Leonard Gates has finally achieved darting destiny with victory in the 2022
North American Darts Championship at Madison Square Garden in New York.
'Soldier' saw off friend Danny Baggish in the final 6-3 in an absolute thriller with 'The Gambler' coming so close to winning the title that saw him break out again.
He followed up Friday's win over Fallon Sherrock by coming through a tough route seeing off Jules van Dongen, David Cameron and Baggish in the biggest triumph of the 51`-year-old's career.
A player who has often produced monster averages in the CDC and at Q-School but not on the big stage and without the consistency, he did so this time producing back-to-back 95 averages in seeing off Van Dongen and Cameron before downing Baggish.
He will now make his debut at the
PDC World Darts Championship in December and becomes the latest player also to appear in two in the same year having played in the WDF edition back in January.
Results North American Championship 2022
Quarter-Finals
David Cameron (91.81) 6-4 (84.24) Jeff Smith
Leonard Gates (95.28) 6-2 (87.66) Jules van Dongen
Danny Lauby (92.48) 6-5 (90.02) Matt Campbell
Danny Baggish (90.64) 6-2 (82.34) Doug Boehm
Semi-Finals
Leonard Gates (95.31) 6-5 (89.61) David Cameron
Danny Baggish (91.78) 6-4 (88.76) Danny Lauby
Final
Leonard Gates (87.71) 6-3 (94.84) Danny Baggish