Van der Voort in the semi-Final of Players Championship 2

Wim Blokpoel - Today in Players Championship 2 it was a more succesful day than yesterday, as we saw a Dutch player in the semi-finals! Former UK Open finalst Vincent van der Voort from Purmerend had a brilliant day. He started with an easy 6-0 win over Jake Jones, followed by a 6-3 win against German Steffen Siepmann. In the last 32 Van der Voort had his best display with a 97.6 average where he demolished Martin Thomas 6-1. Into the last 16 VVDV booked a 6-3 victory over fellow Dutchman Dirk van Duijvenbode, and in the quarter-finals the Dutch Destroyer averaged almost 96 in a 6-3 win against Steve Beaton. The semi-finals were the end for Vincent as he lost out 5-7 to Jonny Clayton, but it’s been a brilliant day for Vincent with a last 4 place.

It was a good day for Dutch Darts as we saw 2 more Dutchmen in the last 16. Earlier mentioned Dirk ‘Aubergenius’ van Duijvenbode who lost out to Vincent had a great day. It started with a 6-4 win over Keegan Brown, but then Dirk had an absolutely astonishing 112.3 average to demolish Luke Woodhouse 6-1. Another win in the last 32 for Dirk, 6-4 against Justin Pipe, and another solid day for Dirk. Vincent’s good friend and world number two Michael van Gerwen reached the last 16 as well. MVG started a bit nervy with two 6-5 wins over Steve West and Adam Hunt. In the last 32 it was much easier for Mighty Mike with a 98.3 average to beat Ryan Joyce 6-1. Unfortunately, a round later MVG lost 1-6 himself to a brilliant Jonny Clayton, still a decent day for Van Gerwen though. 

3 more Dutch players reached the third round. First world cup star Danny ‘The Freeze’ Noppert. He started with demolishing Luke Humphries 6-1, and in the last 64 Noppert had an impressive 99 average to beat legend of the game and fellow Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld 6-5. In the last 32 it was a 4-6 defeat to Jeff Smith, who averaged exactly 100. A quite surprising name in the last 32 was young talent Luc Peters, who doesn’t even have a tourcard. Peters beat Michael Rasztovitz 6-2 in round 1, and then in the last 64 caused an upset as he beat good old Mervyn King 6-3. In thr last 32 Peters was another victim for Dutch eating monster Jonny Clayton who also averaged over a ton against Peters and beat him 6-1. Final Dutchman in the last 32 was Westervoort’s Jermaine Wattimena. Wattimena played better than yesterday, as he started with a great 6-3 win over Chris Dobey. In round 2 Wattimena beat his good friend and fellow Dutchman Jelle Klaasen 6-5, before he lost in round 3 2-6 to Mensur Suljovic. 

5 more Dutch wins today. Earlier mentioned Raymond van Barneveld who lost to Noppert in round 2, got his first win in 2021 at the tour, as he came from 2-5 down, survived a matchdart and beat Scottish Ryan Murray 6-5. Another comeback came from The Black Cobra Jeffrey de Zwaan, he even got 1-5 down on stream against Jason Heaver, also survived a matchdart and then got over the line 6-5. In round 2 JDZ lost 3-6 to Nathan Aspinall. The other cobra, Jelle Klaasen who lost to Wattimena, got another win , 6-3 over another Dutchman: Derk Telnekes. Young talent Geert Nentjes beat fellow young talent John Brown 6-3 before he lost in round 2, 4-6 to Mickey Mansell. And finally, non-tourcard holder Lorenzo Pronk had a brilliant 98.9 average to win 6-4 against Peter Jacques before he lost 5-6 to German Martin Schindler.

Apart from Telnekes, more Dutch loses in round 1 were: Kuivenhoven (5-6 to Meikle), Kleermaker (2-6 to Anderson), Zonneveld (3-6 to Teehan), Van Peer (4-6 to Siepmann) and Meulenkamp (5-6 to De Decker). Today was better than yesterday, and we are looking forward to tomorrow with hopefully more good results for Dutch Darts!