2024 Dutch Darts Championship Preview – JP
2024 Dutch Darts Championship Outright Preview
Now, it is time for James Punt’s 2024 Dutch Darts Championship outright preview. He has already posted a 3 point bet for R1, get that here.
2024 Dutch Darts Championship Preview
The seventh Euro Tour event of 2024 is the Dutch Darts Championship, played at the Autotron in Rosmalen, located about 7 km east of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch).
The line up does not include the winner of ET6, Rob Cross, last year’s runner up, Luke Humphries or Luke Littler. Michael van Gerwen and Michael Smith are still in the lineup, despite playing in the PL playoffs on Thursday night.
Another absentee is Ritchie Edhouse. He didn’t qualify for this event, so the Bank of Edhouse will be closed this weekend. That said, he is the first reserve, so he might be in the Friday morning re-write.
STOP PRESS – We have had two withdrawals. Nathan Aspinall and Michael Smith have pulled out. Off to Vegas again? That means Edhouse and Jermaine Wattimena enter at the first round stage. Daryl Gurney moves up to fifteenth seed and Jonny Clayton becomes the sixteenth seed.
World Cup Qualification
This will be the last event before the cut off for the qualification for the World Cup of Darts. Northern Ireland will consist of Josh Rock and either Brendan Dolan or Daryl Gurney, both of whom are playing this weekend.
Currently, Dolan is £500 ahead of Gurney. For this tournament, Gurney is a seeded player which means he gets straight into the second round. Dolan has to play a first round match. Both players have to win their opening match to have their prize money classified as ranking, but it is advantage Gurney in terms of where he starts.
Belgium
The Belgian team will be Dimitri van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts, but Huybrechts (who is not playing this weekend) can be caught by Mike de Decker, who is.
However, De Decker is £14250 off Huybrechts and that means he would need to win the tournament to qualifying automatically. He may still get the call up as Huybrechts has had to have shoulder surgery after he was attacked after a football match a few weeks ago.
Dave Chisnall is the defending champion. The two other past winners are Michael Smith (2022) and Ian White (2018).
The 2024 Dutch Darts Championship Seeds
1 Dave Chisnall
Has won six of his last ten matches but on the Euro Tour, he has played nine and lost five. He has been scoring well in his recent matches but he needs to start converting that into more wins. Chisnall beat Luke Humphries in last year’s final.
2 Damon Heta
Struggling for form. He has lost five of his last ten matches and scoring has been inconsistent at best, but poor on the whole. Hard to fancy.
3 Gerwyn Price
Now free of the shackles of the Premier League. Price has made a final and two more semi-finals from the four events he has played on the Euro Tour this season. His recent form sees six defeats in his last ten matches.
I expect his form to start picking up now the PL is over for him. It is clear that he really doesn’t like playing in the Premier League and has hinted that he may refuse to play in it ever again. I can see him as a proper contender this weekend.
4 Danny Noppert
Runner up in 2022, Noppert is having a lot of good runs in many tournaments. He was a semi-finalist in ET6 and made three other quarter finals. Overall he has lost six ranking quarter finals and two semi-finals in 2024.
A sign that he is a bit of a bottler at the business end, or that he is on the cusp of a win? A bit of both seems to be the answer. He did win PC8, so he can get it done, but sometimes he just doesn’t turn up in the latter stages. That was the case in the semi-final of ET6, averaging 89.5 in a 4-7 loss to Humphries.
5 Michael van Gerwen
I guess he wouldn’t be here if it were not a home tournament for him. He was easily beaten by Luke Humphries in last night’s Premier League playoff semi-final. It was a 5-10 loss and while MVG averaged 97.18, he was never really in the match. He went out with a bit of a whimper.
Van Gerwen has lost five of his last ten matches. The good news for him is that four of those losses were to Luke Humphries, who is not playing this weekend. The bad news is that his seasonal win rate is down to 65%, his lowest since 2010. His last ranking title was the Belgian Darts Open in early May last year.
