Magical Menzies wins his maiden PDC Ranking title at Players Championship 29
Magical Menzies wins his maiden PDC Ranking title at Players Championship 29
In the Players Championship 29 on Wednesday, Cameron Menzies defeated Stephen Bunting 8–4 in Leicester to secure his first PDC ranking title.
Over the past six months, Menzies has been one of the sport’s most impressive performers. He demonstrated his growth by winning the £15,000 top prize at the Mattioli Arena.
On his road to success in the East Midlands, the mysterious Scot defeated six televised title holders, moving him up into the top ten on the Players Championship Order of Merit.
“I’ve won a ProTour, and nobody can ever take that away from me,” reflected an emotional Menzies, a runner-up at Players Championship 19 in August.
“I wanted to win this title so much; I’m absolutely buzzing. This means so much to me.
“At one stage I never thought I was good enough to win a ProTour, but I believe right now I’m playing the best darts of my life.
“I’m playing against the best players in the world here, and I feel when I’m on my game, I can match them, and I never thought I’d be able to do that.
“Hopefully this is a stepping stone to winning a major [title], like Ritchie [Edhouse] and Mike De Decker have done recently.
In his 6-3 triumph over the 2018 World Champion Rob Cross, Menzies put on his best performance of the day in the third round, averaging 107.
After defeating Jacques Labre and Jose de Sousa earlier in the day, Menzies defeated Krzysztof Ratajski in a last-leg thriller in the round of 16, coming back from a 5-3 deficit to win.
The 35-year-old supported this by defeating James Wade 6-2 in the quarterfinals and then crushing Danny Noppert 7-1 to keep up his momentum.
After converting consecutive 78 and 86 checkouts to create a two-leg buffer, Menzies got off to a good start in Wednesday’s main event, but Bunting responded with a scorching outburst of his own.
After missing double 12 for a nine-darter in leg five, the Masters winner levelled the score at three apiece with legs of 11 and 12 darts before Menzies responded with another three-leg blitz to take a 6-3 lead.
Although he was unable to mount a late comeback, Bunting cut the deficit with a clinical 120 kill in leg ten, and Menzies maintained his composure to end a historic day in his darting career.
Despite his impressive performance in his sixth Players Championship final of 2024, Bunting is still waiting for his coveted first ProTour championship of the year.
After defeating Danny Lauby in the first round with an average of 104, the 39-year-old went on to defeat Darryl Pilgrim and Connor Scutt with excellent scores.
In addition, the St Helens star defeated World Grand Prix winner Mike De Decker 6-1 in the round of 16, and he defeated Chris Landman 7-2 in the semifinals after defeating Damon Heta in the round of eight.
With his journey to the final four, which included a nine-dart finish in his victory over Ross Smith in the fourth round, Landman advanced into the preliminary World Championship qualifying spots.
The Dutchman advanced to the semi-finals by defeating Florian Hempel and Mensur Suljovic. His countryman Danny Noppert, who also made it to the European Championship semifinals last weekend, joined him.
Noppert defeated Michael Smith in a nail-biting first-leg match in the round of eight, and the world number two joined Wade, Heta, and Suljovic.
On an exciting day in Leicester, Callan Rydz and Ricardo Pietreczko joined Landman in hitting nine-darters, winning flawlessly against Radek Szaganski and Keane Barry, respectively.
Players Championship 30 on Thursday will mark the end of the 2024 PDC ProTour season as the competition to earn a spot in the Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals next month reaches its peak.
2024 Players Championship 29
Wednesday October 30, Mattioli Arena, Leicester
Last 16
Michael Smith 6-1 Ryan Meikle
Danny Noppert 6-5 Dirk van Duijvenbode
Cameron Menzies 6-5 Krzysztof Ratajski
James Wade 6-3 William O’Connor
Stephen Bunting 6-1 Mike De Decker
Damon Heta 6-3 Ricardo Pietreczko
Mensur Suljovic 6-5 Chris Dobey
Chris Landman 6-3 Ross Smith
Quarter-Finals
Danny Noppert 6-5 Michael Smith
Cameron Menzies 6-2 James Wade
Stephen Bunting 6-5 Damon Heta
Chris Landman 6-4 Mensur Suljovic
Semi-Finals
Cameron Menzies 7-1 Danny Noppert
Stephen Bunting 7-2 Chris Landman
Final
Cameron Menzies 8-4 Stephen Bunting
Nine-Darters!
Callan Rydz hit a nine-darter in his first round tie against Keane Barry.
Ricardo Pietreczko hit a nine-darter in his second round tie against Radek Szaganski.
Chris Landman hit a nine-darter in his fourth round tie against Ross Smith.