Greaves Completes Hat-Trick Of Women's World Titles At Lakeside

Greaves And McGuirk Make History At Lakeside

Alex Moss |

A Week In Darts โ€“ December 9, 2024 โ€“ Greaves Wins Third Womenโ€™s World Championship In A Row At Lakeside

The 2024 Mission WDF Lakeside World Championships concluded on Sunday night as four world champions were crowned on the famous Lakeside stage. Hereโ€™s our round-up of how the final day of action played out...

@dartscorner.co.uk ๐ŸŽฏ๐Ÿ† ๐†๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ฏ๐ž๐ฌ ๐€๐ง๐ ๐Œ๐œ๐†๐ฎ๐ข๐ซ๐ค ๐Œ๐š๐ค๐ž ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐€๐ญ ๐‹๐š๐ค๐ž๐ฌ๐ข๐๐ž - The Weekly Dartscast co-host Alex Moss brings you Darts Corner's recap of all the darts action including the final day of the Mission WDF Lakeside World Championships! #WeGetDarts #darts #dartscommunity #dartsfamily #lovethedarts #dartsnews #sportsnews #sports #fyp #lakesidedarts #paullim โ™ฌ original sound - Darts Corner

GREAVES BAGS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP HAT-TRICK

Beau Greaves continued her dominance of the ladiesโ€™ game after winning the WDF Lakeside Womenโ€™s World Championship for a third consecutive year.

The 20-year-old breezed through to the final without dropping a set but found herself a set behind in last nightโ€™s deciding clash at Lakeside.

Scottish teenager Sophie McKinlay, who had knocked out Lisa Ashton and Aileen de Graaf on the way to the final on debut, clinched the opening set after Greaves had missed four set darts.

The defending champion responded with six legs on the spin to take the next two sets and move 2-1 in front.

โ€˜Beau โ€˜nโ€™ Arrowโ€™ would go on to win sets four and five, both 3-1, to complete a 4-1 win against the 18-year-old and complete a hat-trick of world titles.

Greaves joins a shortlist of three-time womenโ€™s world champions which includes Trina Gulliver (10 titles), Ashton (four titles) and Anastasia Dobromyslova (three titles).

For McKinlay it would be double disappointment on finals day, with the Scot losing 2-0 to Englandโ€™s Paige Pauling in the Girls World Championship final at the start of the night.

Top seed Pauling had won 16 youth titles already in 2024 and the 16-year-old posted the highest average in the tournamentโ€™s short history with a 73.88 average helping her to wrap up a straight sets win against McKinlay.

MCGUIRK ENDS LIM FAIRYTALE

Shane McGuirk became the first senior world darts champion from the Republic of Ireland after lifting the WDF Lakeside Menโ€™s World Championship title last night.

The 29-year-old from Monaghan ended the fairytale weekย of Paul Lim, who enjoyed a memorable run to his first ever World Championship final at 70 years of age.

Debutant McGuirk had raced into Sundayโ€™s final without dropping a single set, the first player to achieve that feat in a BDO/WDF Menโ€™s World Championship since the late Eric Bristow in 1984.

The Irishman threatened to make even more history as he stormed into a 4-0 lead against Lim in the final, before the Singapore veteran kept his hopes of glory alive by winning three of the next four sets to close the gap to 5-3.

McGuirk got over the line in the next set as he swept the ninth set 3-0 to complete a 6-3 victory and pocket the ยฃ50,000 top prize.

Lim started the tournament as a 150-1 outsider but pulled off three deciding-set victories in a row against Kai-Fan Leung, Gary Stone and Jarno Bottenberg, before whitewashing American Jason Brandon 5-0 in the semi-finals.

โ€˜The Singapore Slingerโ€™ threw the first, and only, nine-dart finish on the Lakeside stage back in 1990 and was competing in his 27th World Championship campaign across all codes.

Meanwhile, Archie Self fought back from a set behind to beat top seed Jenson Walker 3-2 in the final of the WDF Lakeside Boys World Championship.

The 15-year-old was the underdog against the more experienced Walker, 18, who had won 10 WDF youth ranking titles in 2024.

A back and forth final saw Walker take the opening set before Self responded with back-to-back sets to go 2-1 in front.

โ€˜The Interceptorโ€™ rallied with a 137 finish helping him take the fourth set, and kept his hopes alive with a 131 finish in the deciding set, but Self would prove to be too strong in the decider.

The title brings an end to an impressive 2024 for โ€˜The Archerโ€™ who also won the JDC Advanced Tour and became the JDC number one.

LITTLER NOMINATED FOR BBC SPOTY

Luke Littlerโ€™s record-breaking 2024 has been recognised with a nomination for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

The 17-year-old, who is already on the shortlist for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year, has made the shortlist for the eventโ€™s main award.

Littlerโ€™s year began with a run to the PDC World Darts Championship final, then aged just 16, in January with the final watched by a record audience on Sky Sports for a non-football event.

โ€˜The Nukeโ€™ has won 10 titles during his first season on the PDC senior circuit, including the Premier League and Grand Slam of Darts.

Littlerโ€™s rivals for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award are Olympic gold medallist Keely Hodkinson, England footballer Jude Bellingham, England cricketer Joe Root, Paralympic cyclist Sarah Storey and Olympic triathlete Alex Yee.

The awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday December 17 (7pm).

Alex Mossย is a content creator for Darts Corner and the co-host of theย Weekly Dartscastย podcast. Alex co-founded the Weekly Dartscast in 2017 andย has helped produce 350+ episodes of the podcast, with their list of previous guests on the show a whoโ€™s who in the world of darts.

Alex also writes content for the Darts Corner blog, including the weeklyย darts news round-upsย andย how-to guides.