Traditionally, and especially if you were not in the top echelon of players, the post World Matchplay summer has been one of the quiet spots in the darts season.
The PDC’s global shop window, also known as the World Series of Darts, has changed that over the past fifteen years or so and other organisations soon spotted the trend and joined the party.
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Coming up on Friday this week will be the New Zealand Darts Masters from the Spark Arena in Auckland. None of you will be surprised to note that Luke Littler is the reigning Champion after his impressive victory over Luke Humphries hear last year.
Seven Years Ago
It was the Brisbane and Melbourne Masters events that fell this week back in 2019. A certain Damon Heta was the big news story as he broke through to win the Brisbane competition in fine style. To claim the crown he defeated a quartet of PDC superstars: Wade Anderson Whitlock and Cross!
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Twenty Seven Years Ago
One of the storied names of New Zealand darts collected his first New Zealand Open crown. Preston Ridd kept on winning similar titles right through to the games acceleration circa 2010, when he also qualified for Ally Pally (2011). Preston pulled off a 4-0 win over Ireland’s Mickey Mansell in the short course last 72 match up, before going down to Vincent Van de Voort later that night.
Global Darts Event Spotlight
Another August event that made the calendar during this week from 2004 – finally joining the Denmark and New Zealand Opens – was the USA’s Dart Classic. Big Daddy himself – Darin Young – dominated the early years of the event and won four in total.
North American stars of long standing such as the legendary Larry Butler and those of the future including, World Senior Darts Champion, Leonard Gates managed to get their names on the honour roll.
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Images: PDC
