For the first time this weekend, I was surrounded by dartsfans from the start of my train journey. That was a first indication of how big today would turn out to be!
A bumper session promised to have four superb World Series Finals quarterfinals at the AFAS Live. Game number one saw Josh Rock quite comfortably get over the line against Mike de Decker though so that game was not too spectacular.
On social media I noticed a lot of fellow dartfans and players were attending this event as well, which just shows how big darts still is in the Netherlands despite the likes of Van Barneveld and Van Gerwen beingn past their prime for some time now.Or is MVG past his prime?
The second quarterfinal would suggest he is absolutely not! The Dutch number one averaged over 106 and proved way too strong for the world number one. Luke Humphries did not play that bad at all but was thrown off the board 5-10 by the dominant Dutch force.
The crowd was of course very loud during this game which was their highlight of the afternoon. But they did not realize yet, the two greatest battles were yet to come!
Luke Littler was a heavy favourite against Ross Smith. The defending champion and reigning world champion could not take a lead over Smith that was bigger than one leg all game though!
It was a missed opportunity from Smith to make the game level at 9-9 that resulted in Littler getting a 10-8 win.
But massive respect to Ross Smith who averaged over 106 in that tie and will take a lot of positives with him for the rest of the season.
The final game of the afternoon saw a similar close battle between two time champion Gerwyn Price and ‘Hollywood’ Chris Dobey. First of all ‘Hey Jude’ is by far the most underrated walk-on song if you ask me. The crowd absolutely loves it and so do I. Dobey’s darts did not go too bad either as he took a 6-4 lead after two sessions whilst averaging a ton.
Price fought back though and won four legs on the spin for a 8-6 lead. The Welshman then ended up winning the tie 10-8 to complete the semifinal line-up! So we now have a semifinal line-up completed.
It is the Dutch number one and five time champion Michael van Gerwen taking on the World Cup champion Josh Rock.
Reigning champion and world champion Luke Littler then faces two time winner Gerwyn Price.
Good luck picking a winner from that because I simply can’t!
—–Ends—–
Images: Kelly Deckers / PDC Europe
