2024 WDF World Masters – Day 2

The men’s and women’s knockout rounds started today, with 128 men and 96 women. By the time we had started the Top 64 of both, we had lost Renee Ripol, Emily Kaufhold, Liz Tynan, Andrea Taylor, Joey Lynaugh, Jay Waugh, Dave Dwyer, Robbie Phillips, and Jason Daigneault.

Top 64 is where we lost Cali West and Laura Dintsch, and Aaja Jalbert missed match darts to advance. That left Tracy Feiertag, and the New Yorker wrapped up a fine win after going 2-0 down. Top 64 is where a number of men exited the event. Dustin Holt, David Fatum, and Matt Thompson all lost last leg tie-breakers, while Kevin Luke went down 5-3 to Jason Brandon. The Tennessean was joined at T32 by Gary Brooks, Elliot Milk, and Jeff Springer.

Tracy’s run was to end next match, losing to impressive Hungarian Veronika Ihasz. Three of our remaining men – Brooks, Milk, and Springer – also fell at this stage. Brandon was still looking good, and only dropped the one leg against Benjamin Pratnemer. An even better performance next time out, against England’s Dave Ladley, saw him post a 97 average on his way to the quarter-finals.

One match from the stage, Jason took on Connor Scutt, who has been posting some incredible averages in recent weeks. That form continued with a 110.44 average, and American hopes of providing the 2024 World Master were ended. However, please don’t think that told the whole story, as Jason Brandon produced possibly the greatest performance by any American male in Europe. Yes, it was that good!

Forget the scoreline, as the man from Cowan record the highest ever average by an American in a WDF major – a fantastic 105.16! Particularly heartbreaking was the fact that, over the last three legs, Jason averaged 119.82 – and didn’t get a dart at a double… Legs of 12, 12, and 15, with checkouts of 121, 130, and 85, sealed a famous victory for the Englishman. A tough loss for Brandon, but with the Lakeside World Championship around the corner, this was a great warm-up.

Today was also the day when the youths took to the boards. After some tough round-robin play, two American girls – Alivia Farrell and Kaylee Zerby – had qualified for the knockout round. Despite seven boys battling it out i the groups, only Tim Welcome survived. Sadly, all three were to fall at the first hurdle, but they did gain valuable experience.

Tomorrow (Friday) sees the start of the WDF-ranked ‘World Open’.

You can follow the live scores on DartConnect.

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