Early Doors – Ally Pally Openers | Darts World Magazine

Opening night and then the pre-Christmas period can be rather special at the People’s Palace. Often, this is the time when debutants make their name, veterans take a final bow and the crowd is at its most boisterous.

2023 looks no different, so we’ve highlights a few interesting match-ups :

Second Round Seed		First Round Game
(1) Gerwyn Price	V	Luke Woodhouse v Vladyslav Omelchenko
(32) Raymond van Barneveld	V	Ryan Meikle v Lisa Ashton
(16) Ryan Searle	V	Adam Gawlas v Richie Burnett
(17) Jose de Sousa	V	Simon Whitlock v Christian Perez
(8) James Wade	V	Jim Williams v Sebastian Bialecki
(25) Gabriel Clemens	V	William O’Connor v Beau Greaves
(9) Danny Noppert	V	Ritchie Edhouse v David Cameron
(24) Daryl Gurney	V	Alan Soutar v Mal Cuming
(4) Michael Smith	V	Jermaine Wattimena v Nathan Rafferty
(29) Martin Schindler	V	Martin Lukeman v Nobuhiro Yamamoto
(13) Joe Cullen	V	Ricky Evans v Fallon Sherrock
(20) Damon Heta	V	Adrian Lewis v Daniel Larsson
(5) Luke Humphries	V	Keegan Brown v Florian Hempel
(28) Vincent van der Voort	V	Cameron Menzies v Diogo Portela
(12) Dave Chisnall	V	Andrew Gilding v Robert Owen
(21) Stephen Bunting	V	Geert Nentjes v Leonard Gates
(2) Peter Wright	V	Mickey Mansell v Ben Robb
(31) Kim Huybrechts	V	Keane Barry v Grant Sampson
(15) Dimitri Van den Bergh	V	Rowby-John Rodriguez v Lourence Ilagan
(18) Krzysztof Ratajski	V	Danny Jansen v Paolo Nebrida
(7) Jonny Clayton	V	Steve Beaton v Danny van Trijp
(26) Brendan Dolan	V	Jamie Hughes v Jimmy Hendriks
(10) Nathan Aspinall	V	Boris Krcmar v Toru Suzuki
(23) Callan Rydz	V	Josh Rock v Jose Justicia
(3) Michael van Gerwen	V	Niels Zonneveld v Lewy Williams
(30) Mensur Suljovic	V	Mike De Decker v Jeff Smith
(14) Dirk van Duijvenbode	V	Karel Sedlacek v Raymond Smith
(19) Ross Smith	V	John O’Shea v Darius Labanauskas
(6) Rob Cross	V	Scott Williams v Ryan Joyce
(27) Mervyn King	V	Matt Campbell v Danny Baggish
(11) Gary Anderson	V	Madars Razma v Prakash Jiwa
(22) Chris Dobey	V	Martijn Kleermaker v Xicheng Han

The first Ukrainian contestant is bound to gain a reaction from the crowd and the media machine alike. Luke Woodhouse will have to stay focused on the job at hand. Lisa Ashton, Fallon Sherrock and Beau Greaves will also gain a great deal of publicity after their recent efforts but we’ll have more of the ‘Women’s March’ later ( Page ).

The new generation will be strongly represented, and Danny’s Jansen and Van Trijp will show that the Dutch converter belt is still producing remarkable talent. Josh Rock will perhaps be the most keenly watched of this year’s young guns as the 21-year-old looks to fulfill some exceedingly high expectations. He does not have a straightforward against a talented determined opponent in Spain’s Jose Justicia.

At the opposite end of the age range the veterans of professional darts are massed to take advantage of any who would underestimate them. Barney and Steve Beaton both pulled off respective reminders of their enormous talent in the Autumn but behind them is a veritable smorgasbord of veteran talent looking to stir the blood as well as the memories. (more on page: )

Perhaps, due to previously mixed quality, the least attention is paid to the ’International Qualifiers’ but this is now a stronger area. Mainland Europe’s strength with Poland’s Bialecki, Germany’s Hempel and Latvia’s Razma all impressing recently, North America is returning or even surpassing its very best: Campbell, Baggish, and Gates are all capable of shining whereas Cameron and Smith have already excelled in different formats and codes.

Return trips to the Palace feature last year’s favourite Raymond Smith who along with Mal Cuming and Benn Robb makes up a strong Antipodean trio.

Shocks and seeds being KO’s by qualifiers are a feature of the early days so we have also highlighted the games featuring Whitlock, Lewis, Menzies (and Portela), and Alan Soutar. All three could be tough games in themselves, but also set up thrillers in their second matches.

—–ENDS—–

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