JACK Nankervis and Ryan Branley triumphed in Coventry to make it four different winners from from four events to kick off the JDC Advanced Tour for 2024.
In what is already shaping up to be an incredibly competitive season, 13-year-old Nankervis of England beat Nico Bado of Gibraltar 6-3 in the Event 3 final, before fellow Englishman Branley, 15, beat Khurelkhuu Tergel of Mongolia 6-5 to claim victory in the Event 4 decider.
After four events, Daniel Stephenson – the winner of Event 2 – leads the order of merit with 13 points, closely followed by Tergel (11), Branley, Nankervis and Bado (all on 10).
EVENT 3 SUMMARY
NANKERVIS turned plenty of heads with his dominant performances on the Foundation Tour in 2023, topping the order of merit aged 12 to book his Advanced Tour spot.
And he carried that excellent form into the higher level by bagging an Advanced Tour title at only the third time of asking.
The young Cornishman fought back from 2-1 down to beat Rhys Butler 4-2 in his first round game, while eventual runner-up Bado edged a 4-3 thriller against Jack Johnson, which included a 157 checkout by the English player.
The highest average of the opening round belonged to Tergel (88.96), who hit checkouts of 107 and 105 in his 4-2 win against Jayden Jones of England.
Nankervis showed his battling qualities in round two, coming through 4-3 against Ruben Baalmans of the Netherlands, fighting back from 3-1 down and clinching the win with a 107 checkout. Bado, meanwhile, progressed with a 4-1 win over Belgium’s Rune Van Damme, averaging 81.92 and taking out a finish of 116 in the process.
Nankervis saved his best performance of the event for the quarter-finals, averaging 88.31 in a 4-2 win over Tergel with checkouts of 121 and 122. Bado booked his place in the semi-finals with a 4-2 win against Jack Marshall, while Stephenson was a 4-0 victor against Kieran Thompson and Moritz Linn beat Cayden Smith 4-3.
Nankervis beat Linn 5-3 in the semis, winning three legs on the spin to seal his place in the final, while Bado threw two 13-darters and fought back from 4-1 down to beat Stephenson 5-4 and deny the English player a place in a second successive final.
Nankervis was never behind in the final, showing his class and consistency to stay on top and clinch a 6-3 win and his first Advanced Tour title.
EVENT 4 SUMMARY
BRANLEY finished a respectable sixth on the Advanced Tour last year, behind only Luke Littler, Leighton Bennett, Thomas Banks, Lewis Bell and Jenson Walker – and he showed quality and character in equal measure to seal the Event 4 title.
He breezed past Ireland’s Callum Coade 4-0 in the opening round with an average of 85.89, while eventual runner-up Tergel enjoyed a victory by the same scoreline – and with a similar average – against another Irish player in Charlie O’Connor.
Nankervis continued his fine form with an 84.85 average in a 4-1 win over Jai Carlton, while Stephenson averaged 87.55 as he beat Daan Toxopeus by the same margin.
Branley produced arguably the performance of the day in the last 16, beating Baalmans 4-2 with an average of 92.45, with the defeated Dutchman averaging 87.49 himself.
Tergel advanced with a 4-0 win against Sem Sijbrands of the Netherlands, while Stephenson beat Joseph Westby 4-2 in a high-quality contest.
All four players who reached the semi-finals did so with dominant quarter-final displays, with only Branley dropping a leg. He beat Archie Self – the Event 1 winner on Saturday – 4-1 while Nankervis, Cayden Smith and Tergel all breezed through 4-0.
Branley beat Nankervis 5-1 in the semi, with a 127 checkout to go 3-0 up the highlight, while Tergel looked as if he was peaking at the right time as he averaged 91.10 in a 5-3 win against Smith.
But Branley came out on top in an 11-leg thriller to clinch the title, finally breaking throw in the ninth leg, only to be broken in the tenth as Tergel made it 5-5. But Branley – who had hit a 12-dart leg on throw earlier in the final – broke again when it mattered, hitting a 16-dart leg with his opponent waiting on 52.
