From no WiFi or electricity in the press area in the morning, through to 17 interviews in a day and hiding your deodorant in a car park. Such is the life of a darts journalist:
It was a rainy and windy day in Leeuwarden, where we had a new venue for the Dutch Darts Championship! The venue turned out to be absolutely massive when I got there.
The press room was also enormous but just had a few issues: there was no electricity and there was no wifi. Thankfully these problems were solved very soon after adressing them, so credits to team PDC Europe for fixing that!
Shortly after that I got the call that I could interview all the winners from the afternoon session! The first one of those was debutant Graham Hall who had smashed the more experienced Adam Gawlas 6-0!
Despite that, Hall told me he was very nervous but experiences like playing in the Modus Super Series and big WDF events probably helped him to get over the line in that one.
The interviews were done in the massive venue that was supposed to be the commentary ‘box’.
It was a fun sight to see such an enormous venue totally empty apart from the camera people and the commentators Dan Dawson, Chris Murphy and for the first time on the Eurotour Chris Mason.
I then returned to the press room to prepare for game two, where it was Kryzsztof Ratajski who impressed with the ton average as he beat an in form Andy Boulton!
Ratajski did not play with his own shirt, as he told me he simply forgot to bring it with him! He is very confident about his second game against Peter Wright though!
Berry van Peer than made the crowd go wild with his walk-on which is a lot louder in real life, and then made the crowd wild again with a superb display to see off Alan Soutar!
He could not go to Denmark to earn some important WDF ranking points which as he told me he had been thinking about during the game, but he’ll get some more WDF points in Sweden and Belgium later this year, as he can play with a lot more freedom now.
Madars Razma then finally got his first eurotour win this year over John O’Shea, having the support of a famous Latvian football player as his guest! Keane Barry beat Marko Kantele 6-2 and is determined to get a second consecutive win over Rob Cross on Saturday, while the always humble Jim Williams averaged 104 in seeing off George Killington, but still told me he can only beat Michael Smith tomorrow when he’s at his best and Bullyboy has an off day.
Martin Lukeman spoiled Martijn Dragt’s home party and had a succesful return on the Eurotour, finding it very hard to qualify for these events this year as he told me.
Last win of the afternoon came from Dylan Slevin who whitewashed Marcel Hausotter 6-0, a man he did not know prior to the game, but he does know his second round opponent: Dirk van Duijvenbode in front of his home crowd.
The PDC press director was a bit sad about me not getting to interview Hausotter, but perhaps the German can bounce back and win an eurotour game later on.
I then went outside for some fresh air and a meal and found out even in a restaurant Chris Mason has to take pictures with darts fans.
The venue was already a lot fuller when I came back around an hour before the evening session started! Another 8 interviews to take this busy evening! One thing that didn’t progress through tot he evening session was my deodorant cause security told me I could not have that, which makes sense so I had to throw it away. Instead I hid it on the parking lot, fingers crossed nobody would take it!
The evening started with Ian White who continued his great 2023 and I was surprised by the amount of confidence he had! Qualifying for the worlds after one year absence wasn’t enough for him as he wanted to reach the matchplay, grand prix and european championship, win this weekend’s event and win the majors!
The Dutch crowd then really got going when one of our biggest talents of this moment walked on, Gian van Veen, with the Dutch song ‘engelbewaarder’. Van Veen had a close game against the German number one Gabriel Clemens, and in the end it was a last leg decider which the German Giant won in a high quality game, to the delight of the German people from PDC Europe and the surprisingly high amount of Germans in the crowd!
Clemens said he doesn’t mind wether it’s a Dutch or German crowd, he is just happy that there are full crowds!
After 7 years it then was time for Gary Anderson’s Eurotour comeback against Czechia’s Roman Benecky! A 7 year wait, only for Anderson to lose after 15 minutes 2-6 with an average below 90.
While waiting for the interview with Benecky it turned out he doesn’t speak English, and could only say ‘sorry!’ but it’s a matter of time for him to learn English, cause it is only a matter of time till he will play a lot more in the UK, given how he kept his cool against a two time World Champion!
Stephen Bunting then whitewashed former World Master Adam Smith-Neale and I was surprised about how much he could remember from the past.
He remembered a pro tour game against Smith-Neale and what he averaged there, and even knew his record against Joe Cullen in PDC darts!
Daryl Gurney then averaged above a ton in a win over Ricardo Pietreczko, and it took a very long time till his interview on the stage was finished. Gurney told us that was because ‘the interviewer kept asking questions’ but 6 minutes later I found out that Gurney really likes to talk himself too! He did say interesting things though like that he would not be playing darts anymore if he didn’t have the believe he could still win majors and that he’s been a bit unlucky with the results this year so far.
Then Raymond van Barneveld wanted to make his home crowd proud, but unfortunately for the them, Dimitri van den Bergh averaged 105 in beating him! The Dreammaker said that he hopes he will get more support from the crowd the rest of the weekend, and that he has been a bit lucky to get through the eurotour qualifier for this one!
Another Belgian in Kim Huybrechts then took on darting legend Steve Beaton! Beaton rolled back the years and won with a good performance, and as he told me the dartfans who supported him over the years have definitely helped him to keep on playing as he looks to return to the Matchplay and the Grand Prix!
Last game on was another Dutchman in Jermaine Wattimena against European Champion Ross Smith, and unfortunately for the crowd it was a 4th consecutive Dutch defeat as Smudger won 6-0! Credits to the crowd though as they behaved incredibly well, to the delight of Ross Smith who is taking on Luke Humphries in probably the game of the second round this Saturday!
Thankfully my deodorant was still hidden in the parking lot when I walked out, another lesson learned and more to learn today!
—-Ends—-
Inages: Jonas / PDC Europe
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