The Dutch Darts Championship gets underway on Friday when the first round of the competition is played out across two sessions of play in Rosmalen with all of the players on show looking to book a date with a seeded player on Saturday.
We have to wait until Saturday for the 16 highest ranked players in the field to come into the tournament but the Friday of the European Tour has been strengthened massively since the format change so there are plenty of good players on show.
Afternoon Session
The tournament begins with two men from Europe battling it out when Ricardo Pietreczko will look to make it into the second round when he goes up against Karel Sedlacek. Two home players follow them onto the stage when Wessel Nijman launches a tilt at the title against Berry van Peer. The Grand Slam finalist Martin Lukeman headlines the third match of the afternoon when he faces Lukas Wenig and then we reach the halfway point of the session with Ryan Joyce taking on the home qualifier Jeffrey de Zwaan.
The second part of the afternoon begins with another Dutch player in action as Niels Zonneveld meets the Belgian player Mario Vandenbogaerde before the reigning European champion Ritchie Edhouse goes at it with Kim Huybrechts for a place in the second round. Andrew Gilding faces Jeffrey Sparidaans in the penultimate match of the afternoon before the session concludes with Luke Woodhouse going up against the popular German thrower Max Hopp.
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Evening Session
The evening sessions on the European Tour this season have been full of quality and this one is no different with Joe Cullen getting the action underway when he faces the qualifier Ryan Meikle. Daryl Gurney is the big name on show in the second match of the evening. He meets Maik Kuivenhoven before the World Grand Prix winner Mike De Decker takes on Mickey Mansell. We get to the halfway point of the evening with Cameron Menzies going up against the home player Wesley Plaisier.
Home players are in action in all four matches in the second half of the evening with Gian van Veen being the first onto the stage when he faces the tough test of Boris Krcmar before Raymond van Barneveld will look to thrill his home crowd when he meets Jerry Hendriks. Dirk van Duijvenbode is up in the penultimate match of the evening when he meets the qualifier Teemu Harju before Jermain Wattimena rounds off the day against the talented Niko Springer.
Betting
It is that final match where my betting attention lies on Friday. Jermaine Wattimena finished last season very well with that run to the final of the European Championship but he hasn’t been fantastic this time around. He made the quarter final in two of the first three Players Championship events this season but hasn’t reached one in the last 12 and he hasn’t reached the last eight of a European Tour event either, losing in the first round in two of the last four.
He feels vulnerable to anyone useful at the minute and one of the reasons for that is because he has some really weird ways of going for finishes. Niko Springer probably isn’t delivering the results that his talent should be doing but he comes into this with nothing to lose and he is certainly good enough to win this match. He has played Wattimena twice and beaten him both times, each one being in a European Tour event. I think he’s value to win this one.
Tips
Back N.Springer to beat J.Wattimena for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with Unibet
