Champion at the last

Ted Evetts was crowned Unicorn World Youth Champion for 2021 during the Players Championship Finals at Minehead. Competing in the World Youth Championship for the seventh and final time, The 24-year-old defeated Nathan Rafferty 6-4 in the final,

came back from 3-1 down to finally lift the title

Evetts, who had already secured qualification for the 2021/22 World Championship via the ProTour Order of Merit, also receives the £10,000 winners’ prize.

Earlier in the day, Evetts and Rafferty came through a 32-player tournament. The early stages of the final saw Rafferty land the first break of throw to lead 3-1, before back-to-back legs from Evetts saw him draw level.

The Irish youngster’s hopes of a first World Youth Championship title were extinguished in the tenth leg as Evetts cleaned up 37 in two darts to end his youth career on a high.

“I’m over the moon, I would’ve swapped all my youth titles for this one,” said Evetts, the most successful player in Development Tour history.

“If you’d have spoken to 16-year-old me who couldn’t make it past the last 16, I wouldn’t have believed I’d be standing here with this trophy.

“I don’t think I’ve shown anywhere close to what I can do in the senior ranks so far. There’s a lot more to come from me.

Dissected Development

This year’s Development Tour has tour been split into a UK-based series and a non-UK player series held on mainland Europe. The strength of the UK section is demonstrated by the fact that the new World Champion only finished fifth:

Image: PDC, Words: Original article appeared in Darts World Magazine (Issue 577)

Darts World Magazine (Issue 577) and Christmas bundle offers
Subscribe or purchase your copy