The Masters

The eleventh edition of The Masters was held in Milton Keynes from 27 to 29 January. For the third year in a row, the top 24 players from the Order of Merit took part in this tournament. Chris Dobey managed to win the final against Rob Cross, taking his first major title ever.

In the first round, no players from the top eight in the world are yet to play on the oche. Only Dirk van Duijvenbode plays for the Netherlands in this first round: he eventually beats Krzysztof Ratajski 6-3. World Championship semi-finalists Gabriel Clemens and Dimitri van den Bergh immediately lose their first match: Clemens against Jose de Sousa and Van den Bergh against Gary Anderson (both 6-4). Chris Dobey beats defending champion Joe Cullen 6-4, while Dave Chisnall wins 6-5 against Ryan Searle after a great comeback.

In the last sixteen, in addition to Dirk van Duijvenbode, Michael van Gerwen and Danny Noppert also come into action. Van Gerwen beats Jose de Sousa 10-7 with an average of almost 105. Noppert has a hard time with Stephen Bunting, but manages to shake off 'The Bullet' in a deciding leg: 10-9. Van Duijvenbode records a great 10-8 victory over Gerwyn Price and Chris Dobey wins with the same figures against Luke Humphries. The most beautiful match is played between Rob Cross and Gary Anderson. 'Voltage' wins 10-6 and records an average of 112.32. Anderson averages 111.17, which means that 'The Flying Scotsman' can go home with the second best average of this tournament.

Three Dutchmen come into action in the quarterfinals, but each of them falls in the last eight. Noppert loses 10-5 to world champion Michael Smith, Van Duijvenbode goes down with the same numbers against Chris Dobey and Van Gerwen has to acknowledge his superior in Rob Cross (10-7). Finally, Peter Wright also joins the semi-finalists: 'Snakebite' is too strong for Jonny Clayton (10-6).

The numbers 1 and 2 in the world are in the semi-finals, but neither manage to reach the final. Wright misses three match darts against Rob Cross and loses the deciding leg against the Englishman (11-10). Smith sees Chris Dobey take the 11-7 win, putting Dobey in a major final for the first time in his career. In that final he quickly takes a big lead, partly because Cross lacks the strength to play another strong match after two good matches earlier in the day. Dobey plays strong and eventually wins the final 11-7. With that, 'Hollywood' takes its first major title ever. A day later, this appears to be enough to get an invitation to the Premier League.