FRIDAY morning saw the journey begin to the Autotron in Rosmalen. The former car museum was now to be used for a different purpose: darts!
My travel to the Dutch Darts Championship included a lot of traffic and rain, and as a result of that I only arrived just in time for the first match.
That first match was a game between José de Sousa and Dom Taylor, played in front of a disappointingly small crowd. The battle between two players from the same management team was won by Taylor 6-3, as he told me in an interview it was very difficult to play someone he knows so well.
Game two saw Ritchie Edhouse and Jiri Brejcha in a tough battle which Edhouse won and he was convinced it had to be better against Damon Heta in day two.
Jeffrey de Graaf then saw off Madars Razma 6-3 after which Marvin van Velzen edged out Christian Kist 6-5.
Brendan Dolan kept his World Cup hopes alive following a 6-3 win over Owen Bates and he told me he was simply not thinking about that World Cup race, which seemed to work.
Mickey Mansell then had a comfortable win over William O’Connor after which Dutch Niels Zonneveld won a very tough battle with Haupai Puha. In his interview Zonneveld wasn’t happy at all about his performance and he said the pressure of performing in front of a lot of people he cared about was very high.
The afternoon session then got finished by Andrew Gilding who edged out Damian Mol in another deciding leg.
I then rushed myself off for a food and drink stop, but on my way back there was yet more traffic jam.
Thankfully I arrived back in time for the evening session though. This session was started by James Wade seeing off Teemu Harju from Finland after which Moreno Blom made his Eurotour debut against Ryan Joyce.
Having met Moreno at the Development Tour a few weeks ago I wasn’t sure his form was there, but wow he delivered. He averaged over a ton in a 6-3 victory and told me he honestly was lost for words and had no clue how he managed to do that.
Kevin Doets then edged out Mike de Decker 6-5 in another darting thriller. The Dutchman living in Sweden told me he would love to represent The Netherlands at the World Cup one day but if that wouldn’t happen, maybe representing Sweden could be an option as well!
We got another Dutchman winning a last leg decider as Jermaine Wattimena edged out Joe Cullen in a controversial last leg where Cullen was not happy with Wattimena hyping up the crowd who were already booing ‘The Rockstar’.
Wattimena told me he regretted doing it but it happened in the heat of the moment.
At this point we finally got the call to leave the crowd and enter the press room permanently.
So a big shoutout for the people from Viaplay for letting us (the other media guys) stay with them.
In that press room we could see Luke Woodhouse win a third consecutive 6-5 game against Ryan Meikle, surviving lots of matchdarts.
Raymond van Barneveld then entered the stage in his home nation once again but he left it very soon as well. Cameron Menzies absolutely hammered him 6-1 with a superb performance.
Menzies admitted he felt sorry for Van Barneveld and it was difficult to play such a legend in front of his home crowd.
Dirk van Duijvenbode then won his first game on the European Tour this year as he had a solid 6-3 win over Callan Rydz. Van Duijvenbode was not amused though when I asked him about the World Matchplay race, something he apparently really does not want to talk about.
The final game of the day it was Dimitri van den Bergh who beat Gabriel Clemens 6-4 but unfortunately no interview as the press chief was not in time to bring the UK Open Champion to the press room.
I felt more sorry for the Belgian press guy though, he travelled all the way to The Netherlands only for an interview with a defeated Mike de Decker.
After a late night travel which took half an hour instead of 15 minutes because of closed roads, I finally arrived at the hotel. A long and exhausting first day but there was much more to come…
—-Ends—–
Inage: PDC Europe
