Williams & Van Veen claim maiden Development Tour titles

Lewy Williams (Lawrence Lustig/PDC)

Gian van Veen and Lewy Williams celebrated maiden Development Tour titles on a thrilling day of darts in Hildesheim on Saturday.

Following Josh Rock’s heroics on Friday, Van Veen denied the 21-year-old in a dramatic deciding-leg clash to seal Event 18 glory, averaging 96 to scoop the £2,000 winner’s prize.

The 20-year-old fired in a 14-darter to deny Rock in a high-quality contest, to halt the Northern Irishman's incredible 22-match winning run in Germany.

Van Veen relinquished five legs en route to the quarter-finals, posting a sensational 115.92 average in his third round win over Cavan Phillips, featuring winning legs of 10, 13, 12 and 14 darts.

The Dutchman also accounted for his compatriots Kevin Doets and Owen Roelofs to set up a showdown against Rock, who kicked off his campaign with five straight whitewash wins.

The 21-year-old also demolished Keane Barry in the last eight to extend his lead at the top of the Order of Merit, before overcoming former World Youth finalist Adam Gawlas in the semi-finals.

Williams then claimed the Event 19 spoils after defying a spirited fightback from emerging Dutchman Doets to prevail in a last-leg shoot-out.

Williams opened up a commanding 4-1 buffer before Doets reeled off three consecutive legs to force a decider, but the Welshman kept his cool, completing the job with a classy 13-dart hold.

The 20-year-old also survived last-leg shoot-outs against Keanen Norris and Jonas Aplowski, before storming past Robin Beger and Daniel Perry in the latter stages of Saturday’s action.

Doets came agonisingly close to securing a fourth Development Tour crown on Saturday, producing a series of classy displays, which included a 98 average in his semi-final success against Barry.

UK Open semi-finalist Barry avenged his defeat to Rock in the quarter-finals of Event 18 by running out a 5-2 winner at the same stage of Event 19, despite 101 and 105 averages from Rock earlier in the event.

The Winmau Development Tour weekend concludes with Event 20 on Sunday, as the sport's brightest young stars compete for £10,000 in prize money in Germany.

The top two players from the 2022 Development Tour Order of Merit will win a PDC Tour Card for 2023-24 and a place in the 2022/23 Cazoo World Darts Championship.

The event draws and results are listed in the Match Centre.

Match stats can be viewed through DartConnect.

2022 Winmau Development Tour
Saturday August 20
Event 18
Quarter-Finals

Adam Gawlas 5-0 Dylan Slevin
Josh Rock 5-1 Keane Barry
Owen Roelofs 5-1 Robbe Dasseville
Gian van Veen 5-4 Kevin Doets

Semi-Finals
Josh Rock 5-2 Adam Gawlas
Gian van Veen 5-3 Owen Roelofs

Final
Gian van Veen 5-4 Josh Rock

Event 19
Quarter-Finals

Keane Barry 5-2 Josh Rock
Kevin Doets 5-2 Vinay Ramnath
Daniel Perry 5-4 Zac Griffiths
Lewy Williams 5-0 Robin Beger

Semi-Finals
Kevin Doets 5-4 Keane Barry
Lewy Williams 5-1 Daniel Perry

Final
Lewy Williams 5-4 Kevin Doets