Delight for the Dutch Dragon in Chicago
With his recent positive results from Europe in his back pocket, an in-form Dutch Dragon, Jules Van Dongen, stormed into Chicago and won the Boomerang Tours Fiesta – Event #4 on the Championship Darts Circuit – with a 7-4 defeat of Danny Lauby in the finals. Van Dongen came out gunning, winning four of the first five legs in the finals, however Lauby would battle back, getting within one at 5-4. Van Dongen stepped it up another notch, flirting with a 9-darter in the tenth leg. He would wrap that leg up in 11 darts and then clinch his first CDC title in the next with a brilliant 142 finish.
Lauby, the ninth seed, started his campaign with a 5-1 dismantling of Jason Brandon in the last-32 before playing his former PDC World Cup of Darts partner, Chuck Puleo. After falling behind 5-3 with a couple of missed opportunities, the Indiana man found his stride to see off Puleo in a deciding leg thriller. In the quarterfinals, Danny pounced early, opening up a 5-2 lead against David Fatum before losing a bit of steam just as The Scorpion found his sting to roll-off three consecutive legs and tie it at 5. Yet again, however, Danny proved too strong in a last-leg decider, checking 101 and stranding his opponent on tops after 12 darts. He then defeated Jeff Springer 7-4 in a semifinal contest that was a lot closer than the scoreline indicates.
Van Dongen, for his part, was unhindered on his march to the finals. He opened his day with a 5-1 defeat of Jeremiah Millar with a blistering 114.38 average. He followed that with a 98.25 average against his own partner at the 2023 PDC World Cup of Darts, Leonard Gates, which culminated in a 5-3 victory. He continued his brilliance with comfortable wins over Doug Boehm (6-2), Keith Way (6-1), and then Jake MacMillan (7-2) in the semifinals to book his tie with Lauby in the final.
It wasn’t to be for the majority of the top-16 seeds, with seven seeded players falling in the last 16, including top seeded Jacob Taylor, third seed David Cameron, as well as Alex Spellman (4), Jim Long (5), Gary Mawson (6), and Chuck Puleo (8). Only ninth seed Danny Lauby and tenth seed Keith Way earned spots in the quarterfinals.
Jeremiah Millar had the highest average on the day with 97.38, however, his 1 match was against Van Dongen, who ended up with the second highest average on the day, with 94.47 across his 6 matches. Canadian Jake MacMillan and American Jeff Springer each notched 14x 180s, while Anthony Cianciolo converted 50% of his check outs, to lead the way.
Finals
Jules Van Dongen 7-4 Danny Lauby (9)
Semifinals
Danny Lauby (9) 7-4 Jeff Springer
Jules Van Dongen 7-2 Jake MacMillan
Quarterfinals
Danny Lauby (9) 6-5 David Fatum
Jeff Springer 6-2 Sylvain Bourdeau
Jules Van Dongen 6-1 Keith Way (10)
Jake MacMillan 6-4 Roger Carter
The 2023 Championship Darts Circuit continues in Chicago this afternoon with the second event of a double header, the Winmau 180 Extravaganza.
Article by Brian Fraser
July 15, 2023