Wessel Nijman won his third PDC Development of the weekend when he claimed PDC Development Tour but couldn’t do the double double as Niko Springer got some revenge to win PDC Development Tour 18.

Wessel Nijman cemented his place at the top of the PDC Development Tour after another strong day saw the Dutch star claim one title and pipped to the other courtesy of a last leg decider defeat.

Niko springs to action

Niko Springer put the disappointment of losing in the final of Development Tour 17 behind him early on Saturday morning as he got revenge of on Wessel Nijman defeating the Dutchman 5-4. In a high quality final where only one leg took more than six visits Springer found himself 4-2 before the German youngster reeled off the final three legs. The big turning point came in the 7th leg with Nijman waiting on tops, Springer took out 158.

On his way to the final Springer beat two finalists from other development tour events this weekend. In his opening match he beat fellow countryman Oliver Klein 4-0 before defeating Tavis Dudeney who made the final of Development Tour 16 on Friday 4-1 in round two. Born Van Put was his next opponent and despite Springer averaging his lowest average of the day he was still too strong for the Belgian winning 4-2.

The last 32 and last 16 matches saw Springer hit averages of over 100 in defeating Welshman Llew Bevan 4-1 and event 19 finalist Jack Male 4-2. From here on in Springer either faced anxious last leg deciders or didn’t give his opponent a leg. In the quarter-final he saw Craig Galliano force a last leg decider with Springer left on 5 but won the match with a 15 darter to take his place in the final and another darting date with Wessel Nijman.

 

Wessel Nijman completes the hat-trick

Wessel Nijman soon put the disappointment of losing the final of PDC Development Tour 18 behind him as he won his third event in four this weekend defeating Jack Male 5-2 in the final. After racing into a 3-0 lead Nijman held his nerve to get over the line with a 90.69 average.

Unlike his victories on Saturday Nijman had to get through 5 last leg deciders to secure the title. The first of these came in his first round match when he squandered a 3-0 leg against German darter Jannes Bremermann before halting a complete fight back by winning the deciding leg in 16 darts.

Next up for the Dutchman was Xymen Dobbelaere from Belgium with Nijman winning 4-0 completing the victory with a 13 dart leg. Next up was another player looking for some revenge from Friday Sweden’s Viktor Tingstrom. Unlike Friday when Nijman won comfortably Tingstrom pushed Nijman all the way in a highly contested match where all 7 legs were won in 17 darts or under. Nijman won the match with Tingstrom sitting on 4.

Next up was Nijman dishing up his second bagel of the event as he brushed aside Poland’s Jakub Janaszkiewicz 4-0 with an 89 average. This proved too much for the Pole who could only average 72. His next 3 matches went the distance as Nijman got passed Welshman Cole Davey 4-3 with Nijman once again keeping his best darts for the deciding leg winning the match in 13 darts.

His quarter-final opponent was a familiar opponent this weekend as Wessel Nijman once again got the better of Beau Greaves – this time the match going the full 9 legs. Despite leading 4-2 Nijman saw Greaves come back to force a last decider – in what proved to be a nervy leg as Nijman won the match in 22 darts. It was a similar story in the semi-final as Nijman saw a two leg slip – this time against Germany’s Dominik Gruellich. Despite the German getting back to 4-4 it was Nijman who once again hit that crucial double in the decider to book his place in his fourth final of the weekend.

Raining 9 darters

Elsewhere Jack Howarth and Sebastian Bialecki both hit the magic 9 darter in Milton Keynes.

PDC Development tour 18 proved to be a positive one for Irish darts as Dylan Dowling and Dylan Slevin both made the semi-final before both players fell to 5-0 defeats whilst Beau Greaves once again made the quarter final of PDC Development 19 before coming up against the player of the weekend Wessel Nijman – the third time in four events Greaves has lost out to the Dutchman. Nathan Rafferty was another player to make his second quarter-final of the weekend and will be hoping for a big push tomorrow.

 

PDC Development Tour 18
Results

Quarter-Final
Wessel Nijman 5|1 Leighton Bennett
Dylan Dowling 5|2 Keenan Thomas
Dylan Slevin 5|0 Angelo Balsamo
Niko Springer 5|4 Craig Galliano

Semi-Final
Wessel Nijman 5|0 Dylan Dowling
Niko Springer 5|0 Dylan Slevin

Final
Niko Springer 5|4 Wessel Nijman

PDC Development Tour 19
Results

Quarter-Final
Jack Male 5|2 Nathan Rafferty
Niko Springer 5|4 Ryan Branley
Dominik Gruellich 5|3 Leighton Bennett
Wessel Nijman 5|4 Beau Greaves

Semi-Final
Jack Male 5|4 Niko Springer
Wessel Nijman 5|4 Dominik Gruellich

Final
Wessel Nijman 5|2 Jack Male