NZ Darts Pro-Tour Comes to a Climax

The Winmau NZ Darts Pro-Tour for the 2024 season comes to an end as all of the top dart players throughout the country will gather this weekend in Hamilton for its conclusion.

This pro tour is open to any dart player with an entry fee of just $40. But each stop will likely see only the best players enter as intermediate players will soon find that paying $40 to lose most of your games to nil can lose its “fun factor” very quickly. This despite the lure of a $1,000 prize money for each of the tour winners. These players can play the game of darts with many able to average into the 90’s, even’s above 100 at times throughout the tour.

The tour is a series of 12 tournaments that started back in February of this year and ends 7 ½ months later this weekend. They are played throughout a weekend with two tour stops played on a Saturday and a Sunday. The five venues used throughout the country this year has attracted players from all around with the best of the best battling it out at the oche.

The seasoner opener held at the Black Horse Hotel, Christchurch in late February saw young Kayden “Half Stubby” Milne take the DPNZ Tour1 by beating “Big Rig” Ben Robb in the opener. The following day saw Mark Cleaver take it out in DPNZ Pro Tour2 over one of New Zealand’s darts legends, Warren Parry.

A month later, the professional dart players were up in Auckland with the DPNZ Pro Tour3 seeing a record number of entrants as 109 players descended on the Birkenhead RSA. This time Ben Robb took honours as he reversed the series opener result by beating Kayden Milne. On the Sunday John Hurring won the first of his three series wins to take out the Pro Tour4 event beating Deon Toki in the final.

Another month on and another venue, this time to Sun City in Nelson for the Pro Tour 5 and 6 events. On the Saturday, John Hurring made it back to back finals wins in Pro Tour5 over the then 23 year old Kayden Milne. In Pro Tour6 Jordan Whyte got his maiden win of the year by beating Kayden Milne. Kayden can be pleased with his effort by making the finals on both days that weekend in Nelson.

Pro Tour 7 and 8 shifted again, this time to the Hamilton Cossie Club, Hamilton. John Hurring completed his hatrick of wins for the year by beating Mark Cleaver in the Pro Tour7 finale. The following day saw Mark Cleaver go one step better to beat Hipi Tewhakaara in the final of Pro Tour8.

Then a nearly two month break saw players move to Kapi Mana Darts in Wellington for the last two Pro-Tour’s played so far. Pro Tour 9 and 10. For the first time this year, professional darts player and arguably NZ’s best, Haupai Puha “Hopes” was back in town after spending most of the year playing the best in the world on the PDC Pro Tour in the UK. In no time at all, Hopes was on the podium as he took out Pro Tour 9 by beating Tukina Weko in the final. The following day NZ’s other arguably best player Ben Robb was back in form by taking out Pro Tour 10 over Kayden Milne.

This weekend will see nearly all of the top ranked players descend on the Hamilton Cossie Club in Hamilton once again to play for the final two Pro Tour events of the year, Pro Tour 11 and 12. The importance of these two events are quite big for these players. Firstly, you have to have played in at least six of these events this year to be eligible to qualify to play in the Oceanic Masters to be held later this month at the Howick Club in Auckland. Top darts players from both New Zealand and Australia will be there.

The other importance of Pro Tour 11 and 12 this weekend is it will complete the rankings for the year with the top 16 ranked players going into a playoff type format competition to be held this Monday the 7th of October. The winner of this top 16 playoff’s will win a spot to play at the Ally Pally (the Alexandra Palace) in London at the PDC World Darts Championships to be played from December the 15th through to January the 3rd 2025.

So, with all of that to play for, good luck to all of those dart players competing in Hamilton this weekend.