Day Three saw the seniors in action at the World Open, with the boys and girls competing in their World Masters events.

Our two girls, Kenzie Anderson and Kaylee Zerby, again struggle against tough competition, and neither was able to make it out of their round-robin group. Ryan Avellino, Jeremy Demers, and Jimmy Fitzsimmons were to suffer the same fate as Kenzie and Kaylee.

Group C looked to be our best bet, with both P.J. Stewart and David Kramer in the four-player bracket. That’s just the way it turned out, with P.J. taking a hat-trick of comfortable 4-1 victories. Things got even better, as Seth Patenaude bounced back from a first match defeat to qualify from Group M.

In the knockout, Seth succumbed to a solid display from Germany’s Lucas Nitsche, but the Stewart lad advanced with a 4-1 demolition job (and a near-84 average) against another German, Mats Theobald. Highlight of the match wa a sweet 14-dart second leg.

His next match wasn’t quite as good, but it was good enough to not drop a leg, and then another 80+ average against England’s Kieran Thompson put him in the semis. This was a lot tighter, but P.J. levelled from 2-1 behind, and then stuck in a superb 12-dart leg (100, 140, 180, 81) against the throw to give him the advantage. The sixth leg was a little scrappy, but a nice check from 72 gave the three-time US National Champ the win. Six legs later, P.J. was in the final after beating Bradley van der Velden. Now he takes on Top Seed Luke Littler.

So, this is a big day for American youth darts, as no American youth has ever reached a final in any World Masters youth event. In fact, he is only the second male – senior or adult – to ever reach the final in any World Masters (Larry Butler finished runner-up in 2015). The boys final takes place at some time after 2.00pm (local time) tomorrow. Live updates are available on DartConnect, and live streams are available from Winmau, WDF Darts, Nederlands Darts Bond, and Tungsten Tales

On to the World Open, and Liz Tynan, Tracy Feiertag, Aaja Jalbert, and Cali West all showed good form, reaching the Top 32. Sadly, only Cali reached the next round, where she met Spain’s Almudena Fajardo. It was high quality game, with the pair well-matched, but Almudena found the necessary doubles. The last leg really hurt Cali, as she missed six darts from 65.

Only two Americans reached the Top 32 of the men’s, Elliot Milk and Danny Lauby. Elliot’s match against James Hurrell saw the first six legs going with the throw after a nice opening 13 from the “Milkman”. The man from South Dakota had the darts in the last leg, but Hurrell timed it perfectly, and posted a brilliant 12-darter (180, 100, 140, 81) for the match.

Lauby meanwhile, was engaged in a classic clash with Oliver Muller. Lauby cruised the first leg, and made it 2-0 in just 13 darts. Muller closed the gap with a 13 of his own, and then tied it with another 13! A 177 to leave 32 gave Danny the chance for yet another 13, but he hit it on dart #14. One more leg, and it was all over.

His next outing wasn’t quite as scintillating, but the man from Terre Haute saw off Zulrizan Azdan in another tense game that went all the way. This time he stormed into a 3-0 lead, only to see the Malaysian fight back to force a decider. Both players missed doubles, but Lauby eventually found the one he needed. Unfortunately, that was to be Danny’s final triumph as he lost in the quarters to Hong Kong’s Kai Fan Leung.

Tomorrow sees the youth World Championship qualifiers, followed by the finals session of the World Masters. Live updates are available on DartConnect, and live streams are available from Winmau, WDF Darts, Nederlands Darts Bond, and Tungsten Tales

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