Quarter-finals for Van der Voort and Van Duijvenbode at PC26

Wim Blokpoel - Today the 26th of 30 Players Championships in 2021 was played. There was some Dutch success again.

Yesterday’s semi-finalist Dirk van Duijvenbode started on the stream with a superb game! 3 12-darters and a 11-darter in it saw him average 100,7 as he beat Irish talent Keane Barry 6-4. In round 2 DVD even improved, a 102,4 average was enough for a 6-3 victory over Belgian Kim Huybrechts. In his board final ‘Aubergenius’ played Ricky Evans who he also beat, 6-1 with an average of 101,1. Van Duijvenbode simply couldn’t stop averaging over the ton, in the last 16 it was 101,6 in a 6-2 win over Jason Heaver. In his quarter-final Van Duijvenbode played Nathan Aspinall. An average of 102,1 this time for Dirk, but it wasn’t enough as he lost 4-6 to Aspinall who averaged 108,6! We can say that DVD is back in form though!

Former UK Open finalist Vincent van der Voort came back from 0-3 down in round 1 to beat Scotty Dog Mitchell 6-4. In the last 64 it was another 6-4 win for VVDV, against Jack Main. In round 3 an average of 96,4 was enough for The Dutch Destroyer to destroy Steve West 6-1. In round 4 Van der Voort produced his best game of the day: an average of 100,6 saw him beat number 5 seed Brendan dolan 6-2! In the quarter-finals VVDV lost as well, 2-6 to eventual champion Rob Cross.

A very first win of the week came for ‘Black Cobra’ Jeffrey de Zwaan, as he beat English Chas Barstow 6-2 in round 1. A round later JDZ had an all Dutch clash against Dutch number two Danny Noppert. Surprisingly, De Zwaan managed to win that game 6-4! In his board final, De Zwaan lost 4-6 himself to Ross Smith who averaged 106,5 in that one. Another first win of the week came from the legend Raymond van Barneveld himself. RVB averaged 103,4 in an easy 6-1 win against Greece’s John Michael. Barney immediately got a second win as well, he survived 4 matchdarts to beat 2 time Lakeside World Champion Scott Waites 6-5. On stream, in his board final, Van Barneveld got demolished 1-6 by Portugese José de Sousa who averaged 106,4. 

Third Dutchman with his first win of the week was Martijn Kleermaker, 6-4 against Gordon Mathers. Kleermaker then beat Scottish Jim McEwan 6-5 on the stream. In round 3, it was a 4-6 defeat for Kleermaker to Peter Wright. Kevin Doets continued his impressive week, in round 1 he edged out Martin Thomas 6-5, before beating Australian number one Damon Heta 6-2 with an average of 95,9! In the last 32 Doets lost 5-6 himself to Heaver. Dutch number one Michael van Gerwen played in an all Dutch clash against Berry van Peer in the first round. Despite an average of 103,8 MVG had to survive a scare as he only came through it 6-5. In round 2 Van Gerwen went absolutely bizarre as he averaged 113,5 in a 6-2 win against Ryan Meikle! A round later it was a 107,1 average, but…. unbelievely MVG lost that 3-6 to Daryl Gurney! A third ton+ average defeat for MVG in 3 days, surely this won’t go on like that!

Before losing to De Zwaan, Noppert did beat another fellow Dutchman in Derk Telnekes, 6-1. Ron Meulenkamp beat Irish number one William O’Connor 6-3, but then suffered a 0-6 defeat in the last 64 against Dave Chisnall. Last Dutch win of the day came from Urk’s Geert Nentjes, who won 6-4 against Andy Boulton in the last 128. Nentjes then had a 5-2 lead, but still lost 5-6 to yesterdays finalist Gabriel Clemens.

Jelle Klaasen had a tough first round draw: he lost 2-6 to two time World Champ Gary Anderson. More first round Dutch defeats came from: Jermaine Wattimena (1-6 against Rusty-Jake Rodriguez), Luc Peters (3-6 against Heta) and Maik Kuivenhoven (4-6 against Robert Thornton).