Gerwyn Price and Gian van Veen are into the second round of the 2026 European Championship, but James Wade crashed out on night one in Dortmund.

Price defeated Rob Cross 6-2 in a battle of former World Champions, while van Veen was made to work by Andrew Gilding but eventually came through 6-4.

The biggest casualty of night one at the European Championship was James Wade, who lost 6-5 to Damon Heta after missing match darts in two of the final three legs. Danny Noppert also went home early, after losing in a last leg decider to Stephen Bunting.

Heta will play Luke Woodhouse in round two on Saturday afternoon, after Woody produced the moment of the night though in the opening game by hitting a stunning nine darter to help see off Dirk van Duijvenbode.

Price sets up round two clash with Menzies, van Veen to face Woodhouse

Price, who’s reached the final of the last two TV ranking events in the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix, started off his quest to win a first TV ranking title since the 2021 Grand Slam with a comfortable victory over Cross.

The Welshman started off the game with a 127 checkout for a 12 dart break, but Voltage then broke straight back with an 80 outshot. Price though broke again in 12 for a 2-1 lead, before reeling off the next three legs in 50 darts to go within one. Despite Cross hitting a 118 outshot to stop the rot, Price pinged in a majestic 135 for a 15 dart break to seal his passage to round two.

The Iceman will take on Scotland’s Cameron Menzies in round two, after he defeated Neils Zonneveld 6-3.

Triple Z, who won last week’s Euro Tour event in Maastricht, began with a 109 outshot to take leg one, but a crucial break in leg three gave Menzies a 2-1 advantage, before he reeled off four of the next six legs to claim the win, finishing the match with an 87 checkout on the bull.

Arguably the highlight of night one at the 2026 European Championship came in the first match, as Luke Woodhouse hit a nine darter en route to defeating Dirk van Duijvenbode.

The first three legs of the game went on throw, meaning Woodhouse was 2-1 up, before firing in the perfect leg in leg four, sending the crowd in Dortmund wild.

Woody, who reached the semi finals of this competition in 2024, comfortably held throw three more times, ending the contest with an 89 outshot on the bull for a 6-3 win.

Woodhouse faces World Darts Championship runner up Gian van Veen on Saturday afternoon in round two, after The Giant fought past Andrew Gilding 6-4.

Van Veen took an early 2-0 lead, before Goldfinger, a former UK Open champion, won three straight legs. The Giant fought back, winning two of the next three to level the match at 4-4.

The Dutchman found a 13 dart hold to go within one, before taking advantage of a missed dart at tops from Gilding in leg 10, hitting a 70 outshot for a 14 dart break to close out the win, in which he finished 6/9 on the outer ring.

Smith sees off Sedlacek to set up Heta clash, Bunting plays Huybrechts

Number one seed Ross Smith found it tough going against Karel Sedlacek, but eventually got over the line 6-4 to move onto round two.

Smudger and Evil Charlie traded breaks throughout much of the game, with Smith often breaking in the odd legs, and Sedlacek taking advantage of missed darts from the 2022 European Champion in the even legs to keep in the contest.

Smith took a 5-4 lead into leg ten, where both players missed more darts, but Smith eventually found double two for a 23 dart hold and to get into the second round, but he finished 6/25 on the doubles. Sedlacek only hit 4/17 on the outer ring.

Smith takes on Damon Heta in round two, after he took advantage of multiple missed match darts by James Wade to stun The Machine in a last leg decider.

Wade was in charge of the match early on, going 5-3 up with a marvellous 103 outshot. However, he missed two match darts in leg nine, allowing The Heat to find double eight and cut the gap to one. The Australian then broke in 13 darts in leg 10 to set up the final leg, where both missed darts to win it. Heta though held his nerve, finding double four for a 20 dart hold to progress to the second round of the European Championship for the first time since 2020.

Stephen Bunting showed remarkable courage to beat Danny Noppert 6-5 in the second game of the night.

Level at 4-4, The Bullet found a 14 dart break of throw to go in front, before missing a dart at the bull in leg 10 to wrap it up. Noppy, who’d missed the same target the previous visit for 5-5, then cleaned up 25 to force a decider, in which he missed a second tops for a 100 finish. Under huge pressure, Bunting found a remarkable 160 checkout to win the game and stun the Dutchman, who was visibly frustrated when walking off the oche.

Bunting will take on Kim Huybrechts in round two, after he beat Ryan Searle 6-1 and averaging 103.89 in the process.

Huybrechts initially missed out on the tournament, but was called up after Luke Humphries had to withdraw due to illness. The Hurricane went 1-0 down, but then performed superbly, taking just 86 darts to see off Heavy Metal, who only had two further opportunities at double in the match.

2026 European Championship Day One Results

Westfalenhalle, Dortmund

Luke Woodhouse 6-3 Dirk van Duijvenbode

Stephen Bunting 6-5 Danny Noppert

Cameron Menzies 6-3 Niels Zonneveld

Gerwyn Price 6-2 Rob Cross

Damon Heta 6-5 James Wade

Kim Huybrechts 6-1 Ryan Searle

Gian van Veen 6-4 Andrew Gilding

Ross Smith 6-4 Karel Sedlacek

2026 European Championship Day Two Schedule of Play

Friday 23 October (1900 CEST, 1800 BST)

Westfalenhalle, Dortmund

Ryan Joyce v Jermaine Wattimena

Krzysztof Ratajski v Dave Chisnall

Nathan Aspinall v Cristo Reyes

Jonny Clayton v Niko Springer

Luke Littler v William O’Connor

Wessel Nijman v Martin Schindler

Kevin Doets v Michael van Gerwen

Josh Rock v Chris Dobey