and he will be one to watch on the PDC Pro Tour this year. On stage
after that was a tense tussle between Leon De Geus and Steve Maish
which De Geus won 6-5 with a 101 finish to set up a second round clash
between himself and the newly crowned World Champion Michael Van
Gerwen.
Another 6-5 game was next and it was an upset of sorts as former
World finalist and Premier League player Mark Dudbridge bowed out in
a decider to 2005 WDF World Cup winner Dick Van Dijk, after missing
match darts. The spell of close matches was ended by Dean Winstanley
who received a late wedding gift in the form of a 6-1 win against
Matt Padgett. Mark Walsh’s fall from grace carried on as he suffered a
humiliating 6-0 defeat to Liverpudlian Lee Palfreyman.
For European Tour debutants Jamie Bain and Barry Lynn there were
baptisms of fire as they lost 6-0 to Michael Smith and Andy Hamilton
respectively. In the middle of those, German wonderkid Max Hopp took
the first leg off Terry Jenkins with a 104 finish but he lost all of the
remaining legs in a 6-1 loss.
The German faithful had another one of their own to spur on in Tomas
Seyler who faced Wayne Jones but it wasn’t to be for the home
favourite, who lost 6-3 thanks to the clinical finishing of Jones, which
set him up for a second round clash with the colourful World finalist
Peter Wright.
Photo: PDC/Lawrence Lustig
The other Palfreyman brother, Joey, took to the stage to face home
nation qualifier Rene Eidams who allowed Palfreyman to gain a 4-1
lead, before fighting back to 5-5 but ultimately Palfreyman prevailed
to move into the second round there he would face Adrian Lewis.
Stuart Kellett had the unusual test of playing someone who was
appearing in their first ever tournament, Fabian Herz who certainly did
not disgrace himself in a 6-3 loss to the UK Masters finalist.
The final match of the night featured two top thirty-two players in
Richie Burnett and Justin Pipe. “The Force” cruised to a 4-0 lead
against a Burnett who was clearly disgruntled by the slow pace and
despite getting it to 4-3, it finished 6-3 to Pipe which meant Brendan
Dolan on Saturday evening for Justin.
Second Round
Saturday afternoon in Halle 39 saw the top sixteen players from the
Pro Tour Order of Merit enter the field and this was when things started
getting interesting. The day kicked off with a clash between Ian White
and Dean Winstanley for a place in the third round. Winstanley was
the brighter of the two early doors but as a whole the match was very
tight and it produced a dramatic finish as Winstanley was on a double
for the match with White back on 334 seemingly out of sight. However,
White hit a 180 to leave 154 and Dean missed three darts a double 10
Photo: Mike Glover/UK Darts Magazine