Back to back finals for Dirk van Duijvenbode, semi for Noppert

Wim Blokpoel - Last tuesday we saw the last of 4 pro tours, Players Championship 12, being played. 

After Dirk van Duijvenbode won the day before, he went on another run. DVD’s best performance of the day came back in round 1 where he averaged 102,4 to whitewash fellow Dutchman Berry van Peer. It was followed by a 6-3 victory over USA’s Danny Baggish and a comfortable 6-1 win against Peter Jacques to reach the last 16. Here van Duijvenbode beat Belgian Mike de Decker 6-3. In the quarter-finals Aubergenius averaged 101,3 to whitewash Simon Whitlock 6-0! A surprising opponent in thr last 4 for Van Duijvenbode: Robert Thornton! DVD won 7-4 and made it back to back finals. Could we have back to back Dutch finals?

Danny Noppert averaged an astonishing 107 in round 1 to beat Max Hopp 6-4. An all Dutch second round saw The Freeze win 6-2 against Davy Proosten. On the stream Noppert won his board final, only for the very first time this week: 6-4 against Luke Humphries. Another Dutch clash for Noppert, in round 4: he played Martijn Kleermaker. Yesterday’s finalist Kleermaker lost 2-6 to Noppert who averaged 104,2. In the quarter-finals Noppert got 4-0 up against Daryl Gurney, who then made it 4-4. Noppert ended his comeback though and won it 6-4. Unfortunately, the hopes of a Dutch final were ended in the semi’s as Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh demolished Noppert 7-2. Dirk then made it 7-7 in the final against Van den Bergh, but the Belgian number one won the deciding leg, and DVD lost the final 7-8. Still a very good day for Dutch Darts.

Before the lose against Noppert, yesterday’s finalist Martijn Kleermaker won some more games. An all Dutch first round against Patrick van den Bogaard was won 6-4 by Kleermaker, who then beat both Rusty-Jake Rodriguez and Damon Heta with 6-4 as well, before losing 2-6 to Noppert. Almere’s Ron Meulenkamp got some more important ranking money. A tough 6-4 win over José Justicia in round 1, and then another José (De Sousa) in round 2, who Ron also beat 6-4. In round 3 Meulenkamp averaged almost 92 in a 6-3 victory against Irish William O’Connor. In the last 16 Meulenkamp got edged out 5-6 by Gurney. Michael van Gerwen, 3 time world champion and world number 3, faced Gary Blades again in round 1. An average of 101,1 and 6-3 win for MVG, finally a great performance from him. MVG went on to finally make his board final for the first time this week as he beat German Lukas Wenig 6-3 in the last 64. The board final was won as well by MVG: 6-1 to beat John Michael. In the last 16 it unfortunately was over for MVG today, he lost 3-6 to (once again) Simon Whitlock. Better day for MVG but still a disappointing week for him.

Benito van de Pas surprised the third seed in 3 days today in round 1. After Shite and Petersen he now beat Darius Labanauskas, 6-5. In round 2 Big Ben won 6-3 to Austrian Zoran Lerchbacher. Van de Pas didn’t manage to win his board though, as he was defeated 4-6 by Krzysztof Kciuk. The Hague’s Vincent van der Meer edged out Eddie Lovely 6-5 in round 1. He then got a massive victory, 6-5 to Dave Chisnall!! Van der Meer also lost his board final, 4-6 to Whitlock but still a great week for him with some money earned. Third Dutch non-tourcard holder with a board final today was Ryan de Vreede. De Vreede got 2 6-5 wins, against Robert Marijanovic and Steve Lennon. In round 3 De Vreede lost 3-6 to De Decker.

Before losing to Noppert, Davy Proosten had another Dutch clash, which he won 6-4 against Lorenzo Pronk. Christian Kist managed to get his 4th first round win in a row as he edged out Croatian Pero Ljubic 6-5. The former Lakeside World Champion then lost 5-6 himself to Kciuk. Another massive upset today came from a Dutchman: Maik Kuivenhoven defeated Rob Cross 6-2 in round 1! Kuivenhoven then lost 4-6 in a good game to Scott Mitchell. Dutch talent Kevin Doets had a big win as well, he beat German number one Gabriel Clemens 6-5. In the last 64 Doets averaged over 100 but still lost 4-6 to Rowby-John Rodriguez. Luc Peters got a win 6-5 against Scottish Ryan Murray, before a 2-6 lose to The Saint Alan Tabern. Final Dutch win this day came from Vincent van der Voort. The Dutch Destroyer didn’t have any wins this week yet but finally managed to get one, as he beat John Henderson 6-2. Van der Voort then was another victim to the actual ‘Dutch Destroyer’ Simon Whitlock who beat him 6-3.

Niels Zonneveld got a tough battle against Lisa Ashton, which the man from Uitgeest eventually lost 5-6. RVB replacement Jeroen Mioch didn’t manage to win either as he lost 2-6 to Ryan Joyce in the last 128. More Dutch defeats came from: Jermaine Wattimena (5-6 against Gordon Mathers), Geert Nentjes (2-6 against Rusty-Jake Rodriguez), Gino Vos (2-6 against Alan Soutar), Derk Telnekes (3-6 against Steve Beaton) and Jelle Klaasen (4-6 against Jamie Hughes).