4 Dutchmen in last 16 of PC15

Wim Blokpoel - Today it was time for Players Championship 15 2021!

Niels Zonneveld from Uitgeest started today against Justin Pipe. Pipe got 5-3 up, missed 10 matchdarts (!!!) and Zonneveld punished, and won 6-5! After that ridiculous game, Zonneveld even managed to make his board final after beating Josh Payne 6-3. In round 3 Zonneveld had his best performance of the day, as he averaged 101,2 in demolishing Scottish Alan Soutar 6-1! The last 16 was the end of the day for Zonneveld as he lost 4-6 to Croatian Boris Krcmar. Maik Kuivenhoven started today with a 6-4 win over Ryan Murray. In the last 64 Kuivenhoven had an all Dutch clash against five time world champion Raymond van Barneveld, who he edged out 6-5. In his board final Kuivenhoven had another tough opponent in world number one Gerwyn Price. This was another 5-5. In the last leg Price had 2 bounceouts (he wasn’t very happy about that at all) and Kuivenhoven got away 6-5 once more, despite averaging 10,6 points less than Price. In round 4 Kuivenhoven lost 2-6 to Adrian Lewis.

Yesterday’s finalist Michael van Gerwen had a good start again, as he beat Lee Evans 6-4 in round 1 and then Alan Tabern 6-2 in round 2. In the last 32 MVG edged out Ryan Joyce 6-5 despite only hitting a 20-darter in the decider. The last 16 unfortunately was the end for MVG as well, for the first time in almost 3 years MVG lost a game of darts to Voltage Rob Cross, who beat him 6-4 with an average of 102,6. MVG’s best mate Vincent van der Voort had a great day. It started with a 6-2 win over fellow Dutchman Lorenzo Pronk. VVDV then averaged almost 99 in a 6-1 victory against Andrew Gilding. In round 3 Van der Voort had a great win, 6-3 against Polish Krzysztof Ratajski. In the last 16 VVDV lost 3-6 against Premier League champion Jonny Clayton on the stream.

Jeffrey de Zwaan from Leidschendam finally got his first win of the week. He beat Callan Rydz 6-2 in round 1. An average below 80 was still enough for JDZ to beat Irish Ciaran Teehan 6-4 in round 2, as De Zwaan made only his first board final of 2021! He lost it 2-6 to Krcmar, but with an average of 90,5. Young talent Kevin Doets caused an upset, beating former Lakeside World Champion Scott Mitchell 6-3 in the last 128. Doets then went on to beat Ritchie Edhouse 6-5, before losing in his board final to eventual champion José de Sousa 5-6. Ron the Bomb Meulenkamp played on stream in round 1, where he beat Lisa Ashton 6-2. Almere’s Meulenkamp then had a great second round against Ian Diamond White, who hit a 9-darter in it, but still lost: Meulenkamp won 6-4! In round 3 Meulenkamp lost 1-6 to Canadian Jeff Smith.

Harderwijk’s Martijn kleermaker started today well with an average of almost 98 in a 6-2 win against ‘The Rock’ Peter Hudson. In round 2 Kleermaker edged out Martin Atkins (the one from Wigan) 6-5. A 5-6 defeat from Kleermaker himself came in round 3, as he missed 2 matchdarts to beat the man in form Clayton. Joure’s Danny Noppert started with a comfortable 6-3 win against Jack Main. Round 2 then saw Noppert get 4-0 up but on,y winning 6-4 over Kai Fan Leung. In his board final Noppert got edged out 5-6 by Good Old Mervyn King.

Before losing to Kuivenhoven, Van Barneveld did manage to comfortably beat ‘Yozza’ Jamie Hughes 6-1. The only other Dutch win today came from Jermaine Wattimena, who came from 2-5 down to beat John Brown 6-5 on the stream. Wattimena then lost 4-6 to Bradley Brooks. 

Apart from Pronk, 7 more Dutch players lost in round 1. Dirk van Duijvenbode, a man in form, surprisingly got whitewashed 0-6 by Polish Krzysztof Kciuk. Berry ‘Bionic’ van Peer lost 5-6 to Karel Sedlácek, despite averaging 96,40 which was higher than Sedlácek’s average. 5 more first round defeats came from: Derk Telnekes (4-6 against Aaron Beeney), Ryan de Vreede (5-6 against Stephen Bunting), Geert Nentjes (4-6 against Tabern), Luc Peters (2-6 against Ricky Evans) and Jelle Klaasen (4-6 against Leung).