Michael van Gerwen wins PC8

Wim Blokpoel - Sunday PDC Players Championship 8 was played. And it had a well deserved winner!

Dutch number one Michael van Gerwen, started the event comfortably with a 6-1 win over Polish Radek Szaganski. In round 2 MVG averaged 102 in another 6-1 win, over Jim Moston. In the last 32 Van Gerwen played on stream and averaged 101,1 as he beat Belgisn Geert de Vos 6-3! In the last 16 it was a game between Dutch number one Van Gerwen and Dutch number two Danny Noppert! The number one proved why he is the number one, as he won it 6-3! In the quarter-finals, Van Gerwen averaged 101,7 as he won 6-4 against Brendan Dolan who averaged 101,6! Into the semi-finals, where the man from Vlijmen played Cool Hand Luke Humphries. Everything went with the darts until 5-5, where MVG broke throw and then he held throw again for a 7-5 win! In the final of Players Championship 8, Van Gerwen played German Martin Schindler who played his very first PDC ranking senior final! Van Gerwen took a very comfortable 5-1 lead, and didn’t give the lead away anymore as he eventually won the game 8-4! It was an average of 101,4 and a second ranking title in 2022! That are already more ranking titles for Michael van Gerwen in 2022 (German Darts Championship, Players Championship 8) than in 2021 (Players Championship 29)! 

Before his defeat, Noppert did had 3 great wins. In round 1 ‘The Freeze’ played on stream against Nathan Rafferty, who he edged out 6-5 with an average of 100,8! In the last 64 the UK Open Champion took on Rusty-Jake Rodriguez who he beat 6-2 with an average of 102,1! It was a third ton plus average for Noppert in round 3: 101,5 in a 6-4 win over Kim Huybrechts! 

Vincent van der Voort, and Dutch talent Danny Jansen played each other in round 1. It was Jansen who won it 6-5! In round 2, Jansen beat Ted Evetts 6-4 and in his board final the man from Holten comfortably beat William O’Connor 6-1! In the last 16 though, Jansen lost 4-6 to Dolan who averaged 100,7. Westervoort’s Jermaine Wattimena started PC8 with a ton average as he edged out Chris Dobey 6-5! In the last 64 ‘The Machine Gun’ comfortably beat Brett Claydon 6-2. In round 3 it was a 96 average and a 6-3 win over Karel Sedlácek for Wattimena! In round 4 he lost 3-6 to Luke Humphries but still the best run of the year so far for JW!

Martijn Kleermaker started with a 6-2 win against former Lakeside World Champion Richie Burnett, befofe he beat 16 year old Leighton Bennett 6-4 on the stream. In the last 32 Kleermaker lost 5-6 to Daryl Gurney after coming back from 1-5 down. Owen Roelofs won his first game at a PDC senior ranking event, as the former JDC World Championship finalist beat Martin Lukeman 6-4 in the last 128. In round 2, Roelofs won again! He beat German Steven Noster 6-4 as well. In round 3, Roelofs only got edged out 5-6 by two time World Champion Adrian Lewis but still a very good day for Roelofs!

For the second day in a row, Luc Peters played his first round game on the stream, and for the second day in a row he won it! This time 6-4 against World Cup Winner John Henderson! Peters then lost 2-6 to Schindler in round 2 who averaged an incredible 108,4! Uitgeest’s Niels Zonneveld averaged 96,5 in a great 6-4 win over Callan Rydz who averaged 98 himself, but then Zonneveld lost 5-6 to Luke Woodhouse. Dirk van Duijvenbode beat Darren Webster 6-3 in round 1, but then in the last 64 number 7 seed Van Duijvenbode had a surprising 2-6 defeat against Irish William O’Connor.

Five time World Champion Raymond van Barneveld averaged almost a ton in round 1 as he beat fellow Dutchman Jimmy Hendriks 6-2! RVB then lost in round 2, 5-6 to De Vos despite averaging 97 while De Vos averaged 90. Urk’s Geert Nentjes continued his good form, with a 6-4 win over fellow Dutchman Maik Kuivenhoven in the last 128. Nentjes did lose in round 2, 5-6 to Mervyn King despite a 5-3 lead. 

Apart from Kuivenhoven, Hendriks and Van der Voort 7 other Dutchmen lost in round 1:

Jeffrey de Zwaan (5-6 to Colin Osborne), Carlo van Peer (4-6 to Scott Mitchell), Damian Mol (1-6 to Stephen Bunting) Jeremy van der Winkel (1-6 to Woodhouse), Berry van Peer (5-6 to Huybrechts), Kevin Doets (4-6 to King) and Ron Meulenkamp (5-6 to José de Sousa)