Dirk van Duijvenbode wins first PDC title in all Dutch final
Wim Blokpoel - Today it was time for PDC Players Championship 11 2021. After a slow start for the Dutch players yesterday got better, and today turned out the be absolutely amazing.
Aubergenius only managed to win 1 game in the first 2 days. Today however, he started with a 6-3 win against David Evans, and then in round 2 averaged a superb 105,9 in demolishing fellow Dutchman Jelle Klaasen 6-2. Into his board final for the first time this week DVD faced Canadian Jeff Smith, who he beat 6-4 with another high 90 average. Round 4 saw Dirk win 6-4 against Polish Krzysztof Ratajski. Into the quarter-finals already and despite averaging over 3 points lowe Dirk still got over the line 6-4 against Scott Mitchell after Dirk was 5-1 up. Into the semi’s of a Players Championship event for the second time in his career, and this time Dirk won it! he beat Scotsman Andy Boulton 7-5. But who would Dirk face in his first pro tour final?
A 101,6. That was the average from The Dutch Giant, Martijn Kleermaker in his first round. It was him beat John Henderson 6-2, and this great game was followed by the battle of the giants which Kleermaker won 6-5 against the German Giant Clemens. In his first board final of the week Kleermaker faced fellow Dutchman Luc Peters who he beat 6-4. In round 4 Kleermaker made yesterday’s winner Michael Smith stop talking as it was a 6-3 victory for the Dutchman. Kleermaker then went on to reach his first ever PDC semi-final: he beat Ritchie Edhouse 6-5 despite averaging 8 points lower. This semi saw him face the in form Brendan Dolan, could we have an all Dutch final? The answer is yes! Kleermaker won 7-5!
Dirk van Duijvenbode and Martijn Kleermaker face to face in the final. Neither have won a PDC title so far. But that would change today for one of them. Both won 2 legs in a row to make it 2-2, which later became 4-3 for Dirk. A 15-darter saw Dirk make it 5-3 but Kleermaker closed the gap to 1 leg once more. 5-4 became 6-5, and then Kleermaker hit a brilliant 12-darter to break to 6-6. With a 15-darter Van Duijvenbode made it 7-6, but then Kleermaker got 3 darts to make it 8-6. He missed them all. Van Duijvenbode however, missed matchdarts and Kleermaker got another chance. Which he didn’t take again. Van Duijvenbode finally hit the winning double and Aubergenius was the winner of Players Championship 11! What a day this was for him, one of the highlights of his career so far. I’m sure that more titles will follow, for both of them.
Dirk van Duijvenbode - Martijn Kleermaker 8-6
Averages:
Dirk van Duijvenbode: 92.4
Martijn Kleermaker: 92.2
Shortest leg:
Van Duijvenbode: 13-darter
Kleermaker: 12-darter
As mentioned before, very talented Dutchman Luc Peters lost to Kleermaker in his board final. Before that Peters beat a Dutchman himself in round 1: Davy Proosten (6-1). In round 2 Peters produced a shock as he averaged 97,5 in edging out Mervyn King 6-5. Ron the Bomb Meulenkamp had 2 great games himself. He averaged 101,3 in a 6-3 victory over (not so) Lucky D Darius Labanauskas. Meulenkamp apparently thought this was not enough, as he averaged 101,4 a game later and beat Rowby-John Rodriguez 6-5. In his board final Meulenkamp ran out of steam and lost 2-6 to Austrian Mensur Suljovic. Final Dutchman who made the third round was Gino Vos. Vos had a tough battle in round 1 but got through 6-5 against Ted Evetts. In the last 64 Vos did what nobody expected: he demolished Dutch number one Michael van Gerwen 6-1 despite averaging a point lower than MVG. In round 3 Vos got beaten 1-6 himself by Jason Lowe unfortunately.
There were some more wins today. Before losing to fellow Dutchmen Klaasen and van Gerwen respectively beaten Martin Thomas and Gary Blades, both 6-4. Five-time Champion of the world Raymond van Barneveld averaged over 101 in a 6-1 win over The Bomber Steve Brown, but then had to withdraw afterwards because of health problems. He won’t play tomorrow either, and will be replaced by another Dutchman: Jeroen Mioch. Other Dutch wins came from Jermaine Wattimena (6-3 against Martin Schindler), who then lost to Boulton, and Christian Kist (6-5 against Geert de Vos), who then lost to Jamie Hughes after missing matchdarts.
Danny Noppert also won in round 1: a 103 average was enough to beat Luke Woodhouse 6-4. A 101,8 in round 2 however, was not enough as Noppert lost 4-6 to Chris Dobey. Kevin Doets played on stream in round 1 and won 6-3 against German Steffen Siepmann. He then lost 2-6 to Madars Razma in the last 64. Bsrry van Peer made the last 4 today, and now started with a 6-2 win over Michal Smejda. However, in round 2 Berry got whitewashed by Lowe. Patrick van den Bogaard finally managed to get a win, 6-4 over Andrew Gilding. Suljovic was too strong for young Patrick though, as he lost 2-6. Benito van de Pas got another massive 6-1 win in round 1: he surprised Ian White! Van de Pas then lost 4-6 to Edhouse in round 2. Urk’s Geert Nentjes won a Dutch clash against Lorenzo Pronk in the last 128 with 6-2, but then lost 4-6 to Asam Hunt. Finally, Deventer’s Derk Telnekes demolished Peter Hudson 6-1. His day was ended with a 4-6 defeat to Clonoe Cyclone Mickey Mansell.
Some more first round defeats from Dutchmen finally. Vincent van der Voort still hasn’t won a game this week. He lost 3-6 against Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh on stream. Ryan de Vreede almost came close to another upset, after beating Gurney yesterday, as he got to 5-5 against Devon Petersen. Petersen won the decider though. More first round loses came from Vincent van der Meer (5-6 against Ricky Evans), Maik Kuivenhoven (1-6 against Jack Main) and Niels Zonneveld (0-6 against Michael Smith).
A big article for a big day in Dutch Darts. I would finally wish Raymond van Barneveld all the best, and hope his health will be good soon. The final article for this week will arrive tomorrow.
