The opening European Tour event takes place this weekend and sees many of the stars of the game heading out to Belgium for the Belgium Darts Championship in Haaselt, as the qualification for the European Championship gets underway.
This is the first time that this tournament has been staged so the likes of Michael van Gerwen will be determined to get his name on the trophy before anyone else. 31 other players will be looking to do the same thing though.
The Format
We are using the same format as last season for these tournaments which means that the last 32 of the tournament is played over two sessions of action on Saturday, with the last 16 on Sunday afternoon and the quarter finals on Sunday night. They are all the best-of-11 legs with the semi-finals also on Sunday evening. They are the best-of-13 and then the final in the same session is the best-of-15 legs. The draw has been pre-determined and is played in a straight knockout format.
Top Half
Later in the season the seedings will be done on the European Tour rankings but at the minute they are on last year’s count which means that Michael van Gerwen is the number one seed and as such he heads up the top half of the draw in Belgium. He’s in a competitive little half with nine dart man Michael Smith here along with the classy Glen Durrant. World champion Peter Wright is also in this section while the other seeded players are Rob Cross, Krzysztof Ratajski, Jermaine Wattimena and Joe Cullen.
There are some household names in the qualifiers who have made it into this half of the draw too. Mervyn King is probably the pick of those while Danny Noppert, Andy Hamilton and Damon Heta have all made televised finals in the PDC. Mike De Decker, Martijn Kleermaker and Gabriel Clemens are all overseas rising stas in the game and then the other player in the top half is the local man Ronny Huybrechts who is back in the big time once again.
Bottom Half
Ian White had a wonderful campaign on the European Tour last season and as such he heads Gerwyn Price as the leading seed in the bottom half of the draw. This is a half of the draw that is loaded with quality both in terms of the seeds on show and the qualifiers. The other six seeds are Jeffrey de Zwaan, James Wade, Nathan Aspinall, Jamie Hughes, Mensur Suljovic and Jonny Clayton who will be looking to get over his disappointing night as a Challenger in the Premier League.
The qualifiers in this half of the draw are headed in terms of profile by the two local men Kim Huybrechts and Dimitri Van den Bergh. It might be that Ryan Searle, winner of a Players Championship tournament a couple of weeks ago is the pick of the qualifiers with the other five being Dirk van Diujvenbode, Steve Lennon, Steve Beaton, Wesley Plaisier and Steve West, all of whom will want deep runs here.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of outrights this weekend, both in the bottom half of the draw even though Michael van Gerwen is not in top form by any means. Peter Wright looks like he is so the bottom half is where I want my outright bets. Nathan Aspinall is the first of those. He has been in good form in the Premier League over the last couple of weeks and has already lifted a Players Championship title this term. You get the feeling that being in the top 16 in the world has inspired him and he wants more of it. He defends his UK Open crown next weekend so he should have no lack of motivation for hitting the practice board, and it is showing in his form. Aspinall made the semi-final of the World Championship and The Masters so his form is good and I fancy a deep run from him in the weaker quarter this weekend.
I’ll also have a smaller punt on Jamie Hughes to have a good weekend. He made the quarter final of the Players Championship event which Aspinall won but even though he hasn’t gone massively deep in the others he has been putting up the sort of averages that tells me he is knocking at the door of a big breakthrough weekend again. I say again because he won the Czech Open last season which shows us that he can come through the field in these things. He was a qualifier on that occasion but he’s a seed now which helps. His section isn’t easy but there’s a big weekend in the man from the midlands and hopefully that is here in Belgium.
Tips
Back N.Aspinall to win Belgian Darts Championship (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 15.00 with Coral (1/3 1-2)
Back him here:
Back J.Hughes to win Belgian Darts Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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