Soon after my ‘first impression’ it was time to play myself, and after I lost, I decided to take a look at the ladies event for today’s reports.
Before that, I found out how many tourcard holders also visited the Dutch Open! Danny Jansen, Jeffrey de Zwaan, Danny Noppert and Mike de Decker were all there to support their faves!
On to the Ladies event:
One thing the ladies game is famous for, is that everyone is close to each other and it almost feels like family. It was an emotional afternoon, as multiple women had tears in their eyes either because they won a game unlike their expectations or they lost when they had their chances.
Deta Hedman and Trina Gulliver lost early, while Laura Turner beat Lisa Ashton in the last 16! This gave opportunities to others, Lakeside finalist Kirsty Hutchinson for example made the last 8 as she beat Lerena Rietbergen 4-0. Rietbergen’s reaction: ‘I just played very poor!’ Dave Parletti was watching that game btw, and he recognized me which surprised me a bit!
Paula Jacklin also sneaked through to the last 8, going under the radar on the outside boards. But it was Hutchinson who beat here in the quarters, while Aileen de Graaf made that last 8 because of a tense win over Turner.
The person who marked the most games this afternoon has to be Germany’s Wibke Riemann, she marked 5 games in a row I think! She also marked for her fellow German player Irina Armstrong, who went on to make the last 4! A tense game in the last 16 was Maria O’Brien against Vanessa Zuidema, which Zuidema won 4-3 after a total of 9 missed matchdarts combined from both!
Winstanley edged out Hyde in the battle of the Lorraine’s, and when I went to the streaming games room, Aileen de Graaf just walked outside looking very sad: she just lost her quarter-final to Rhian O’Sullivan!
In the last 4, O’Sullivan beat Armstrong as she made the final, while World Champion Beau Greaves beat Hutchinson in the other half of the draw. That means that we’ll have a final between World Champion Beau Greaves, who’s supported by her proud sister, against in form Rhian O’Sullivan from Wales!
Back to the mens event, where I saw someone with a shirt that said ‘unknown dartsplayer’ and someone else had ‘known dartsplayer’ written on it, although I have no idea who he was!
It was extremely hot and crowded in the men venue, exaxtly the opposite to the ladies venue! So I decided to go to the streamed games venue.
There, big names like Richard Veenstra, Jelle Klaasen and Danny van Trijp kept on winning. So did international names like John Desreumaux, James Hurrell and Thibault Tricole.
Some surprising defeats came from Wesley Plaisier and Chris Landman, and as someone who knew me from twitter told me World Champion Neil Duff lost as well!
Dean Winstanley and Bradly Roes also kept on winning until they played each other, and it was the boys world champion Roes who made the last 64, which means he can’t play the boys event tomorrow!
Back to the men venue, were it was less busy but still extremely busy next to Willem Mandigers’ game (thankfully for his supporters he won), and next to the games from Sergio Krassen and Dario Fochesato, as the Italian’s kept on supporting their countrymen!
Jeffrey Sparidaans surprised in a great game as he beat Matthew Edgar! The day was almost over, as Dennie Olde Kalter got a final win and I decided to watch Aaron Turner’s game, along with his wife Laura, a DartsWorld columnist! I had a chat with her, and said she really played great against Lisa. About her defeat to De Graaf she said ‘Aileen is always great in front of a home crowd!’
Some children talked to Laura in Dutch so I helped giving them answers. They asked how much points the bullseye was and why the players were sweating.
When Aaron won, he wanted to give them a highfive but they refused because ‘he didn’t win as he didn’t hit the bullseye’ hopefully I taught the kids a bit more about darts, cause it is great to see people not even half my age attending events like these as well!
Aaron comfortably won, but when I asked him in which round he was he had no clue! Laura could confirm for me it was the last 64 he reached! With a lot of help from her, I got access to the vip room where I also met referee Nick Rolls!
I also had a talk with Zachary Thornton, who travelled to Assen with Matthew Edgar.
He told me the atmosphere here was so different to the quiet and peaceful pro tour which is very true! After the leader of the ‘Edgar Nation’ lost they didn’t know if they’ll be there tomorrow, but I certainly will be!
More reports then as the men event continues from the last 64 onwards, the youth events are played and we have the stage games as the Dutch Open comes to an end.
—–ENDS—-
Images and Words: Wim Blokpoel
