Following eight days of captivating comebacks, fairytale stories and the delight of witnessing televised darts back at the iconic Lakeside, two current champions on the WDF circuit lock horns for the amateur game’s biggest prize.
Neither Frenchman Thibault Tricole nor Northern Ireland’s Neil Duff were particularly mentioned in regards to becoming this year’s Lakeside world champion, although both have travelled across Europe chasing ranking points over the past year or so and thoroughly deserve their moments in the limelight.
Duff will be vying to make his words reality after bullishly claiming that he’ll be crowned world champion at the start of the tournament, with his daughter celebrating her 18th birthday on finals day, while Tricole’s name is seemingly on the trophy after receiving his fair share of fortune throughout.
Tricole survived six match darts against Canadian Shawn Burt in his opener, before dodging an additional two in the quarter-finalist against a distraught Andy Baetens. Sometimes things are just written in the stars, and Tricole reigning victorious would be another monumental moment for French darts.
The reigning Denmark Open champion fell over the line against the highly-fancied Cameron Menzies in the semi-finals, spurning a dozen attempts to close out an historic victory before eventually advancing on double one. Nerves appeared to play a significant part for the Frenchman towards the backend.
Having made his PDC ProTour debut a week before the tournament commenced, Tricole has consistently averaged in the high-80s throughout his campaign, and you’d expect him to need to raise those levels for the final against the heavy scoring efficiency of Duff.
Duff survived two match darts himself against the dangerous Jim McEwan in the quarter-finals, firing home eleven maximums and recording an impressive average of 94.28, before almost emulating that prolific performance in a surprise victory over Brian Raman’s conquerer in Richard Veenstra.
His explosive scoring power was more than evident in his Lakeside thriller against British Classic champion McEwan, with Duff registering 19 scores in excess of 171 throughout the tournament compared to Tricole’s 12.
Tricole and Duff encountered one another in the title decider at the 2020 Isle of Man Classic in one of the last ranking events before the coronavirus pandemic, with Tricole claiming the spoils after defeating none other than Scotland’s Menzies in the semi-finals.
Prediction: 6-4 Tricole
