The double Dutch darting drama of back-to-back nights at the Rotterdam Ahoy brings the curtain down on the elimination phase of this year's Premier League Darts season. Tonight sees the penultimate contender in action, and it's someone who could be in the PLD by right in a few years as that dancing Belgian Dimitri Van den Bergh faces bipolar disorder's James Wade in the second match of the session. The Dreammaker has shown that he thrives in front of the TV cameras, but his sole defeat to the Machine was on telly in 2017's World Series of Darts Finals.
Preceding that is a crucial fixture that could be one half of the equation needed to decide elimination tonight with blubber boy Michael Smith against Welsh rugger roidlet Gerwyn Price. If Bully Boy wins, then he will be 3 points clear with 1 game left. Failing to beat the Iceman, who like Smith also lost in Berlin, could spell disaster for the 2019 Worlds finalist.
Two big winners from last week follow the contender match as charisma void Rob Cross and everyone's favourite unorthodox Serbo-Austrian Mensur Suljovic. The new bald league leader followed up his victory last time out with his first Euro Tour final at the weekend, and could go 4 points clear with victory over the Gentle.
The weekend's Euro Tour victor plays his second favourite bitch boy with Michael van Gerwen against midlife crisis clown Peter Wright. MVG defeated Voltage in a high quality affair as well as hitting a 9 against Mensur, and with Snakebite not really playing at this best, this could be brutal.
Judgement Night will be rendered irrelevant if home hero Raymond van Barneveld loses to Ulster sulk Daryl Gurney and Smith's beaten Price. Barney finally registered a league win in Germany, albeit over Max Hopp, and Superchin's surprise win over MVG could be the catalyst for the end of RVB's Premier League career.
Coverage starts at 7:00pm GMT on Sky Sports Action and at 7:30pm CET on RTL7.
>Tonight's fixtures (7:00pm start, all matches best of 12 legs; contender match in greentext) Gerwyn "Gurning" Price v Michael "Snackpot 2.0" Smith >James "The Meds Are Back In Town" Wade v Dimitri "Box Office Belgian" Van den Bergh Rob "BAuLDtism" Cross v Mensur "DIE MEISTER, DIE BESTEN" Suljovic Snakeshite v MvGOAuTism Barney v Daryl "Sweet C4-line" Gurney
So as mentioned in the OP, the streamed European Tour returned to the forefront of the PDC universe this weekend with the European Darts Open from Leverkusen.
There was PLD interest from the first day as Raymond van Barneveld's first Euro Tour for almost TWO YEARS ended in defeat in the last 48 by Steve Beaton, while contenders Jeffrey de Zwaan, Glen Durrant and Dimitri Van den Bergh all made it through to Saturday. James Wade and Gerwyn Price were the first big names to make it through on day 2, both winning 6-3 against debutant Wesley Plaisier and Scott Taylor respectively, but the afternoon's shock went to Krzysztof Ratajski, with the Pole beating Michael Smith 6-5 with a 105.57 average. JdZ was hammered 6-2 by Daryl Gurney with Dimitri walloping Adrian Lewis 6-3, who attempted some post match afters but thankfully nothing came out, but the biggest blunder from the PLD boys saw Duzza manage to lose 6-5 to Jermaine Wattimena having been 5-2 ahead and missed 3 for the match! Michael van Gerwen wasn't at his best but easily gained revenge over a hopeless Mervyn King, with Rob Cross, Mensur Suljovic and Peter Wright all going through as well.
Sunday saw history made... but it almost didn't. Having annihilated Wattimena 6-0, MVG then found himself in a deciding leg against Price in the quarters and were it not for the rugger roidlet blobbing a shot at 17 to finish 57 into single 2 and consequently missing tops to FINALLY end that losing streak (with Michael winning with 118) then a groundbreaking 9 darter in the semi-final with Mensur Suljovic wouldn't have been hit. Mensur was 4-2 up but saw the advantage disappear as the Autism Express hit his second Euro Tour 9 with a 147 finish that went T19-bull-D20. Cross reached his first Euro Tour final since 2017 by slapping Wright with a 104 average. A superb final that had MVG start with a 170 was nip and tuck until leg 14 where Voltage short circuited and Michael won Euro Tour title #29 by 8 legs to 6.
>‘To be honest I’m a little bit disappointed because things aren’t running as I hoped they would,’ the BDO chairman told Metro.co.uk.
