Had you blinked, you may well have missed Danny Lauby’s first appearance this week on the Lakeside stage! Against fellow quickfire player, Jarno Bottenberg, the match was over in less than 20 minutes – and the man from Terre Haute had set up a Top 16 clash with fellow American Leonard Gates.

Staring off in style with a first throw max 180, Lauby raced down, wired a 128 check, and won it in 15 darts. A second 15 (100, 140, 100, 136 – just wiring a 161 check – and 25) made it 2-0. He needed to hit that too, as the Dutchman had replied with 123, 140, 100, and just wired a 138 out himself! Bottenberg held serve in the next leg, but the American quickly clinched the set 3-1.

A 13-dart (57, 100, 128,180, 36) leg to start Set Two extended his lead. The next two legs weren’t quite to this level, but they were more than sufficient to put the Witch City Open Champ two sets up.

An average 18-darter was followed by a more rapid 15 (177, 100, 100, 92, 32), and posting scores of 121 and 140 to start Leg 3, Lauby wrapped it up in straight legs.

This game was followed by a remarkably high quality women’s contest, with Aileen De Graaf edging out young New Zealander Nicole Regnaud in a last-leg decider. This is the first time Regnaud has been on the big stage, and she is definitely one to watch for in the future. Elsewhere, Switzerland’s Thomas Junghans disposed of Hong Kong’s seeded Kai Fan Leung, while World Master Wesley Plaisier took down James Richardson in straight sets.

Tomorrow (Thursday), all three American men take to the stage. Jim Widmayer is first up in the afternoon session against Nicole Regnaud’s fellow Kiwi Jonny Tata, and then we wait until the last match of the night to watch Danny Lauby and Leonard Gates. In addition, there are three World Champions in action; reigning Men’s Champ Neil Duff, former Men’s Champ Jelle Klaasen, and four-time Women’s titlist Lisa Ashton. Don’t forget, you can watch everything live on the WDF’s YouTube Channel.

Full details from DartConnect

You must be logged in to post a comment Login