant that 13 of the Last 16 were Australians.
The trend continued, with Puha losing to Jeremy Fagg and Bennett-Davies losing to Tim Pusey, meaning Ben Robb was the last Kiwi standing with a win over Stuart Coburn.
Tournament favourite Raymond Smith survived nine match darts to beat Jeremy Fagg in the Quarter-Finals, while underdog Howard Jones put out ADA #4 Joe Comito. Mal Cuming knocked out ADA #3 Tim Pusey with a dominant 95.77 average, while Ben Robb was knocked out by Harley Kempt, confirming that the winner would be Australian.
Raymond Smith came through another tight encounter, getting the better of ADA #13 Howard Jones in a deciding set, with Mal Cuming producing another brilliant performance to beat Harley Kemp.
The Final was set, ADA #2 Raymond Smith would take on ADA #8 Mal Cuming for a spot at the 2027 World Championships, and the 2026 ANZ Premier League.
After taking the early lead, Mal Cuming stormed through to win the title, beating the favourite 4-2. He qualifies for just a second World Championships, having debuted in the 2023 event, and will make his ANZ Premier League debut in September.
The performance of the event once again came from the champion, with Mal Cuming averaging 95.77 in his Quarter-Final whitewash win over Tim Pusey
Quarter-Finals
Raymond Smith (87.1) 3-2 Jeremy Fagg (82.6)
Howard Jones (84.7) 3-1 Joe Comito (86.3)
Harley Kemp (81.5) 3-1 Ben Robb (81.9)
Mal Cuming (95.8) 3-0 Tim Pusey (84.0)
Semi-Finals
Raymond Smith (90.6) 3-2 Howard Jones (85.6)
Mal Cuming (91.4) 3-1 Harley Kemp (85.5)
Final
Mal Cuming (90.2) 4-2 Raymond Smith (87.3)
What this means?
There are still three more spots up for grabs in Oceania for the World Championships. The first of which will be decided this coming weekend in New Zealand. Ben Robb has a massive advantage over Jonny Tata in second on the DPNZ Tour, just a Last 16 and a Last 32 would seal his qualification for the World Championships.
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The penultimate spot will be decided the following weekend, with the winner of the ADA Tour qualifying for the World Championships. This race is a lot closer, with Brody Klinge currently sitting in first on $16.5k, with Raymond Smith in second on $14.95k. With $1,600 on offer for the winner of each event and there being four events to play, it is still up for grabs.
The final spot will be decided at the end of October, with the winner of the ANZ Premier League qualifying for both the World Championships and the Grand Slam. Six of the eight player field has already been confirmed. Simon Whitlock qualifies as the reigning champion, while Mal Cuming joins him as the Trans-Tasman Champion.
The top 4 ADA players qualify for the ANZ PL, with Brody Klinge, Raymond Smith and Tim Pusey already safe with a weekend spare. Joe Comito sits in the final spot with a $2,000 lead over Michael Bajowski. The final two spots are given to the top 2 on the DPNZ Tour. Ben Robb is already safe with 2 events to play, while Jonny Tata has a 1,450 point lead over Mark Cleaver, meaning Cleaver would have to win one event and reach the final of the other to overtake Tata.
The ANZ Premier League begins on the 26th September, visiting Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne, Auckland and Newcastle in its five league nights. Finals Night will then take place between the top four in Brisbane on the 31st October.
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Images: PDC