>‘I’d really hoped that about 10 days ago that I was going to announce something really good for the BDO. But it turns out things that have happened three years ago, before I was even part of the BDO, have put a spanner in the works. I’ve been a bit naive I think, I fully intended for everything to be done and dusted by the last week in March. It’s pushed me back three or four weeks and it’s really annoying because it’s out of my control. Especially when I’ve opened my mouth and told people I’ll announce in the last week in March, that it’s going to be great. It makes me look an absolute bloody idiot.
>‘Sometimes it’s really annoying, when you put the work in and the goalposts have been moved, and quite rightly moved, because of stupid decisions made years ago. ‘But it’s just one of those things, I can’t do anything about it for another two or three weeks yet. It’s just taking time to sort it all out.’
Hopefully it's the end of Barney tonight. A fitting end for a poor career.
Adrian Allen
The PDC might seriously care.
The amount of European talent in the PDC rises year-by-year and all the players with a EU passport might not be able to get UK work permits after Brexit.
Might be a good thing for the BDO as the BDO/WDF have most of their tournaments in the continental Europe.
Wyatt Butler
state of that
William Lee
>muh draft
Andrew Rogers
CAAAHHHHHMAAAAAA
David Campbell
>I somehow managed to miss /180/ from the subject Found the thread anyway. Your futile attempt to keep this thread for yourself has been thwarted!!1
In b4 Roidlet earning extra heel points by losing deliberately to Blubber just to see Barney go out before his home crowd.
>Might be a good thing for the BDO as the BDO/WDF have most of their tournaments in the continental Europe. bdo travel club going to be claiming they have irish heritage soon
he absolutely does not look like himself in this image
Hunter Hernandez
Fair enough. Sure ive seem some feathered quills out there, Price's darts look really light but that might be his roided up torso and girly throw putting me off
Ayden Nguyen
DAT 140 FROM TWINK!
WE ARE THE VAN DEN BORGH. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE! YOUR DANCE MOVES WILL BE ADDED TO OUR OWN. PREPARE TO BE ELIMINATED.
Think Wrights missus is quite ill atm so who knows what version of him will turn up or if he'll give him a game. Kind of not much difference to normal in retrospect but it could be over quicker than usual
Think the wind will likely throw Chin's arrers of course more than Borneys with that weird arc of his if it plays a part. Maybe is more likely to put Diabeetus off mind
Always enjoyable: the 10 lowest averages in televised PDC history.
60.38 - Alan Bolton, 2008 PDC World Darts Championship (v Erwin Extercatte, Preliminary Round) 59.67 - Ted Hankey, 2012 PDC Grand Slam of Darts (v Michael van Gerwen, Group Stage) 59.44 - Anto McCracken, 2006 PDC World Grand Prix (v Bob Anderson, Last 16) 59.36 - Dave Harrington, 2013 PDC World Darts Championships (v Haruki Muramatsu, Preliminary Round) 54.99 - Mark Wilton, 2004 PDC World Grand Prix (v Brendan Dolan, Last 32) 54.95 - Warren French, 2009 PDC World Darts Championships (v Akahiro Nakagawa, Preliminary Round) 54.34 - Akahiro Nakagawa, 2009 PDC World Darts Championships (v Warren French, Preliminary Round) 53.37 - Eric Bristow, 1999 PDC World Darts Championships (v Peter Manley, Last 32) 52.60 - Roland Scholten, 2008 PDC European Championships (v Mensur Suljovic, Last 32) 50.85 - Darrin Pugh, 2011 PDC UK Open (v Wayne Mardle, Last 160)
So glad i caught the French v Nakagawa match. Honestly dont think we'll see the like again the way the game has gone/is going. Its too competative in most places these days with the prize at the end. Maybe if an American draws a female qualifier and they both fall apart but i think the days of 60 v 70 averages maybe almost gone from the ally pally.
Ayden Howard
Kek
Zachary Cooper
I don't think we'll ever get a Mickey Mansell v Jim Long again.
Dylan Taylor
Well that was some night indeed.
Round-up will be in the usual place (this weekend along with the Berlin & Rotterdam Night 2 write-ups, sorry for the delay and all).
See you tomorrow for possibly the last game Raymond van Barneveld will ever play on television.
Evan Perry
>See you tomorrow for possibly the last game Raymond van Barneveld will ever play on television. >it's going to be a bumming at the hands of Autism yes
