Hot on the incandescent heels of his long-awaited return to the PDC circuit, Cristo Reyes wasted precisely zero time reminding the continent that absence does not equate to irrelevance. The Spaniard, resurfacing after a six-year gap from the sport’s upper echelons, tore through both European Tour qualifiers in Hildesheim with the urgency of a man reclaiming stolen territory. Not one event. Two.
Reyes emerged as the only player across both brutal fields to secure passage to the Poland Darts Open later this month and the European Darts Trophy in Göttingen in mid-March. A renaissance? Perhaps. A statement? Undoubtedly.
The opening qualifier of the day bore the unmistakable imprint of English authority, with five of the ten Krakow-bound berths falling into St George’s hands. Ritchie Edhouse, the former European Champion, led the charge alongside Connor Scutt, Daryl Pilgrim, Thomas Lovely and relative PDC newcomer , Oldman man, Carl Sneyd. Polish soil will soon feel distinctly Anglo-Saxon.
Yet the remaining places formed a mosaic of continental defiance. Reyes, resurgent and razor-sharp. Adam Gawlas, the prodigious Czech talent, continued his own impressive return, qualifying for an event within geographical touching distance of home. Dutch born Swede, Jeffrey de Graaf navigated through with Scandinavian steel, Marvin Kraft delighted the German faithful on home soil, and Northern Ireland’s Mickey Mansell completed the ten – though not without igniting controversy.
The Clonroe Cyclone’s drawn-out theatrics against Michael Smith left the former World Champion visibly exasperated. Taking to social media, Smith vented that his opponent had been “staring at the board for about 15 seconds after throwing his darts”. The irritation lingered. So much so that Smith withdrew from the second qualifier entirely – a decision that inadvertently smoothed the runway for Germany’s Kai Gotthardt.
And so to the second battleground.
At the end of a tiring few days thick with tungsten tension, ten survivors advanced to Göttingen, representing seven nations in a tableau of competitive pluralism. This time the Dutch rose emphatically, placing three names in the mix after drawing a blank for Poland.
Jeffrey de Zwaan, former World Matchplay semi-finalist, secured a long-overdue European Tour return, more than two years since Austria last saw him. Richard Veenstra rebounded magnificently from Poland disappointment, shaking off a ton-plus defeat to Reyes in the earlier qualifier with admirable resolve. And Kevin Doets, another who is Dutch by birth and Swedish by residence, completed the orange triumvirate.
The remainder? A kaleidoscope. As we already know, one was the delighted Spaniard Reyes. Belgium’s Mario Vandenbogaerde, who took out compatriot Dimitri Van den Bergh en route. Lithuania’s granite-hardened Darius Labanauskas. Poland’s talented youngster Sebastian Bialecki. And former Lakeside Champion Shane McGuirk, who edged Wesley Plaisier in a last-leg epic to claim what will be his European Tour debut.
England, so dominant in the first qualifier, supplied just one name the second time around — the mercurial, blink-and-you-miss-him Ricky Evans, whose velocity remains one of the sport’s most exhilarating spectacles. And then, the beneficiary-turned-executioner: Germany’s Kai Gotthardt. Thanks to Smith’s withdrawal, he required only two victories – but delivered them with pulsating, ton-plus ferocity.
Two qualifiers. Twenty tickets punched. A continent stirred. And at the centre of it all, Cristo Reyes – back, blazing, and unapologetically relevant.
EUROPEAN TOUR 1 – QUALIFIERS
Poland Darts Open, Krakow (Feb 20-22)
Cristo Reyes (Spain)
Connor Scutt (England)
Ritchie Edhouse (England)
Adam Gawlas (Czech Rep)
Mickey Mansell (N. Ireland)
Daryl Pilgrim (England)
Jeffrey De Graaf (Sweden)
Thomas Lovely (England)
Marvin Kraft (Germany)
Carl Sneyd (England)
EUROPEAN TOUR 2 – QUALIFIERS
European Darts Trophy, Gottingen, Germany (Mar 13-15)
Mario Vandenbogaerde (Belgium)
Cristo Reyes (Spain)
Darius Labanauskas (Lithuania)
Kai Gotthardt (Germany)
Jeffrey De Zwaan (Netherlands)
Shane McGuirk (Ireland)
Kevin Doets (Netherlands)
Richard Veenstra (Netherland)
Ricky Evans (England)
Sebastian Bialecki (Poland)
—–ENDs—–
Images: PDC
