That famous archipelago nation of islands, the Philippines, cleaned up at the recent PDC Asian Tour weekend, claiming three of the four titles.
Singapore was the destination this time around. A lovely nation, which I had the pleasure of stopping over in for one night en route to Australia. I was beyond impressed with their decision to place a fountain inside the airport. Why? I have no idea. But it was certainly different and strangely captivating. It didn’t quite take the edge off my four-hour delay, but at that point, no amount of spicy noodles would have done.
Anyway, enough about my past travels. On with the darts and the next batch of events – 17 to 20, to be more specific.
The first player into the winner’s circle this weekend was Motomu Sakai, who, if I said he was that crazy Japanese fella from the World Cup of Darts who walked on wearing shades and pretended to be blind, you’d all clock on immediately.
Sakai is clearly not playing with a full deck. But he is playing with a set of darts, and he’s incredibly good with them. The Japanese star, who looks like he should be fronting a rock band rather than lobbing tungsten on an oche, defeated Hong Kong’s Lok Lin Lee 5-2 in the final.
As I wasn’t anywhere near Singapore, nor did I have a stream to watch, God only knows what he did to celebrate. That made it Asian Tour title number six for the eccentric arrow-smith from the Land of the Rising Sun.
Then came the Filipino charge, led by former PDC Tour Card holder Christian Perez. Sadly, during his time in the UK, he never really showed his true mettle, often being dumped out of Players Championship events early.
Given his pace on the oche, he still wasn’t back at the hotel until at least 5pm. Not because he enjoyed deep runs. No, because that was about the average time a couple of his matches had finally been completed.
Of course I joke. I know Christian, and he’s a good egg. He’s now clearly showing his class on the Asian Tour, with his second and third titles arriving in consecutive events. The first came courtesy of defeating fellow Filipino Alexis Toylo 5-1 in the showpiece. Then, bizarrely enough, he beat the very same compatriot by the exact same scoreline in the very next event. So much so, I had to double-check I hadn’t accidentally opened the same Darts Connect page twice. I hadn’t.
To emphasise the Philippines’ domination even further, the final tournament of the weekend featured two more of their stars in the final. This time it was Lourence Ilagan, who is quite the character himself, overcoming Paolo Nebrida in a dramatic last-leg decider.
Ilagan now has sixteen of these crowns to his name. Yes, he’s been around the scene for quite a while, but simply turning up at your local football club doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to bang in a hat-trick. Quite the opposite, as far as I was concerned. Official bench-warmer, me.
Next up, and rather frighteningly for most of the players, the tour heads to the Philippines itself. Manila, to be exact, which, if you know your islands, you’ll find on one of the country’s 7,600. Good luck with that.
