Sunday, July 27, 2025
Column CM148
World Matchplay 2025 – Debutants
Readers awaiting this column probably expected it would be about the World Matchplay quarterfinals. Of course, there will be a column about the rest of the tournament, but I thought some variation would be welcome and decided to first write this little piece about the debutants – though the men are already out of the tournament.
This year, there were two debutants among the players in the World Matchplay and there are two debutants in the Women’s World Matchplay. In the men’s event there were Cameron Menzies and Wessel Nijman. In the women’s event it will be Kirsi Viinikainen and Gemma Hayter who will stand for the first time on the stage of the Empress Ballroom.
Cameron Menzies
Cameron Menzies was born in 1989 in Glasgow and played football before he started to play darts. From 2006 he played in BDO tournaments and in 2011 won his first tournament. In 2016, he won the British Open and in 2017 the Scottish Open (he is one of the few Scotsmen who have won this tournament). It was in 2017 when Menzies reached the semi-finals of the World Masters that he became well-known. The PDC invited him to the 217 Grand Slam where he lost in the deciding group match to Berry van Peer, who was fighting dartitis.
In 2022, Menzies qualified for the first WDF World Championship and reached the semi-finals. After several attempts, in 2022 Menzies managed to get a Tour Card in Q School. Since then, he has played with varying results on the Pro Tour – winning a Players Championship from time to time and reaching a few quarterfinals on the Pro Tour.
In 2024, he stood in the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam. In 2025, he reached the Last 32 of the UK Open. In each year he won a Pro Tour event. Also in 2025, he qualified for the first time for the World Matchplay by the Pro Tour Order of Merit – but was so overwhelmed by emotion and nerves that it was far too late when he finally settled. That showed when he busted with a 180 when he had 178 points left. He had no chance at all against Danny Noppert.
Menzies stopped to work as a plumber only a few months ago. He once took a two-year break to have more time to practice – which he couldn’t manage with working, playing tournaments and traveling. For some time now he’s worked with a sport psychologist to get his stage nervousness and tendency to overthink things under control.
Wessel Nijman
Wessel Nijman was born in 2000 and started his career as a quite successful WDF youth player before competing on the Development Tour, beginning in 2016. He won his first tournament there in 2018 and qualified for some European Tour Events and took part several times in Qualifying School – before he was banned from playing in 2020 for deliberately losing matches in an online tournament.
In 2023, he returned on the Development Tour and won three events. He got a Tour Card by the rankings and as well a place in the PDC World Championship 2024.
Nijman dominated the Development Tour in 2024, winning seven events. He also celebrated his first win on the Pro Tour and again qualified for several European Tour Events. Again, Nijman took part in the PDC World Championship, and this time ended one round later in the second round.
Since 2025, Nijman has only played on the Pro Tour – so far without success. He has reached two European Tour semi-finals and qualified for the first time via the Pro Tour Order of Merit for the World Matchplay.
Nijman’s World Matchplay debut was the contrary to Menzies’ debut. He looked quite relaxed on the stage – surely one of the reasons for his good performance. But as he himself says – he’s not always like this. He knows when he is under pressure but doesn’t always feel it. If the crowd is not on his side, he has no problem with it – it only spurns him on.
Nijman takes preparing for a tournament or a match very serious and always reserves at least four hours to prepare.
When asked before the tournament if he would have a problem with the format – which gets longer and longer during the tournament – he said that he had no idea since he had never before played such a long format but hoped being young and fit would help him cope with it. Whether he indeed had a problem with the second round format or whether he was just not really relaxed I have no idea. I can only say that he didn’t play as well as in the first round – though his doubles were still clinical.
Kirsi Viinikainen
Finn Kirsi Viinikainen, born in 1972, has played in WDF tournaments for more than 15 years and won the Finnish Open in 2009. She is part of the Finnish National Team and once reached the semi-finals of the WDF World Cup. From 2014 – 2019 one didn’t hear much from her but in 2019 she was back and won several WDF tournaments.
In 2023, Viinikainen started to play on the PDC Women’s Series and in the first year for the first time reached a semi-final. At the end of 2024 she made her debut in the WDF World Championship and lost second round to Beau Greaves. In 2025, Viinikainen won her first Women’s Series event and once reached a semi-final – enough to qualify by the rankings for the PDC Women’s World Matchplay.
She was successful in WDF tournaments this year as well and won the Tallin Open, the Lithuania and the Vilnius Open and the Finnish Open and Finnish Masters. At her World Matchplay debut she will play in the quarterfinals against Beau Greaves.
Gemma Hayter
Unlike Kirsi Viinikainen, Gemma Hayter is not a very experienced player. Hayter, born in 1993, played darts as a youth with, among others with Luke Humphries – and soon was nominated for the National Team.
In 2016, she won the British International and then disappeared. In 2024, she reappeared in the Women’s Series, found a sponsor – which was very helpful – and won two events. So far in 2025, she hasn’t won a title, but has reached two finals, three semi-finals and four quarterfinals. Hayter will play at her Women’s World Matchplay debut against Fallon Sherrock.
As Hayter explained in an interview, she just didn’t want to play darts anymore – when her friends were going dancing or to the cinema – so she put her darts away for nine years.
When Humphries won the World Championship in 2024 and the Littler hype started, Hayter picked up her darts again in January 2024 and by March celebrated good results on the Women’s series.
She feels that today darts offers much more opportunity for the women and that a lot has changed – even the equipment is better today. Hayter is looking forward to the World Matchplay as women darts there gets a lot of attention – but says she really would love to play in Lakeside as well as it is still today the only chance for a woman to become World Champion in this sport – and that to be sure is something everybody would like to be.
