Simon Whitlock makes it three times lucky with his first major victory in the European Darts Championship. Whitlock breezed past Wes Newton in the final in front a rather partisan crowd, which did effect Newton. The pair were level at 2-2 before Whitlock found his feet and surged into a 5-2 lead. Newton did pull it back to 6-4 before a party piece, 167-checkout, made it 8-4. Newton managed to win one more leg before Whitlock completed the 11-5 job to take his first major victory.
Newton made it into the final with a tight fought victory over Brendan Dolan. After trading the first two legs, Dolan took an early 3-1 lead. That soon transpired into a 4-2 lead before Newton managed to come back and level the match. The Warrior then led 5-4 before Dolan turned it around and made it 7-5. Newton missed seven darts to make it 7-7 and ultimately found himself 9-6 behind. But it would be Dolan who rued missed darts; after missing two doubles to go 10-6 ahead, Newton managed to fire five legs on the spin to win the match.
It was the same scoreline for Whitlock who just managed to see off Kim Huybrechts. Just like his quarter-final, Whitlock surged into a 3-0 lead before being pegged back to 3-3 with the Belgian securing a 104 and a 102-checkout on the way. Huybrechts did then take the lead but the pair remained locked together all the way to 8-8. Within that, Huybrechts found a 122-checkout to lead 5-4 and Whitlock did miss seven darts at the double to take an 8-7 lead and secure a break of throw. Whitlock then managed to gain that crucial break of throw to make it 10-8 before Huybrechts threatened to come back with a sensational bull, bull, double-16 132-checkout. But the Australian finished the job with a 95-checkout that finished on the bull.
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