Luc Peters wins Challenge Tour 12, finals for Hendriks, Doets and Plaisier

Wim Blokpoel - This weekend the final 6 EU Challenge Tours of 2021 were played, in which was decided who (number one ranked) would earn a 2 year tourcard, World Championship and Grand Slam of Darts spot. Loads of Dutchmen were involved as usual.

In event 7 half of the quarter-finalists were Dutch. Gian van Veen lost 2-5 to German Niko Springer, while Davy Proosten did beat Franz Roetzsch 5-3. In an all Dutch clash former Development Tour winner Damian Mol edged out Jeremy van der Winkel 5-4. In the semi’s however, Mol lost to eventual champion José Justicia from Spain. Davy Proosten also lost his semi-final, 3-5 to Springer. 

A new chance in event 8: again 4 Dutch quarter-finalists. Arjan Konterman was defeated 1-5 by Belgian Kenny Neyens, however Heemskerk’s Jimmy Hendriks did manage to beat a Belgian in Mario Vandenbogaerde with 5-3. Marvin van Velzen lost 2-5 to Toni Alcinas, and Wesley Plaisier got edged out by Austrian Rowby-John Rodriguez 4-5. In the semi-finals Jimmy Hendriks averaged 90,6 in a 5-2 win against Neyens! Hendriks was the first Dutch finalist of the weekend as he took on Toni Alcinas. However, it was a 0-5 defeat but still a good run.

In Challenge Tour 9 we ‘only’ had 2 Dutch quarter-finalists and they even played each other!  Jimmy Hendriks played Chris Landman this time, and beat him 5-3. In fhe semi’s Hendriks played Justicia and got another 5-3 victory to make it back to back finalis! However it also were back to back defeats as Jimmy Hendriks this time lost 2-5 to German Steven Noster.

Event 10 also had 2 quarter-finalists from Holland. Talent Kevin Doets won 5-3 against Justicia while former Lakeside World Champion Christian Kist was edged out 4-5 by Austrian Michael Rasztovits. In the semi’s Doets got revenge as he did beat Rasztovits 5-2 with an average of 95,4! In the final Doets played Polish talent Sebastian Bialecki and unfortunately Doets lost 4-5. Third Dutch finalist in a row though!

Sunday started with event 11. A record of 5 quarter-finalists came from the Netherlands! Luc Peters lost 3-5 to German Marcel Gerdon, while we had 2 all Dutch ties! Weskey Plaisier demolished Kevin Doets 5-0 with an average of 91,7 and Danny van Trijp averaged 6 points lower than Martijn Dragt but still beat him 5-4. In an all Dutch semi-final talented Wesley Plaisier beat Van Trijp 5-2 with an average of 92,4. In the final Plaisier lost 0-5 to Canadian Matt Campbell who eventually topped the Challenge Tour OOM and got a tourcard. 

Finally event 12 and still no Dutch winner this weekend. 4 more Dutchmen in the last 8! Doets was edged out 4-5 by Thomas Junghans, while Jimmy Hendriks lost 0-5 to Belgian Kevin Blomme. Success came from Luc Peters as he beat Rasztovits 5-3, while Christian Kist came with the performance of the weekend as an avarage of 98,3 saw him beat French Thibault Tricole 5-2. In the semi’s Peters beat Kist 5-1. In the final the man from Nieuw-Bergen was the hero of the weekend as he edged out Blomme 5-4 to win his first PDC event and become the winner of Challenge Tour 12! Congrats to Luc Peters with that very special win!