Blog - 2022 Dutch Darts Championship Day 1

It was the last weekend of may 2022 when I finally went to an European Tour event for the first time in my life. 6 sessions, 46 games, 47 players and me and my dad saw all of it. My mom and sister went to the darts for the very first time, as they joined us on the friday afternoon session.

Every session the venue opened an hour before the darts started. We entered the building around 40 minutes before the start, as I saw Philip Brezinski, the MC for most Eurotours. But in Zwolle, we got Dutch darts legend Jacques Nieuwlaat, oud very famous commentator and mastercaller. First thing I noted, is that the venue was enormous and there could really be a major played here one day, as only a small part of the venue was used for the crowd. We had a look at the PDC Europe stwnd where they sold a lot of nice merchandise, ans then we went to our table. I had a look at the games and noted we missed one: Jim Williams missed his flight so Ritchie Edhouse had a bye into round 2. Still 7 great games to look forward to though! The people next to us were Germans, which didn't surprise me as Zwolle is close to the German border but there were also some Belgians near us, which made me realise how dwrts might be even more popular in Germany and Belgium now than here in Holland.

First up was Steve Lennon, well known for never showing any emotions: he must be a brilliant poker player! We sat at the walk-on all weekend, and I managed to give 'Scuba Steve' a handshake. He played big Croatian Boris Krcmar who is even bigger in real life, and I didn't manage to shake his hand but at least that didn't cost me my hand cause the man basically scared me because of his size! This was a great start of the event, as it went 11 legs deep and both men averaged in the high 90's, and it was Krcmar who won it! Next up Meikle against Boulton, and Boulton gained some fans by doing his X-factor thing! However, he gained more fans than legs as he lost 1-6. Meanwhile Chris Dobey joined the crowd, watching his pal Boulton but he did get distracted by a lot of people who asked for a picture! Later on Scott Waites beat Connor Scutt, and it was Boris Krcmar who joined the crowd now. People asked for photos again, which Boris seemed to enjoy although the security forbid him to go on pictures with fans a day later.

Ross Smith had a tough start of the year, but really got going in Zwolle as he only dropped one leg against Kevin Burness, who some guy in the crowd confused with Paul Hinks, as I heard him say that Burness was a former darts referee. After that we finally got to see our first Dutchman in Wesley Plaisier, his parents arrived a few games earlier as his dad even bought a darts shirt at the merchandise stand and he took on Andrew Gilding. My sister came to the conclusion that watching dsrts in the crowd is better than on tv, and she wanted to get a signature by now. So she asked for one to Wesley at the walk-on and got it! Wesley's mom told him he had to enjoy the game cause it was his party, but unfortunatly despitr a good performance from Plaisier, it was in-form Gilding that stopped his party!

Because of all the cola, I really had to go to the toilet and the bad thing about being in the front of the crowd, is that the toilets are even furthrr away! The good thing is though, that darts is probably the only sport where you can see a two-time world champion in the crowd: Scott Waites, with a more impressive beard than ever. However, when I went back Daniel Larsson already walked on so that was another handshake missed, but I was in time for Mario Vandenbogaerde as the Belgians finally started to wake up. However, it was Larsson who won 6-1 so I got another chance to have a Swedish handshake! Last game on was Jelle Klaasen vs Sebastian Bialecki. Before that, my sister managed to get the signature from Jacques Nieuwlaat but Klaasen didn't have enough time to give her one. Klaasen did seem to be in a hurry, as he won 6-1 while one guy on our table was happy to see one of them hit a score of 26, as he found out he wasn't the only person doing that.

Only 1 hour to have diner before the venue opens again for the evening session, so you won't get bored on a day of Eurotour darts! Me and my dad had 8 more games as my sister did regret not wanting to go to the other sessions. This session had a load of Dutch players, but first 4 Dutch fans were allowed to throw 6 darts each. After that, we got Niels Zonneveld walking on with the worst music The Netherlands has ever had (Ik ga zwemmen in Bacardi Lemon), but I did get a handshake from him, and Mickey Mansell, who won 6-5 in another great 11 leg game to start a session. Another toilet visit, made me miss the entire walk-on from both Jermaine Wattimena and René Eidams, but it was Wattimena who won. I did almost catch a match used flight from 'The Cube' but the Belgians annoyed me by basically getting all the flights from every player, simply because they had signs with every players picture on it asking for flights, I mean you can have some but wanting every single flight is a bit selfish right?

Next Mervyn King enjoyed himself in Holland again, beating Stefan Bellmont and Simon Whitlock was another 'senior' who won, against Jamie Hughes as I realized how many good 50 year old players are still active, both on tour as in the Seniors tour which actually had an event played on the same time. Merv King was the first player not to give the Germans next to us a signature, again I didn't get the point of getting a signature from every single player, just be happy with a signature from your favourite players and give other people the chance to get one too. Talking about signatures, Callan Rydz wanted to give me one but had to walk-on so told me he would go back, which he did as most of you will have read on twitter (me thanking him for it gave me over 200 likes). His opponent was Martijn Kleermaker, who brought hie whole family with him although that didn't help: it was a poor game, won 6-3 by Callan Rydz.

Next was an all Dutch battle between Danny Noppert and Arjan Konterman. I noticed Konterman's hand was sweaty as I shaked it and that didn't do him any favors as missed doubles cost him, and the UK Open Champion beat him 6-0. An all Dutch clash followed between local Danny Jansen, and Vincent van der Voort. Jansen brought all his family and friends, as over 50 people were wearing his shirt! The crowed easily chosen Jansen's side and in fact Van der Voort, a Dutchman, ridiculously enough was the first player in the event to get booed! He also got frustrated by the camera above the board, as a hand came out next to it for some weird reason and missed matchdarts gave Jansen a 6-5 win. Last up we had Chizzy and Madars Razma, and Razma had 3 signed cards with him, of which he gave me one! That was great, but the performance from Chisnall was better, as he won 6-2. So this was a very great day, and it was only the first of three!