Gian van Veen battled his way to a 16-13 win over James Wade at the Winter Gardens on Friday night, avenging last year’s quarter-final between the pair – won by Wade by the exact same scoreline, reversed, precisely a year on.
It was a strange contest that took until deep into its final stretch to really catch fire. Over two decades at Blackpool, only Phil Taylor can boast a better record than Wade.
Seven times a finalist and champion nineteen years ago, but he was unable to go one better this time around.
Both players endured a lacklustre start, with Van Veen taking the first mini-session 3-2 in a slow, scrappy set of legs. That stagnant tempo carried into the second session too, but Van Veen picked up a crucial break of throw in the third mini-session then stretched that advantage to 9-6 with the doubles very much underpinning the contest to that point.
Van Veen picked up another break to open up further daylight, only for a spell of classic Wade resurgence to follow. Four legs on the spin, underlined by a brilliant 121 finish on the bullseye, dragged the Englishman back level.
The match everyone had expected finally reared its head after the twenty-fourth leg, with the pair locked together at 12-12.
From there, Van Veen edged his head back in front, breaking Wade’s throw with an excellent 118 checkout to move two legs from victory. Wade’s resilience showed again as he kept himself in the tie with yet another 121 on the bull, but the pendulum swung once more.
A loose setup from Wade opened the door, and Van Veen stepped through it to move one leg away from victory. Van Veen closed the match out to book his place in the World Matchplay semi-final for the first time in his career, though he was in no mood to overstate the quality of his own performance afterwards.
“It felt very poor. I think that’s the right word to use,” he admitted. “I was scoring so terribly.”
It was a candid assessment from a player who had, by his own account, ground his past one of Blackpool’s most decorated performers rather than overpowered him. He was quick to point out that fortune had played its part too:
“I was so lucky James wasn’t scoring as well, I was struggling up here [on the stage].”
Still, he was not about to let the imperfections take the shine off the result, as he now moves on to face Gerwyn Price in the semi-final, after the Welshman saw off Ross Smith in Friday’s earlier quarter-final.
“It was a tight battle but I’m glad I got the job done in the end,” he said. “Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be a lot better, because I need to against Gezzy.”
2026 Betfred World Matchplay
Friday July 24
Quarter-Finals
Gerwyn Price 16-12 Ross Smith
Gian van Veen 16-13 James Wade
Saturday, July 25 (2000 BST *)
Semi-Finals X2
Gerwyn Price vs Gian van Veen
Luke Littler vs Dirk Van Duijvenbode
Best of 33 Legs
*For the evenings session on July 23-26, Sky Sports will be on air from 1930 BST, with play commencing from approximately 2005 BST.
Inages: PDC / Taylor Lanning
