The Dutch Darts Championship gets underway on Friday and as ever with a European Tour event we begin the tournament with the unseeded players battling it out over two sessions of play for the right to face a seed on Saturday.
We will have to wait for the likes of home star Michael van Gerwen, defending champion Dave Chisnall and Gerwyn Price among others to enter the tournament but there are some strong players gracing the stage to entertain us on Friday.
Afternoon Session
The former Grand Slam of Darts champion Jose de Sousa gets us underway in the afternoon session on Friday afternoon. He meets Dom Taylor for a place in the second round before Ritchie Edhouse faces Jiri Brejcha. Madars Razma will then grace the stage for the third game of the afternoon. He takes on the former Dutch star Jeffrey de Graaf, who now represents Sweden but is playing in the country of his birth. Two Dutch players take us through to the halfway point of the session when Christian Kist meets Marvin van Velzen.
Brendan Dolan is the player who will get the second half of the afternoon started. He takes on the promising Owen Bates who will be looking to show his best form here. Two men from either side of the Irish border will then face off against each other when William O’Connor faces Mickey Mansell before Niels Zonneveld will look to use home advantage to maximum effect when he meets the New Zealand number one Haupai Puha before the former UK Open champion Andrew Gilding wraps up the session when he takes on Damian Mol.
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Evening Session
There are some star names on show on what looks like a decent evening session despite the withdrawals from the event earlier in the week. One of those is up first when James Wade faces Teemu Harju before Ryan Joyce will look to move deeper into the weekend when he faces Moreno Blom. The evening continues with a clash of two of the brighter young talents on the PDC circuit meeting when Mike De Decker faces Kevin Doets before two more seasoned campaigners take us to the halfway point of the session when Joe Cullen takes on Jermaine Wattimena.
We begin the second half of the evening with Luke Woodhouse looking to make it through to the second round at the expense of Ryan Meikle. The crowds will then go up a notch for the next two matches as Raymond van Barneveld graces a home stage to take on the Scottish player Cameron Menzies before Dirk van Duijvenbode looks to entertain his home crowd when he faces Callan Rydz. We close out the opening day of the tournament with potentially the pick of the matches as the UK Open champion Dimitri Van den Bergh meets Gabriel Clemens.
Betting
There isn’t a massive amount that I like on the opening day of the tournament but I’m very surprised that Raymond van Barneveld is odds against to see off Cameron Menzies in front of a home crowd that you know will be boisterous in his favour. Even if there was no potential crowd involvement in this match Menzies can be so inconsistent that you wouldn’t really want to trust him at odds on. To be fair to the Scot, he can score really well but you are always taking the chance on his doubles.
Barneveld probably is in the twilight of his career but that hasn’t stopped him winning a title on the floor this season so that tells us that he can still handle the level that he is operating at and he certainly won’t be short of motivation to perform well in front of a home crowd. He has done that enough not to feel the pressure of expectation so I expect to see a really strong performance from the Dutch legend, one which can be too good for the Scot. Barneveld is without doubt value to me here.
Tips
Back R.van Barneveld to beat C.Menzies for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
