Gilding Rains on Dimitri’s Home Parade

Red Dragon Darts

Andrew Gilding dumped out home favourite Dimitri Van den Bergh on the opening day of the inaugural Flanders Darts Trophy, as Peter Wright survived a scare to begin his bid for back-to-back European Tour titles on Friday.

Belgian number one Van den Bergh was the star attraction on Day One in Antwerp, although he was dispatched by a nerveless Gilding, who emerged victorious in a battle of the two most recent UK Open champions.

Gilding – who also beat Van den Bergh at the Belgian Darts Open in Wieze two years ago – repeated the feat at the Antwerp Expo, averaging 101.41 to celebrate an emphatic 6-2 success.

“That was a massive win for me,” reflected the 2023 UK Open winner, who will play Germany’s Ricardo Pietreczko for a place in the last 16.

“I felt really comfortable up there, and I’m looking forward to playing Ricardo tomorrow. We are good mates and he’s a lovely chap.”

Despite Van den Bergh’s early exit, Mike De Decker preserved home hopes with a 6-2 thumping of Richard Veenstra, which featured a sensational 170 finish in the second leg of the contest.

“If you have a crowd like that behind you, there is no way you can stay calm,” revealed De Decker – the solitary Belgian to progress to round two on home soil.

“The crowd kept shouting my name, so when that final double went in, I had to let the emotions go and that’s what happened. It is a brilliant feeling.”

Earlier in the day, Alan Soutar eased to a six-leg sweep of debutant Jody Tobback, while Jitse Van der Wal ran out a convincing 6-2 winner against Sebastian Bialecki to secure his maiden victory on the European Tour stage.

The second round will take place across two sessions on Saturday, with world number one Humphries, teenage sensation Luke Littler and three-time World Champion Michael van Gerwen all entering the fray.

Live coverage of all 2024 European Tour events will be streamed through Viaplay, and through DAZN for viewers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Coverage will also be shown on PDCTV (excluding Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and through bookmakers’ worldwide.

2024 Flanders Darts Trophy

Friday September 6

First Round

Afternoon Session

Jitse Van der Wal 6-2 Sebastian Bialecki

Scott Williams 6-3 Marko Kantele

Alan Soutar 6-0 Jody Tobback

Luke Woodhouse 6-3 Luc Bogaert

Robert Owen 6-3 Krzysztof Ratajski

Jermaine Wattimena 6-4 Brian Raman

Gabriel Clemens 6-5 Martin Lukeman

Ritchie Edhouse 6-3 Daryl Gurney

Evening Session

Kevin Doets 6-4 Francois Schweyen

Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-2 Jonny Clayton

Mike De Decker 6-2 Richard Veenstra

Raymond van Barneveld 6-0 Maik Kuivenhoven

James Wade 6-4 Cameron Menzies

Andrew Gilding 6-2 Dimitri Van den Bergh

Peter Wright 6-5 Brendan Dolan

Joe Cullen 6-4 Callan Rydz

Saturday September 7

Second Round

Afternoon Session (1300 local time, 1200 BST)

Ryan Joyce v Alan Soutar

Gian van Veen v Robert Owen

Josh Rock v Jitse Van der Wal

Chris Dobey v Kevin Doets

Damon Heta v Dirk van Duijvenbode

Dave Chisnall v James Wade

Ross Smith v Mike De Decker

Ryan Searle v Joe Cullen

Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 BST)

Stephen Bunting v Scott Williams

Gerwyn Price v Luke Woodhouse

Danny Noppert v Raymond van Barneveld

Michael van Gerwen v Gabriel Clemens

Martin Schindler v Peter Wright

Luke Humphries v Ritchie Edhouse

Ricardo Pietreczko v Andrew Gilding

Luke Littler v Jermaine Wattimena

—–ENDS—–

PDC Europe




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