Jacob Taylor and Fallon Sherrock became the latest players to secure spots at the 2024 WDF World Championships at Lakeside by winning the Gold-ranked Las Vegas Open.
The offer of a guaranteed World Championship spot certainly drew the numbers to Sin City, with 396 Men and 142 Women competing in North America’s first Gold event since November 2021.
Terrific Taylor pips Smith in last-leg decider
In the Men’s Open, it was the unseeded Canadian Taylor that stormed through the field, winning nine matches to claim his first WDF title and a spot on the iconic Lakeside stage.
Up against ‘The Truth’ in the title decider was fellow Canadian and 2016 Lakeside finalist Jeff Smith, who’d won eight matches to reach the final in his first WDF event since dropping off the PDC Pro Tour.
A break in the opening leg of the final helped Smith establish an initial 2-0 lead, only for Taylor to fire in a 119 finish that kicked off a five-leg burst that put him within one of the title.
Taylor had the chance to seal a 6-2 victory but couldn’t convert a match dart and was duly punished, Smith pinning 67 to make it 5-3 before levelling it up with successive legs in 14 and 17 darts.
In a close final leg, it was Taylor having the throw and his superior scoring that enabled him to seal victory on tops with Smith waiting on double eight.
55-year-old Taylor finished with an 85.95 average and 32% on the doubles, and in addition to securing his Lakeside place, took home the top prize of $2,000.
After a slow start, Taylor had shown good form throughout the day, dispatching Gino Florian and Cory Tkach to nil in the early point-scoring rounds before accounting for both Dustin Holt and Aaron Turner 4-1 to book a semi-final with David Cameron.
He won that tie 5-1 to set up his meeting with ‘The Silencer’, who had endured a more up and down day in terms of standard but had turned it on when it mattered, beating USA international Robbie Phillips in a last-leg decider before defeating Aaron Jalbert, Adam Sevada and 2023 champion Chris Lim to reach the final.
WDF Las Vegas Open | Men’s Quarter-Finals
Jeff Smith 4-2 Adam Sevada
Chris Lim 4-0 Jim Widmayer
Jacob Taylor 4-1 Aaron Turner
David Cameron 4-2 Jim Mayer
Semi-Finals
Jeff Smith 5-4 Chris Lim
Jacob Taylor 5-1 David Cameron
Final
Jacob Taylor 6-5 Jeff Smith
Sensational Sherrock seals Lakeside return
Fallon Sherrock proved a cut above in her return to WDF action, sealing her first WDF ranking title in 20 months with a 5-1 final victory over fellow Englishwoman Wendy Reinstadtler.
Entering the Las Vegas Open as the 10th seed, Sherrock raced into the quarter-finals without dropping a leg. She did go 1-0 down in the last eight courtesy of a 15-darter from Anca Zijlstra but breezed through after that, running out a 4-1 winner with a tournament-best 89.13 average.
She then knocked out American No.1 Paula Murphy 4-1 to reach the final, where she was taking on surprise package Reinstadtler.
Unseeded but bidding to reach Lakeside again for the first time in 13 years, Reinstadtler had beaten top seed Deta Hedman 4-0 and survived last-leg deciders against Cheyenne Richards, Carolyn Mars and Canada’s Maria Carli to reach the title decider.
Sherrock broke Reinstadtler’s throw in the opening leg of the final and that set the tone for a dominant victory. Reinstadtler had a dart to make it 1-1 and did hold throw in the third leg, but she wasn’t able to match Sherrock’s scoring. ‘The Queen of the Palace’ eventually prevailed 5-1, sealing the title with a match-best 13-darter and finishing with an 84.74 average.
WDF Las Vegas Open | Women’s Quarter-Finals
Wendy Reinstadtler 4-0 Deta Hedman
Maria Carli 4-1 Alicia Looker
Fallon Sherrock 4-1 Anca Zijlstra
Paula Murphy 4-2 Julie Weger
Semi-Finals
Wendy Reinstadtler 4-3 Maria Carli
Fallon Sherrock 4-1 Paula Murphy
Final
Fallon Sherrock 5-1 Wendy Reinstadtler
America and Canada share honours in Youth competitions
The 2024 Las Vegas Open saw the addition of Boys and Girls ranking tournaments and in those honours were split between the USA and Canada.
Peyton Hammond of Canada won the Boys title, averaging just shy of 70 in a 4-0 win over American teenager Coby Chrisman.
In the Girls final, Mongolian-born Ankheluun Munkhbayasgalan defeated Canada’s Katie Gallant 4-2.
More Lakeside spots on offer in February
It’s not long until more automatic qualifiers for the 2024 WDF World Championship will be known, with the Platinum-ranked Dutch Open and Gold-graded South Australian Classic taking place in February.
More than 6,000 players will compete in Assen at the Dutch Open at the beginning of the month, with 2022 World Masters winners Wesley Plaisier and Beau Greaves entering as top seeds.
Later in the month, the tour will head to Salisbury, South Australia, where Oceania’s top players will be looking to join Ky Smith and Amanda Loch in this year’s Lakeside fields.