MVG has picked up a couple of World Series titles and the World Series Finals, but it is over a year since his last ranking title. His best result in this event was a semi-final last year. He is very poor value as the 5.50 favourite.
6 Josh Rock
Has now lost six of his last ten matches. He reached the quarter final of ET4 a month ago but failed to take his chances and lost to Gary Anderson. Since then he has played six and lost four.
He was furious when losing 3-6 to Franz Rötzsch in ET6 and having regained his form to reach a Players Championship final last month, he looks to have lost it again.
7 Ross Smith
Smudger reached the quarter final of ET 3, the final of ET4 and the semi-final of ET5. He has lost five of his last ten matches and his form is a bit inconsistent. Smith has lost three Players Championship semi-finals, and like Danny Noppert, he is having plenty of good runs but not quite cashing in. Another good run is not out of the question.
8 Ryan Searle
For a player that doesn’t enjoy being away from home, his Euro Tour form in 2024 is much improved. He has reached three quarter finals, but he has been a seeded player and he has played 13 and won 7. Hardly earth shattering, but he is scoring well and is a dangerous opponent.
9 Stephen Bunting
Has reached two ET semi-finals and a quarter. Despite winning The Masters at the start of the season, he has reverted to type. Playing well, winning lots of matches but losing out at the business end.
He has lost a Players Championship final and two quarter finals. His recent form sees seven wins from his last ten, but there is some inconsistency creeping in.
10 Martin Schindler
Winner of ET 3 and quarter finalist in ET5, Schindy has been playing some great stuff. He has lost three of his last six so he may have gone off the boil, but if he finds his A game, he is a potential winner.
11 Peter Wright
Has lost seven of his last ten matches and there seems to be no end in sight of this massive loss of form.
12 Chris Dobey
A winner and runner up in two Players Championship events earlier in the year, Dobey has not been able to crack the Euro Tour. He has made one semi-final in 2024 and won nine of his fifteen Euro Tour matches. Dobey has won five of his last ten matches and while his scoring is still generally very good, he is still throwing in a poor one which stops his runs.
13 Ricardo Pietreczko
A semi-finalist in ET1, Pietreczko has lost his form. He has lost seven of his last ten matches, and while he can still come up with some great performances, there is no consistency in his game.
14 Gian van Veen
Has won seven of his last ten matches but he is not anywhere near his best scoring wise.
15 Daryl Gurney
The last chance saloon in terms of making the World Cup. He will be aware of what Brendan Dolan did in his first round match on Friday, but regardless of that, Superchin has to win his first round match, or his prize money of £2500 for second round loser, will be non-ranking. Daryl has to make the third round.
He is only £500 behind Dolan, so just winning his opening match may be enough. Gurney has won seven of his last ten matches, he is happy with his game, has made a small equipment change and feels he is getting close to a return to winning ways.
If he finds himself in the World Cup qualifying spot, then a bit of pressure comes off his back and he can enjoy the rest of the tournament. He would then be dangerous.
16 Jonny Clayton
The Ferret gets a leg up into the second round after the withdrawal of Michael Smith. Clayton is still trying to get his form back. There have been signs that he is getting closer but there is some way to go. He has lost five of his last ten matches. He hit two ton plus averages, but also four sub 91 averages. It is hard to see a long run for Clayton.
Best of the Unseeded Players
Brendan Dolan
Will have one eye on the World Cup situation. He won PC10 a couple of weeks ago and has won eight of his last ten matches. His problem is that he has not got past the second round stage in the first six Euro Tour events.
Madars Razma
Razzmatazz reached the semi-final of ET6 two weeks ago. He has won seven of his last ten matches and will be feeling good about things. He beat Dobey, Chisnall, Cullen and Searle before losing 4-7 to eventual winner Rob Cross in ET6, so it wasn’t like he got an easy draw.
