Heta brings heat to the PDC KenoGo Australian Darts Masters opening night

Such was the domination from the PDC bunch, the only Antipodean to taste victory on opening night of the 2025 KenoGo Australian Darts Masters was the one they sent over. National hero Damon Heta waltzed onto the Wollongong stage like the Jolly Swagman, producing darts from the oche gods to bagel his compatriot, James Bailey.

'The Heat', who had made his initial breakthrough in these World Series events, reeled off a splendid unanswered six legs, averaging just under 110. Brilliant stuff from the Perthonian, who will now have a crack at the World Champion, Luke Littler. he has scored notable wins against The Nuke in the past.

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However, it was almost a very different story. Heta could easily have been facing his close friend, Haupai Puha, who pushed the teenager all the way. To catch out The Nuke, you need to get him when he’s not firing – and for Littler, an average around the 90 mark might be a distant dream for most reading this, but it’s a far stretch from the youngster’s A-game.

In a game that swung from one side to the other, the pair traded blows. At 4-4, the contest was on a knife edge. Both blokes broke, then stepping up to the oche with the advantage of throwing first – Hopes hit 85, and Littler knocked in a maximum. As if we ever doubted him. A great effort from the New Zealander nonetheless.

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The Geordie was in all sorts of trouble and had to dig deep to get past Tim Pusey. Neither lad scored well, and their finishing was even worse. Nerves probably played a part for the Aussie, but you don’t expect someone with the class of former Masters Champion Dobey to be around the 12% conversion rate – which is where he was until rediscovering his radar.

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But when it really mattered, Hollywood came good, dragging it back from a 4-2 deficit to leapfrog the man humorously nicknamed The Magnet and set up a meeting with Gezzy. This was more about grit, guile, and experience from Dobes than quality. He won’t care, though. Although, he might tomorrow against Price if he can’t convert his doubles.

World number one Luke Humphries is safely through, despite a sluggish start against Jonny Tata. However, as all champs do, he eventually rallied back and waved goodbye to the Kiwi. This was a Cool Hand that you felt had a few more gears to call upon if necessary. But once he caught up with his opponent, it was cruise control.

Mike De Decker’s second World Series match will be against Humphries after the Belgian crawled to victory on debut. Not the best opening match of a tournament you’ll ever see, but the reigning World Grand Prix Champion’s 80 average trumped Weening’s 75. Tough watch. De Decker won’t care, though, yet he’ll be aware he’ll want to bring it up quite a few notches on his next outing.

And finally, we have yet another mouth-watering last-eight clash to look forward to as top World Series seed Stephen Bunting will go head to head with Josh Rock. The Bullet did an extremely professional job on the highly rated Brody Klinge, dropping just one leg in seeing the Aussie off.

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Then, later on in the evening, it was an identical scoreline by Rock over Aussie legend, Simon Whitlock. Also on World Series debut, the Northern Ireland World Cup winner made it one to remember with a colossal 108.16 average, which included four maximums and a deadly 75% accuracy rate on the outer ring.

So, it’s two years on the spin where all eight PDC lads got the job done against their Antipodean friends in this particular event. For Littler and Dobey, maybe a little too close for comfort. That said, it’s all about getting that W next to their name. Which, eventually – they both did.