Photo: PDC/Lawrence Lustig
11
Event 11
Ross Smith bounced back from his shock defeat to Josh Jones in Event 10 by claiming victory in Event 11 on the Saturday afternoon. Smith began a run to his fourth appearance in a PDC Unicorn Challenge Tour final with a whitewash victory over Adam Lipscombe. He then dispatched Ryan Murray and Nathan Derry with 4-2 victories before defeating Michael Blake by a 4-1 margin to reach the last eight. The Bolton-based thrower - who hit a nine-darter in the recent Gibraltar Darts Trophy - ended Jan Dekker’s hopes with a 4-1 win before overcoming another Dutchman, Jeffrey De Graaf, in a deciding leg. Smith then confirmed victory with a fine 4-1 triumph over Samuel Head to claim the £500 winner’s prize for the third time in the 2013 PDC Unicorn Challenge Tour. Head’s victories on route to the final included tough matches with Gaz Cousins and PDC Youth World Championship runner-up Ricky Evans, but in the end Smith proved to have to much and it wasn’t meant to be for the gallant Head.
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Event 12
The final event of the weekend saw a maiden Challenge Tour victory for Jan Dekker after the Dutch ace defeated his countryman Dirk van Duijvenbode in to claim the £500 top prize. Dekker’s run to the final included early 4-1 victories over Jon Farmer, Nick Paenen and Luke Woodhouse, before he whitewashed Lee Whitworth to reach the quarter final stage. In the quarter finals Dekker found things tough going against German youngster Max Hopp, but in the end his experience showed and he was able to seal a deciding leg victory. When he then overcame Tom Sykes by the same scoreline all that remained was to see off the challenge of his compatriot. This he did, coming through another tight encounter to claim a third consecutive 4-3 victory. Duijvenbode route to the final included impressive victories over Josh Payne, Jake Patchett and Scotland’s Richard Baillie.
Quarter-Finals
Jeffrey De Graaf 4-1 Max Hopp Ross Smith 4-1 Jan Dekker Samuel Head 4-2 Gaz Cousins Ricky Evans 4-0 Ryan Hogarth
Quarter-Finals
Jan Dekker 4-3 Max Hopp Tom Sykes 4-3 Alan Bell Josh Payne 4-0 Chris Aubrey Dirk van Duijvenbode 4-0 Jake Patchett
Semi-Finals
Ross Smith 4-3 Jeffrey De Graaf Samuel Head 4-2 Ricky Evans
Semi-Finals
Jan Dekker 4-3 Tom Sykes Dirk van Duijvenbode 4-2 Josh Payne
Final
Ross Smith 4-1 Samuel Head
Final
Jan Dekker 4-3 Dirk van Duijvenbode