European Q-School may have dangled a greater number of golden tickets but make no mistake – the road through Kalkar was no gentler, no kinder, and certainly no less merciless. This was darts as Darwin intended it. Ten prizes on offer. Nine battles won in blood and nerve. And one man, Jimmy van Schie, waking up on the final morning knowing destiny had already ticked his name in indelible ink. For everyone else, the air was thick with jeopardy.
Ordinarily, survival can be secured by graft – by accumulating points, grinding through rounds, letting mathematics do the heavy lifting. But not here. Not for the two men marooned in the semi-finals, staring into the abyss with nothing beneath them but a last-leg decider and a lifetime’s worth of pressure.
Big Boris Krcmar knows that feeling all too well. The Croatian powerhouse was dragged into the cruellest of conclusions, edged out by Dutchman Sietse Lap in a deciding leg that sliced his Q-School dream clean in half. One dart either way and history changes. Instead, Lap steps forward into the light, and Krcmar is left to wrestle with what might have been.
On the other side of the bracket, the narrative was far less ambiguous. The Black Cobra shed his shaky skin of day one and struck with authority. Jeffrey de Zwaan, a former World Matchplay semi-finalist and double Players Championship winner, reminded everyone why his name once carried real weight on the Pro Tour. His 6-2 dismissal of Germany’s Mike Donnevert was emphatic, efficient, and utterly ruthless – a passport stamped back into elite company.
Beyond the headline shoot-outs, the Order of Merit quietly restored several familiar faces. Adam Gawlas, once a World Youth Championship runner-up and UK Open semi-finalist, completed a swift redemption arc. A year away from the tour had not dulled his edge; if anything, it sharpened it. A MODUS Super Series title during exile kept the fire lit, and now the Czech talent is back where he believes he belongs.
Jurjen van der Velde followed a similar path. Another former tour card holder, another year spent watching from the outside, and another composed, workmanlike week in Kalkar that did just enough to pry the door back open.
Then there is Chris Landman. Forty-four years old. No fuss. No drama. Just solid, seasoned darts. The Countryman bounced back at the first attempt, buoyed by late-season form that hinted his best days are far from over.
European Q-School promised opportunity. It delivered judgement. And for those who emerged, scarred but standing, the real fight now begins.
EUROPEAN Q-SCHOOL (Final Stage – Day Four)
Semi-Finals
Sietse Lap 6-5 Boris Krcmar
Jeffrey De Zwaan 6-2 Mike Donnevert
Tour Card Winners (via Order of Merit): Jimmy van Schie, Chris Landman, Martin Kraft, Benjamin Pratnemer, Adam Gawlas, Jurjen van der Velde, Alexander Merkx and Pascal Rupprecht.
