2022 Hungarian Darts Trophy Preview and Tips – JP
2022 Hungarian Darts Trophy Outright Preview
The proper darts season resumes this weekend with the 2022 Hungarian Darts Trophy. The inaugural event in 2021 was won by Gerwyn Price who beat Michael Smith in the final.
It is always a bit harder trying to judge ‘current form’ after most of the players in the field have had a month off. Eight of the players here this week have just returned from their 3 week jaunt down under. At least they have been playing competitive darts during the month, but they have also been doing a lot of travelling and less than a week to get over the jet lag.
There was some Development Tour action which saw Nathan Rafferty and Josh Rock picking up titles, so they have been turning the arm over in competitive action. The others will be well rested and raring to go, but there are more questions over form than usual. We’ll just have to go with what we have got.
The Seeds
1.Michael van Gerwen
Back to winning ways with eight titles in 2022, including three Euro Tour titles. He may be winning titles again, but his game hasn’t improved and his win rate is at its lowest since 2011. It is all relative of course and he remains one of the very top players, if not the totally dominant one of old. It looks like he will be facing Simon Whitlock in the second round, and The Wizard has been a bit of a thorn in his side in the last few years. Whitlock has won their last five matches and MVG has not beaten him since 2019.
2.Luke Humphries
the winning most player in the field with a seasonal win rate of 75%. He has won four Euro Tour titles in 2022 and finished the first half of the season with a players’ championship final, losing to Rob Cross. Must be on the short list.
3.Gerwyn Price
Won the final event in the World Series events down under, but his seasonal win rate is only 63%. He suffered with injury for much of the first half of the season and was dragged down by playing in the Premier League. It is all business now. Fit and back to winning ways, he has won eight of his last ten matches. A contender.
4.Michael Smith
Enjoying a successful 2022, winning three players’ championships, a Euro Tour title and the US Darts Masters. The big TV title remains elusive, but he will be looking to go one better than last year when he was runner up. His most recent form in the World Series was a bit of a mixed bag and he played seven and won four down under.
5.Rob Cross
Back to winning ways when winning PC24 before the summer break. He has played well on the Euro Tour, reaching three finals this year.
6.Peter Wright
Withdrew from the World Series events last month to undergo surgery to remove his troublesome gall bladder. That should help improve his form going forward, so expect an upturn in form from Snakebite.
7.Damon Heta
Enjoyed his trip back home for the World Series events in Australia and New Zealand, but he failed to win a single match and he has lost his last five matches, but still scoring well.
8.Ryan Searle
It has been a bit of a struggle for Searle in 2022, at least on stage. His floor form is good, winning PC11 in April, runner up in PC12 and the semi-finals of PC19 and 22. On the Euro Tour he has played 16 and won just 7 and only once going beyond the last 16 stage.
9.Nathan Aspinall
Now over his early season injury problems, The Asp was in great form before the break, winning eight of his last ten matches and reaching two players championship finals, winning one. Back to his best? Quite possibly. His season win rate is 74%, bettered only by Luke Humphries 75%.
10. Dirk van Duijvenbode
A two time players championship winner in 2022, Dirk has a seasonal win rate of 68% and he has reached three Euro Tour quarter finals. His game is in very good shape and his day will come.
11. Joe Cullen
Another of the World Series participants, Cullen is another two time players championship winner in 2022. He has lost five of his last ten matches and has been a bit to inconsistent to think of him as a likely winner this weekend.
12. Jose De Sousa
Continues to struggle. His annual win rate is 59% but he has had some better runs, reaching the semi-final of PC10, semi-final of the Czech Darts Open and the quarter final of the World Matchplay. The A game is still very good, but there are too many poor performances to think that he is getting close to a tournament win.
13. Dimitri van den Bergh
Replaced Peter Wright for the World Series events down under winning four of his seven matches. He has won eleven of his twenty Euro Tour matches in 2022 and was runner up in Euro Tour 5 in May. His most recent form has been a mixed bag of ton plus and sub 90 averages and he has won six of his last ten. Dimitri ended his long association with Unicorn darts this week, so he will be playing with new kit this weekend.
14. Danny Noppert
A seasonal win rate of 74% means that Noppert is a contender in anything he enters right now. He was runner up in Euro Tour 4, the quarter final of ET7 and runner up in ET8.
