Gemma Hayter successfully defended her WADC Winmau Championship Tour title in Portsmouth, as she took a tense 5-4 win against Lisa Ashton to lift the title for a second straight year at the MODUS Live Lounge.
The eight best players from the Championship Tour series of events held in 2025 assembled on the South Coast, and up to the final, it looked like a precession for Hayter, who had captured the WADC Red Dragon National Singles Finals crown a week earlier, and won this event in 2024 with a whitewash of Fallon Sherrock in the showpiece.
Hayter began with a 4-1 win against Steph Clarke in their quarter final meeting, and a 116 finish kicked off a 5-1 win in the last four against Eleanor Cairns. Cairns had earlier earned her semi-final spot by coming from 3-1 down to sink Jo Locke in the last eight.
She was joined in the title match by four-time World Champion Lisa Ashton, with ‘The Lancashire Rose’, with the top seed taking a quickfire 4-2 victory against Sue Lowther. The Boltonian then clinched a place in the final with a 5-2 win against Eve Watson, who had eased past Angela Kirkwood 4-1 in their quarter final clash.
Hayter breezed into a 3-0 lead in the final, with a 110 finish included, but back came Ashton, finishes of 70 and 122 making it four straight legs for a 4-3 lead and to put her a leg away from glory.
It wasn’t to be though for Ashton, as Hayter forced a final leg by breaking the Ashton throw with a 14-darter, and found tops at the third attempt in the decider to seal the victory, the trophy and the £2,000 first prize.
Both Hayter and Ashton will be part of the PDC World Championship that begins on December 11.
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