Brilliant Duzza wins lively Home Tour night

Despite admitting to a “rubbish” online game, Glen Durrant lived up to his billing as Premier League leader and three-time BDO world champion to claim the PDC Home Tour honours on Tuesday.

Duzza got the better of good friend Justin Pipe in a riotous fourth game of the night, where the pair traded good-natured verbal jousting as well as clutch finishing, before wrapping up a 100% record with a win over Maik Kuivenhoven.

“I have been pretty rubbish online, but I am hoping it will be alright on the night,” Durrant kicked off the evening by telling host Dan Dawson.

He lived up to the latter, proving to be more than alright with three victories to storm into the second phase and avoid the same fate that has befallen Peter Wright, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith and James Wade.

All four have been among the big names to crash out but Durrant dropped just seven legs to claim the honours and top spot.

It was very much a case of friends reunited on Day 19 on the PDC’s darting from home extravaganza as Durrant and Pipe, who practice together, were joined in the group by Dutch duo Kuivenhoven and Vincent Van der Meer who are also practice partners and travel together on the circuit.

Durrant and Pipe won the opening two matches, both with a 5-1 scoreline, with Durrant’s victory over Van der Meer seeing him average more than 100 in the process. Kuivenhoven rekindled his hopes of progress by rebounding from a four-leg defeat to Pipe to win by the same margin against his countryman.

The pivotal match was the contest between the two Englishmen, where Durrant’s 164 for a 3-1 lead was pivotal and came just moments after Pipe had missed a dart at bullseye for a 127 finish. Splitting the next four legs ensured Duzza was in pole position to qualify thanks to a 5-3 win that was sealed with a 97 check-out and matchwinning interview with his Middlesbrough gnome.

Pipe’s 5-2 win over Van der Meer meant that going into the final game between Kuivenhoven and Durrant, only Pipe and Duzza could go through – Kuivenhoven’s leg difference and defeat to Pipe meant even a 5-0 win would not be enough.

A win would see Durrant progress with a perfect record, while a Kuivenhoven victory by 5-3 or better would be enough for Pipe – however, when Duzza edged into a 4-3 lead, that was enough to put him through and he went on to seal the success.

“You are always the best player in your own bedroom, so we will see,” Duzza had said earlier in the night.

And while it wasn’t his bedroom – it was a darts room converted from his daughter’s old bedroom – Duzza proved good value on the oche as well as off it on an entertaining evening.

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