O'Connor, Mansell and Rafferty all through to Austrian Darts Open

Published on 2 April 2025 at 19:32

IT was a good day for the Irish at the PDC European Tour qualifiers with three of them gaining spots at the Austrian Open in Gratz later this month.

Limerick's Willie O'Connor was in fine form yet again as he waltzed through his three matches to claim his spot in Austria.

The Magpie began his day with a 6-2 win over England's Robert Grundy, averaging 98.58 in the process.

He was even more impressive in his next game as he secured a whitewash win over another Englishman, Adam Warner, as he averaged an incredible 107.36 to put him through to the final qualifying round against Dutchman Jelle Klaasen.

O'Connor had too much for the former BDO world champion as he claimed his spot in the Austrian Open with a comfortable 6-2 win, this time averaging 107.20.

He had a chance at double qualifying delight when he also made it to the final game for the European Darts Grand Prix in Germany next month, but lost out in a last leg decider to Maxx Hopp after missing a number of match darts in the final leg.

However Tyrone's Nathan Rafferty did manage to qualify for both events today.

Rafferty showed his metal early on by coming from 5-4 down to beat Gabriel Clemens in his opening match, before averaging an impressive 96.58 in a 6-1 win over Benjamin Reus of Denmark.

Rafferty then wrapped up his spot in Austria with a fantastic comeback win over Frenchman, Thibault Tricole, winning the last four legs to record a 6-5 victory.

Rafferty's knack of winning tight games continued into the European Grand Prix qualifiers as he began that with a 6-5 win over Austrian Mensur Suljovic.

He then defeated Swede Oskar Lukasiak and another Austrian, Rusty-Jake Rodriguez, to wrap up his second European Tour qualifying spot of the day.

Rafferty's fellow Tyrone man, Mickey Mansell, also secured his spot in the Austrian Open.

Mansell began his day with a 6-4 win over Christian Kist, before rattling off the final three legs on the spin to beat his Polish opponent Sebastian Bialecki in the next round.

Mansell repeated the trick in his final qualifying game against Scotland's Greg Ritchie, winning the last three legs again to record a 6-4 win.

He had no such luck in the European Grand Prix qualifying, however, going out in the first round to German Lukas Wenig.

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