Michael Smith And Brendan Dolan Prevail In Gruelling Players Championship Events In Germany

Two more names were added to the 2024 Pro Tour winner roll of honour this week, as Michael Smith and Brendan Dolan won Players Championship 9 and 10 respectively, as we still wait to see our first two time winner from this year’s PC events.

Former world champion Smith has been coming off the back of a rough 2023 where he failed to win a televised major, was unceremoniously dumped out of the world championship by Chris Dobey, and was on a 11 month wait for ranking glory heading into May 2024.

But as his recent Premier League form and results indicate, there’s few more naturally gifted and dangerous in darts than the Bully Boy.

En-route to glory, Smith beat Oskar Lukasiak, Adam Hunt, Jonny Clayton, Richard Veenstra, Luke Woodhouse, Krzysztof Ratajski and finally Ryan Joyce to end his long wait for a ranking title.

Read More: Noa-Lynn Van Leuven Set To Make PDC Pro Tour Debut

The ‘History Maker’ Brendan Dolan was enjoying a fantastic end to 2023 with his run to the quarter finals of the World Championship, but had yet to truly make an impact on the floor events and TV in the first half of 2024.

Wit the World Cup on the horizon, and competing with Daryl Gurney and Josh Rock for one of Northern Ireland’s two coveted spots, Dolan was on fine form to win his 10th career ranking title in the PDC.

Beating the underdog Jeffrey de Graaf 8-4 in the final, Dolan previously battled past a surprise set of names, including Robert Grundy, Franz Roetsch, Peter Wright, Dom Taylor, his compatriot Daryl Gurney, and Graham Hall to make the final in the first place!

Noa-Lynn Van Leuven, the transgender star who was making her PDC Pro Tour debut in Hidelsheim. But it was a debut to forget for the Dutchwoman, as she was whitewashed by Gary Anderson on the opening day, before falling 6-3 to the reigning WDF World Champion Andy Baetens.

And it was yet another torrid Pro Tour event for Michael Van Gerwen: plummeting down to 22nd in this year’s Pro Tour Order of Merit, his comeback loss to Steve Beaton and narrow defeat to Karel Sedlacek continuing this rare vein of bad form for the man many consider the greatest of all time.

By Jaspar Shepherdson

(@jasparshepmedia on X/Twitter and Instagram)

Image Credit: Sven Mandel on Wikipedia