15. Jonny Clayton
Hasn’t won on the Euro Tour since 2018 and he lost eight of his eighteen ET matches in 2002 and hasn’t got beyond the last 16 in the last five Euro tour events. He won a World Series event last month but wasn’t at his best.
16. Krzysztof Ratajski
Returned to some kind of form before the break, reaching the final of PC22 but he has won just three form eleven on this year’s Euro tour.
Notable Non-Seeded Players
There was some Development Tour action a couple of weeks ago and two of the standout performers were the young Northern Irish pair, Nathan Rafferty and Josh Rock. Rock is the worst kept secret in darts, a winner in waiting, but if he doesn’t do it soon, he will be going off at cramped odds as he continues to produce stunning displays, but he hasn’t got that first win at senior level.
He won DT16 averaging 112 in the final. He followed that up by winning DT17 and averaged 104 in that final. The next day saw Rock finish as runner up in DT18 and he made the quarter final in DT19. There was one more tournament on the Sunday and that one saw Nathan Rafferty pick up his seventh DT title and his third of 2022. Those two will be feeling confident and perhaps a little sharper than some players.
Chizzy Going Well
Dave Chisnall has an impressive 72% seasonal win rate in 2022 (his best ever win rate) and has won seven of his last ten matches. He does struggle to convert good form into titles, but surely he wins something soon?
Chris Dobey has won eight of his last ten matches but like Chisnall, he finds winning titles harder than it should be for a player with his ability. He picked up two PC titles last year and maybe he can kick on in 2022, but he has not progressed beyond the last 32 stage in his four Euro Tour events this season.
The rest of the non-seeded players have too many question marks over them to be seriously considered.
The 2022 Hungarian Darts Trophy Draw
There are no easy quarters but equally, no real quarter of death. It’s a well-balanced looking draw.
Q1 has MVG, Ratajski, Searle and Aspinall as the four seeded players who will enter at the second round stage. The Asp is bang in form and MVG is back to winning ways again. I can see those two meeting in the quarter final and while MVG would be the favourite to win it (he has a 10-5 H2H record over Aspinall and won their last four), he has just come back from New Zealand. While it is hard to know, that might take a bit out of him.
Looking back at past years when he has returned from his trips down under and straight into Euro Tour action, he lost his opening match in 2013 but on the other four occasions it has happened, he reached the final and won twice. Maybe it won’t take it out of him. What might do for him is Simon Whitlock, and I will go for Aspinall to get through the quarter.
Quarter 2
Q2 sees Michael Smith, Van den Bergh, Cross and De Sousa has the four seeds. Smith was runner up here last year and is in decent form. Both he and Van den Bergh have just returned from New Zealand, while Cross and De Sousa have had the month off. Cross was in top form before the break and while the break may have come at the wrong time for him, he has been knocking on the door of his first Euro Tour title and he must be seriously considered. He has a poor H2H record against De Sousa (3-5) but has a strong record against Smith (17-5) and Van den Bergh (8-3).
Quarter 3
Q3 Has Euro Tour OOM leader, Luke Humphries, Jonny Clayton, Damon Heta and Dirk van Duijvenbode as the seeds. Humphries is THE man on the Euro Tour this season and he is full of confidence in this format. His form remains good and he for one will have needed the month off to recharge the batteries Humphries is 0-5 against Clayton, so he’ll be hoping to get his first win over the Welshman in a probable third round match up.
If Humphries was to slip up, I fancy the chances of Dirk van Duijvenbode. His power scoring is very good right now, hitting more 180’s per leg than anyone in the last 3 months. His checkout rate in the same period is a very healthy 43% and since the start of June, his 3 dart average is 97.7, the best of anyone in the field this weekend.
Quarter 4
In the final quarter the seeded players are Price, Noppert, Wright and Cullen. It will be interesting to see how Wright gets on post-surgery. He should be pain free now and so long as he was able to get back to the practice board reasonably quickly, he might shine. I expect Price to start upping his game as we get to the business end of the season, and he is a good defender of titles. Cullen isn’t in great form, but Noppert is and I like to have him onside at the moment. He does struggle against Price however and that is a worry.
Non Seeds
Of the non-seeds, Josh Rock makes some appeal at 67.00. He may be a bit light on experience having only played in three Euro Tour events but has already made a quarter final and he continues to improve at a rapid rate. Dave Chisnall is something of a dark horse, but actually winning a title, I struggle with the concept, but there is form to back up the argument.
