With the road to both the
World Masters and the
Lakeside World Championship continuing, there have been further players making strides or qualifying for both with action in both Charlotte, NC in the USA and also down to Wales.
Jason Brandon who has been seen before on World Series stages bid for a Lakeside debut gathered pace on Saturday as he won his second WDF title of the year at the Charlotte Open. He beat Stephen Phillips in the final producing finishes of 101 and 116 and averaging 90.54 in a dominant 5-0 win.
Paula Murphy on the other hand will look towards a Lakeside return. She picked up her first WDF ranking title of the year in the women's tournament. She reeled off four legs on the spin to seal a 5-1 win over Aaja Jalbert in the final. While Kevin Luke who has been steadily picking up points and has previously played at the 2022 edition of Lakeside against Steve Hine has displaced Aaron Turner.
He now sits in a provisional spot for a Lakeside return. While onto Wales and the World Masters qualification also hit steam this weekend. Taking place in Budapest from October 9 - 13, 2024, a familiar face who was once touted as the next big thing in the darting world qualified.
Reynolds returns from darting wilderness
Dean Reynolds who qualified four times for the BDO World Championship and infamously declined his Tour Card after dominating the Development Tour was last seen playing the Challenge Tour back in 2020.
But he popped back up again playing in a qualifier for the World Masters which he won alongside John Cook, Kelvin O'Keefe and Richard Oliver. A 9 time Development Tour winner and one time Challenge Tour champion, he has not played any BDO/WDF since 2019 so he will return at the World Masters after winning the one shot qualifier.
Also going to Budapest are Stephen Phillips, Elliot Milk, Robbie Phillips and Jason Tomecko as well as Aaja Jalbert and Andrea Taylor after the ADO ran their World Masters National Finals so they will join that Welsh quartet in Budapest.
While over in Riga, Latvia. It was Scotland that starred as Sophie McKinlay anchored her country to a hat-trick of golds for Scotland. In the singles final, she defeated 2022 and 2023 Winner Aurora Fochesato in the WDF Europe Cup Youth. They also won the Girls Overall Gold and pairs final after winning their first medal in history only 70 minutes before her singles win.
Jenson Walker led from the front for England in both the pairs and also the singles reeling off five out of the last six legs to beat Yorick Hofkens, the 2023 winner from Germany. Republic of Ireland won the Boys Teams final defeating Netherlands 9-7.
