Van Peer, Doets and Van Gerwen in round 3 of PC1

Wim Blokpoel - Today the first Players Championship of 2022 was played. Jeffrey de Zwaan withdrew after testing positive for covid, and Danny Noppert withdrew because of the birth of his child.

Former World Youth Championship finalist Berry van Peer started the year very good: he whitewashed two time World Champion Scott Waites 6-0 in round 1. BVP then surprised with a 6-3 victory over fellow Dutchman Dirk van Duijvenbode. In round 3 Van Peer lost 4-6 to Dave Chisnall. Kevin Doets played for the very first time as a PDC Tourcard Holder. And Doets started it with a win: 6-4 against Jason Heaver. In the last 64 Doets beat fellow Dutchman Danny Jansen 6-3. In his board final Doets lost to eventual winner Luke Humphries 2-6, who averaged 104,2 in that game.

Mighty Michael van Gerwen wanted to put things right today after a poor 2021. And MVG started so on the stream by beating Lewy Williams 6-2 with an average of 104,8 and 7 perfect darts in the last leg! MVG then beat fellow Dutchman Geert ‘The Spear’ Nentjes 6-3. In the last 32 however, Van Gerwen also lost: 3-6 to Daryl Gurney, making it 4 of the last 5 games against Gurney ending in defeat. 

Before his defeat to Doets, Jansen had an impressive start of his PDC career as he beat the 19th seed Gabriel Clemens 6-4! Geert Nentjes first had a win on the stream, 6-2 over Peter ‘The Rock’ Hudson, while Van Duijvenbode had another Dutch tie in round 1 against Maik Kuivenhoven, which he won 6-3 with an average of 102,9 while Kuivenhoven even averaged 104,6!

Castricum’s Jimmy Hendriks returned on the tour with a 6-3 win against Big John Henderson, but then lost 5-6 to Krzysztof Ratajski. Jermaine Wattimena beat Steve West 6-4 in round 1, but then got edged out 5-6 by James Wade in the second round. Dutch legend Raymond van Barneveld started the second year of his return with a tough 6-5 win over Ryan Meikle, but then lost 2-6 to Jason Lowe who averaged 105,1! Uitgeest’s Niels Zonneveld first beat new tourcard holder Connor Scutt 6-4, but then lost 2-6 to Ryan Searle despite an average of 97: Searle averaged over 102! Last Dutch win came from new tourcard holder Luc Peters who comfortably beat Shaun Wilkinson 6-1, but then lost 2-6 to Ross Smith.

Vincent van der Voort went 5-2 up against Cameron Mad Menzies, but still lost 5-6. Other Dutch first round defeats came from: Damian Mol (0-6 against Ricardo Pietreczko), Martijn Kleermaker (3-6 against Ted Evetts) and Ron Meulenkamp (4-6 against Rowby-John Rodriguez)