Madness from Madhouse! Ritchie Edhouse smashes the glass ceiling and wins first PDC major title at European Championship 2024

Ritchie Edhouse has made history and taken his first ever PDC major title, bringing to an end what has been an incredible weekend on darting drama in Dortmund at the 2024 European Championship, with a 11-3 win over Jermaine Wattimena.

Edhouse started his tournament with an impressive win over Gian van Veen (6-1) with an average of 109 and then was also the better player against Michael Smith (10-9) and Gary Anderson (10-5), before then racing past Luke Woodhouse (11-5). Wattimena meanwhile, marked his sensational tournament with wins over Peter Wright, James Wade, Luke Humphries and Danny Noppert en route to the final.

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Despite some signs of understandable early nerves by both first time finalists in the opening session, the standard was solid if not spectacular. The Dutchman started the stronger, racing into a 2-0 lead early on. Edhouse though, fought back well to get back level at 2-2. Wattimena then held throw in the 5th leg to ensure he headed off stage narrowly in front.

After Edhouse levelled back up after the break, the nerves really started showing in leg 7 as both players missed numerous darts at double. Eventually though, it was 'Madhouse' who took it on double 5 to break throw and take the lead. Taking real control of the contest from there, Edhouse swept through the session 5-0 to move 7-3 up. Whether it was the pressure of playing in a first major final, or fatigue from such a long and ardous day, Wattimena was just not at the races, averaging only 80.47 and having hit just 3 of 27 darts at double.

Opening the third session with his 5th maximum of the final, Edhouse was going for jugular. Although Wattimena actually had first shot at double in the leg, he missed again and Edhouse punished on double 16 to move 8-3 clear. A stunning 144 finished on double 18 followed for the Englishman, before another break of throw put him on the brink at 10-3 and with a stunning two double 18 92 checkout the deal was sealed in style.

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