Mal Cuming will make his Paddy Power World Darts Championship return in December after winning the inaugural Trans-Tasman Championship last weekend. The 2026 Trans-Tasman Championship saw the top 16 players from each of the Australian Darts Association and DartPlayers New Zealand rankings invited to compete across a bumper weekend of action in Brisbane from August […]
Mal Cuming will make his Paddy Power World Darts Championship return in December after winning the inaugural Trans-Tasman Championship last weekend.
The 2026 Trans-Tasman Championship saw the top 16 players from each of the Australian Darts Association and DartPlayers New Zealand rankings invited to compete across a bumper weekend of action in Brisbane from August 28-30.
Cuming – fresh from competing on the World Series of Darts circuit in Wollongong – won through a 32-player field to prevail on home soil, defeating Raymond Smith in Sunday’s showpiece to confirm his Alexandra Palace return.
The 50-year-old opened his campaign with a deciding-set triumph over Hunter Eyles, which he backed up with straight-sets victories against Michael Cassar and Tim Pusey respectively.
Cuming averaged almost 96 in an emphatic 3-0 win against Pusey, winning eight straight legs to set up a semi-final showdown against Harley Kemp.
The Australian veteran ran out a 3-1 winner in the last four to create a winner-takes-all clash against 2025 ANZ Premier League runner-up Smith – a semi-finalist in August’s NZ Darts Masters.
The pair exchanged the opening two sets, before a six-leg flurry from Cuming midway through the contest proved decisive, as he powered his way to a 4-2 success with a 90.2 average.
Cuming has subsequently earned one of the four Oceanic qualification places in the 2026/27 World Darts Championship, where he will be joined by the ANZ Premier League champion and the respective ADA and DPNZ rankings winners(or highest-placed non-qualified player/s).
2026 Trans-Tasman Championship
Sunday August 30
Quarter-Finals
Raymond Smith 3-2 Jeremy Fagg
Howard Jones 3-1 Joe Comito
Harley Kemp 3-1 Ben Robb
Mal Cuming 3-0 Tim Pusey
Semi-Finals
Raymond Smith 3-2 Howard Jones
Mal Cuming 3-1 Harley Kemp
Final
Mal Cuming 4-2 Raymond Smith