Winmau Development Tour wins for Heneghan & Girvan

PDC dartboard

Conor Heneghan and Nathan Girvan were victorious in Events Eight and Nine on a super Saturday in the Winmau Development Tour in Wigan.

Heneghan defeated Dutchman Jitse Van der Wal 5-3 in the final of Event Eight to take the £2,000 title and claim his first win on the Development Tour, after coming close in Event One earlier this year. 

The Irishman looked fairly comfortable en route to the title, featuring a whitewash win over Leon Remde in his fourth win of the day, before seeing off Christopher Holt 4-1 in the last 16. 

Next came another whitewash win, this time with a 5-0 scoreline against England's Charlie Manby which saw Heneghan book his spot in the semi-finals, where he was too strong for Rusty-Jake Rodriguez, posting a 5-1 victory to seal his spot in the final.

In reaching the final, Van der Wal came so close to a nine-darter in the last 16, missing double 12 to complete the pefect leg before coming out on top a 4-0 winner over Viani Van den Bergh with a 101.90 average, the highest in the event.

Event Nine saw Scotland's Nathan Girvan secure his first Winmau Development Tour win after beating Event Six winner Nathan Rafferty 5-2 in the final.

The 19-year-old came through a tough last-leg decider in his opening match against Rodriguez, before straightforward wins over Manby (4-2), Tom Heldt (4-1), Cavan Phillips (4-2) and Connor Hopkins (4-0) saw him seal his place in the last eight.

Here, Girvan dispatched Adam Gawlas 5-0 before seeing off Englishman Keelan Kay 5-3 in the semi-finals en route to picking up the £2,000 bonus.

Rafferty put in a brilliant display in Event Nine, posting two ton-plus averages before a stunning comeback in the semi-finals from 4-0 down to Gergely Lakatos saw him go through to the final a 5-4 winner. 

It was Bradley Brooks who put in the highest average of the day, averaging an superb 106.05 in seeing off Sebastian Bialecki in the last 16, before falling short at the quarter-final stage to Lakatos. 

Action on the Winmau Development Tour continues in Wigan on Sunday with Event Ten, to round off the second of weekends being staged in 2022.

The winner of the 2022 Development Tour Order of Merit will win a PDC Tour Card for 2023-24 and a place in the 2022/23 World Championship.

TheSee full results in the Match Centre.

See match stats through DartConnect.

2022 PDC Winmau Development Tour
Saturday May 7, Robin Park Tennis Centre, Wigan
Event Eight
Quarter-Finals

Jitse Van der Wal 5-3 Bram van Dijk
Sebastian Bialecki 5-3 Geert Nentjes
Conor Heneghan 5-0 Charlie Manby
Rusty-Jake Rodriguez 5-4 Killian Heffernan

Semi-Finals
Jitse Van der Wal 5-3 Sebastian Bialecki
Conor Heneghan 5-3 Rusty-Jake Rodriguez

Final
Conor Heneghan 5-1 Jitse Van der Wal

Event Nine
Quarter-Finals

Nathan Girvan 5-0 Adam Gawlas
Keelan Kay 5-0 John Brown
Nathan Rafferty 5-4 Dom Taylor
Gergely Lakatos 5-3 Bradley Brooks

Semi-Finals
Nathan Girvan 5-3 Keelan Kay
Nathan Rafferty 5-4 Gergely Lakatos

Final
Nathan Girvan 5-2 Nathan Rafferty