Semi-Final for Kevin Doets at PC7

Wim Blokpoel - Last saturday PDC Players Championship 7 was played. Because of 19 withdrawals, with none of them being Dutch players we had a load of Dutchmen in ghe field, with replacements: Carlo van Peer, Jeremy van der Winkel and Owen Roelofs!

In round 1 Kevin Doets averaged almost 96 in a 6-3 win over World Cup winner John Henderson. In the last 64 Doets even improved: he averaged 104,2 in a 6-2 victory against Nathan Rafferty! In his board final ‘Hawkeye’ played Adrian Lewis, who he beat 6-4 with a 97,5 average! In the last 16 the Dutchman living in Sweden played Damon Heta on the stream. It was an unreal game, as Doets averaged 108,3 and beat Heta 6-5 who averaged 101,2 himself! An incredible performance and a first ever PDC senior quarter-final for Doets, and indeed for a former Dutch Darts guest! In that quarter-final, Doets played José de Sousa. De Sousa had a 4-2 lead but then totally collapsed, as Doets won 4 legs on the spin for a 6-4 win! Into the semi-finals for the first time, Doets played Madars Razma. Unfortunately that was the end for Doets, as he lost 3-7 to the Latvian. But still an amazing day in the career of Kevin Doets.

Number 8 seed Dirk van Duijvenbode started with a 6-3 win over German Max Hopp. Van Duijvenbode then beat David Evans 6-3 as well in round 2, before it was an all Dutch tie against Martijn Kleermaker in the last 32. Van Duijvenbode got 1-5 down, but Kleermaker missed multiple matchdarts as Van Duijvenbode had a comeback win 6-5 despite averaging below 84. In the last 16 Van Duijvenbode was 5-4 up against Polish number one Krzysztof Ratajski, waiting on double 8 when Ratajski took out 156! Another 5-5, and another 6-5 win for ‘Aubergenius’! In the quarter-finals Van Duijvenbode played on the stream against Gerwyn Price, but lost 3-6 as the Welshman averaged 103. A second quarter-final for Van Duijvenbode this month, not special but still solid.

Urk’s Geert Nentjes has a very good year so far, and continued it in Players Championship 7 as he started with a surprising 6-4 win over Dutch number 2 Danny Noppert! In round 2 Nentjes also beat Mickey Mansell, 6-2, and in round 3 Nentjes survived matchdarts as he edged out Rusty-Jake Rodriguez 6-5 despite averaging 6 points lower! In the last 16 Nentjes also lost to Price, who averaged a ton, 1-6. Damian Mol also had a surprising first round win, as he edged out German number one Gabriel Clemens 6-5! Mol then beat both Shaun Wilkinson and Stephen Bunting 6-4 to make the last 16! Here Mol lost 4-6 to Gary Blades. 

Almere’s Ron the Bomb Meulenkamp came back from 2-4 down to beat former Premier League Champion Glen Durrant 6-4 in round 1, and then edged out ‘Simply’ Steve West 6-5. In the last 32 Meulenkamp won 6-4 against Belgian Kim Huybrechts, but 1 round later Meulenkamp lost 2-6 to Scott Williams. Five time World Champion Raymond van Barneveld and winner of 2 PC’s Jeffrey de Zwaan had another Dutch first round tie, which was won 6-4 by Barney. Then in the last 64 Van Barneveld survived multiple matchdarts before edging out Martin Lukeman 6-5. In his board final, RVB played on the stream against Adam Hunt. It was a great game which included a nine-darter from Van Barneveld! His first nine-darter in the PDC since 2012! Both Barney and Hunt missed a matchdart but it was  RVB who won 6-5 with an average of 97,7. In the last 16 Van Barneveld lost 4-6 to De Sousa, but it was the best run of the year so far for the legend from The Hague!

Before his defeat, Martijn Kleermaker beat both Steve Beaton and Adam Gawlas with 6-2. Dutch number one Michael van Gerwen started with an average of 98,6 and a 6-2 win over Mario Vandenbogaerde. MVG then beat another Belgian in Brian Raman 6-3, while averaging 101,3! In his board final however, MVG averaged 95 in a very shocking 3-6 defeat to non tourcard holder Gary Blades! MVG’s friend Vincent van der Voort started with an easy 6-1 win over German Steven Noster, and then on the stream he beat Luke Woodhouse 6-1 as well! In the last 32 Van der Voort lost too, 2-6 to Cool Hand Luke Humphries.

Berry’s brother Carlo van Peer, and former JDC World Championship finalist Owen Roelofs both made their PDC senior ranking event debut, and they played each other in round 1!! It was Van Peer who won it 6-4, however in round 2 he was whitewashed 0-6 by De Sousa who averaged 103,7. Castricum’s Jimmy Hendriks caused an upset as he edged out number 10 seed Daryl Gurney 6-5! Hendriks also lost in the last 64, 1-6 to Canadian Jeff Smith. Last Dutch win of the day came from Luc Peters, he had a 6-4 win over Darren Webster in the last 128 on stream! In round 2 Peters lost 2-6 to Scott Williams.

Apart from Roelofs, De Zwaan and Noppert 6 more Dutchmen lost in round 1: Maik Kuivenhoven (2-6 to Mike de Decker), Danny Jansen (4-6 to Krzysztof Ratajski), Berry van Peer (2-6 to Rob Cross), Jermaine Wattimena (5-6 to Keane Barry), Jeremy van der Winkel (4-6 to Jason Heaver) and Niels Zonneveld (2-6 to Lewis).