Cameron Menzies
Is playing some good darts this season and he has won six of his last ten matches, He is scoring very well. His last seven matches have all been 96+ averages, including three ton plus averages. Whether he could hold it all together and have a long run is open to question.
Jeffrey de Graff
The runner up in PC10 two weeks ago. De Graff followed that up by winning six Euro Tour qualifiers. That means he has won twelve of his last thirteen matches. His confidence will be sky high, but before we start looking at a Ritchie Edhouse scenario, we have to consider who he has beaten. The answer is not much.
Ratajski is the highest ranked plyer beat in that run. His scoring was not much to write home about either. He has hit one ton plus average in his last 50 matches. Winning breeds confidence, but it is likely he will run into a player with too much firepower for him to cope with.
Ritchie Edhouse
Madhouse needed a withdrawal to get in, but he is one of the form players on the Euro Tour in 2024. It has completely elevated him as a professional darts player. No longer just a journeyman pro, doing enough to keep his tour card year in, year out, but now a player that others fear and player winning a lot of matches and money.
His seasonal win rate is a very healthy 70% , he has won seven of his last ten matches. On the Euro Tour, he has played fourteen and won ten. He has reached two quarter finals, losing both 5-6. Edhouse also reached a Players Championship semi-final earlier this month. He is happy and confident. He should be able to make the final day once again.
The Draw
First Quarter
The four seeds are Chisnall, Clayton, Searle and Bunting. Chizzy has been scoring well of late, Clayton is not in good form, but Searle and Bunting are both dangerous, if not looking like winners. Razma and De Graff are two of the in-form unseeded players.
Sod’s law means they get drawn together, with the winner playing Stephen Bunting. I would say that this looks a good draw for Dave Chisnall. He has been scoring well and I can see him putting up a good defence of his title. Bunting is the obvious alternative.
Second Quarter
An interesting quarter. Danny Noppert was runner up in 2022 and he is the top seed in the quarter. He is joined by the out of form Ricardo Pietreczko, MVG and Chris Dobey.
Noppert can be a bit flakey at the business end of things, but he is a tournament winner in 2024 and he is in good form. He has a decent path to a quarter final. MVG OR Dobey would likely be in his way. Neither are rock solid at the moment, but clearly no push overs.
Third Quarter
The out of form Damon Heta is the top seed. The others are Gurney, Ross Smith and Schindler. Three players who have played well recently and could have a good run. Of the unseeded payers, Brendan Dolan plays Owen Bates in the first round, the winner playing Schindler.
Dolan is 6-1 with Schindler, but Dolan doesn’t do Sundays in Europe. However, it would keep the World Cup narrative going. Ritchie Edhouse plays a Czech qualifier in the first round and Heta in the second. Another final day’s play is within Edhouse’s grasp.
It is a very hard quarter to pick the winner of. Gurney, Schindler, Smith and Edhouse have decent claims. Schindler may have to face Dolan, which is not easy for him (1-6 H2H) but winnable. Schindler is already a Euro Tour winner in 2024 and Smith a runner up.
Fourth Quarter
This looks like a gift for Gerwyn Price. He may have lost six of his last ten matches, but he has been playing while under the cloud of the Premier League. He can now put that behind him and have a good run.
Price has not played in the last two Euro Tour events but he reached the semi-final of ET1, ET3 and was runner up in ET3. He remains one of the very heaviest scorers in the game and while he has some problems on the outer ring, he will give himself plenty of chances to win legs.
The other seeds are Gian van Veen, Peter Wright and Josh Rock. Wright and Rock are out of confidence and Van Veen is not playing his best either.
Of the unseeded players, Cameron Menzies is playing well but is as mad as a box of frogs. Dito Callan Rydz. Dirk van Duijvenbode remains in poor form. Raymond van Barneveld does give Price problems at times. But there is nobody Price should fear here.
