Ashton, Baetens take out Australian Darts Open

By Josh Huntly

Aug 22, 2023

On the mark: Women’s final winner Lisa Ashton and men’s final winner Andy Baetens. Photos: Aidan Briggs Photo by Aidan Briggs

Moama and Rich River’s two-week festival of darts has drawn to a close with two new champions crowned at the Australian Darts Open final on Saturday night in front of a big crowd.

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England’s Lisa Ashton and Belgium’s Andy Baetens took out the women’s and men’s titles respectively to conclude the four-day competition.

After qualifiers at Rich River Golf Club earlier in the week, the competition moved over to Moama Bowling Club for the group stages on Wednesday.

Echuca’s Jo Hadley won both of her group stage games to qualify for finals night, booking a semi-final against Aileen de Graaf of the Netherlands.

Gripping: The crowd watches on as Andy Baetens and Neil Duff do battle. Photo by Aidan Briggs

Playing best of 11 legs, Hadley’s strong run came to an end at the hands of de Graaf 6-1, with de Graaf progressing to the final against Ashton.

Ashton made no mistake in the final, claiming an 8-2 win to take out the women’s title.

Baetens road to the men’s championship saw him defeat Ronald Nakata in the quarter-final before brushing past reigning champion Ray Smith 8-0 to set up a meeting with Northern Ireland’s Neil Duff.