Netherlands A successfully defended their PDPA Junior World Cup title as the Junior Darts Corporation’s festival of darts got under way in Gibraltar on Tuesday.

In an all-Dutch final, it was Netherlands A who whitewashed Netherlands B 4-0, as the team of Jurjen van der Velde, Daan Bastiaansen, Owen Roelofs and Luke van der Kwast were crowned champions.

Van der Velde, Bastiannsen and Roelofs were part of the Dutch team which won the tournament last year, with van der Kwast replacing Levy Fraenfelder in this year’s A-team line-up.

The World Cup was the first of three competitions taking place at the new Europa Point Arena, in Gibraltar this week, with 26 teams representing 16 different countries all in action in the team event.

The 26 teams were split into six different groups, with the Netherlands A securing a clean sweep of wins, beating England B (4-3), China A (4-1) and USA (4-0) to finish top of Group 3.

England A, Netherlands B, the Czech Republic, Ireland A and Denmark A also won all of their group games to advance to the last 16 as group winners.

In the knockout stages, Netherlands A, England A, Ireland A and the Czech Republic all enjoyed 4-0 whitewash wins, while Netherlands B knocked out England B 4-2, and Denmark A lost to Scotland 4-2.

The defending champions were then pushed all the way in the quarter-finals by Ireland A, with the tie going down to a deciding leg of 701. Roelofs held his nerve to find the double with his last dart to send the Dutch into a semi-final clash with England A, who had continued their progress with a 4-1 win against hosts Gibraltar A.

Elsewhere in the last eight, the Czech Republic avoided a decider as USA missed darts at double to force a seventh game, and David Zaruba sealed a 4-2 victory to set up a semi-final tie against Netherlands B.

The Dutch B team had beaten Scotland 4-2 to reach the last four, and they repeated the scoreline in the semi-finals, seeing off the Czech Republic to book their place in the final.

Netherlands A whitewashed England A 4-0 to join their compatriots in the final, and completed another 4-0 win in the decider to retain the title.

The JDC’s festival of darts continues today with the DartConnect Junior International Open. The festival concludes tomorrow with the Scott Farms International Junior World Darts Championship, which will be played down to the final. The final will be held at Alexandra Palace, during the PDC World Championship, on December 21.

2019 PDPA Junior World Cup

Group Stages (W-L Record, Points)
Group 1
(Q) England A (4-0) 16
(Q) New Zealand B (3-1) 12
(Q) Spain (2-2) 10
Denmark B (1-3) 9
Gibraltar B (0-4) 1

Group 2
(Q) Netherlands B (4-0_ 16
(Q) Gibraltar A (3-1) 14
(Q) India A (2-2) 10
China B (1-3) 9
Iceland (0-4) 3

Group 3
(Q) Netherlands A (3-0) 12
(Q) USA (2-1) 8
(Q) England B 1-2) 7
China A (0-3) 3

Group 4
(Q) Czech Republic (3-0) 12
(Q) Wales B (1-2) 8
(Q) Australia A (1-2) 8
India B (1-2) 6

Group 5
(Q) Ireland A (3-0) 12
(Q) Scotland (2-1) 9
New Zealand A (1-2) 7
Australia B (0-3) 1

Group 6
(Q) Denmark A (3-0) 12
(Q) Wales A (2-1) 11
Ireland B (1-2) 5
Canada (0-3) 4

Knockout Stages
Last 16
USA 4-2 New Zealand B
Czech Republic 4-0 India A
Netherlands B 4-2 England B
Scotland 4-2 Denmark A
Netherlands A 4-0 Spain
Ireland A 4-0 Wales B
England A 4-0 Australia A
Gibraltar A 4-1 Wales A

Quarter-Finals
Czech Republic 4-2 USA
Netherlands B 4-2 Scotland
Netherlands A 4-3 Ireland A
England A 4-1 Gibraltar A

Semi-Finals
Netherlands B 4-2 Czech Republic
Netherlands A 4-0 England A

Final
Netherlands A 4-0 Netherlands B

Highest Tournament Averages
87.85 – Keane Barry
81.19 – Nathan Girvan
76.65 – Tomas Houdeck
75.94 – Adam Gawlas
75.26 – Daan Bastiaansen

Most 180s
3 – Nathan Girvan, Daan Mastiaansen, Pim van Bijnen, Robin Stegler, Marcel Bus

Highest Checkouts
156 – Justin Hewitt
154 – Lachie Gleason
128 – Pim van Bijnen, Cory Horne
127 – James Beeton

Picture: JDC / Twitter