Luke Littler Leaves Special One Reeling As Euro Tour Kicks Off

The 2024 PDC European Tour kicked off on Friday evening as the Blåkläder Belgian Darts Open got underway in Wieze.

The tournament is the first to be played since controversial changes announced to the European Tour announced back in January.

Two round one sessions on Friday will be followed by two round two sessions on Saturday. Sunday then sees round three take place in the afternoon session before the champion is crowned after the quarter finals, semi finals and final are played in the evening session.

Nuke Lights Up Evening Session

Luke Littler defied some double trouble to win on his European Tour debut, seeing off Jose de Sousa in a final leg decider.

The 17 year old broke in the opening leg and looked certain to double his lead when firing in his first maximum to leave himself on a double after 12 darts in leg two. However, six missed darts on the outer ring followed, allowing de Sousa to sneak in for an immediate break back.

Successive holds followed before Littler opened leg five with five perfect darts, only for the ‘Special One’ to end the leg with six of his own, checking out 121 after a max for a 12 dart hold.

Not to be outdone, Littler started the next leg with seven perfect darts, eventually holding in 14.

The holds of throw continued up to the deciding leg, although de Sousa missed match darts in leg 10 before Littler held.

The decider saw de Sousa open with two visits of a ton before Littler fired in back to back maximums, taking him to eight for the contest to create the all important opportunity to close out the match, which he did in 15 darts to set up a second round tie with Krzysztof Ratajski.

Rest Of The Evening Action

There was disappointment for the home crowd as newly crowned UK Open champion Dimitri van den Bergh was dumped out in a last leg decider against Masters champion Stephen Bunting.

Two big names clashed as James Wade took on Raymond van Barneveld, the Englishman recovering from 4-2 down to win through 6-5 and set up an encounter with World Champion Luke Humphries on Saturday evening.

Nathan Aspinall is out after a disappointing display against Dutchman Richard Veenstra but there was better news for fellow Premier League competitor Peter Wright, he defeated home qualifier Geert de Vos 6-2 to set up a clash with Michael van Gerwen.

Joe Cullen was impressive in his 6-1 beating of Germany’s Martin Schindler, Gabriel Clemens whitewashed Jeroen Caron and Mike de Decker gave the home crowd something to cheer in the opening game of the evening session when he beat Chris Landman in a deciding leg.

Harrysson Steals Show In Afternoon Session

An astonishing display from Sweden’s Andreas Harrysson in the last game of the afternoon session stole the headlines, as four ton plus checkouts and a 107 average saw him ease past World Youth finalist Gian van Veen.

Jermaine Wattimena also produced an eye catching result, beating Daryl Gurney without dropping a leg and not allowing the Northern Irishman a shot on the outer ring.

Chris Dobey was a winner over Croatian Romeo Grbavac while Luke Woodhouse continued his decent UK Open run by beating James Hurrell.

Ryan Joyce saw off the challenge of former UK Open champion Andrew Gilding and Berry van Peer beat German Daniel Klose while the home fans were disappointed as Brendan Dolan got the better of Steven Strobbe and Lukas Wenig beat 16 year old starlet Born Van Put.

Results

Friday March 8

First Round

Afternoon Session

Berry van Peer 6-3 Daniel Klose

Ryan Joyce 6-3 Andrew Gilding

Lukas Wenig 6-3 Born Van Put

Jermaine Wattimena 6-0 Daryl Gurney

Luke Woodhouse 6-3 James Hurrell

Brendan Dolan 6-2 Steven Strobbe

Chris Dobey 6-3 Romeo Grbavac

Andreas Harrysson 6-1 Gian van Veen

Evening Session

Mike De Decker 6-5 Chris Landman

Joe Cullen 6-1 Martin Schindler

Gabriel Clemens 6-0 Jeroen Caron

Luke Littler 6-5 Jose de Sousa

Peter Wright 6-2 Geert De Vos

James Wade 6-5 Raymond van Barneveld

Stephen Bunting 6-5 Dimitri Van den Bergh

Richard Veenstra 6-3 Nathan Aspinall

Saturday’s Order of Play

Second Round

Afternoon Session (1300 local time, 1200 GMT)

Ricardo Pietreczko v Luke Woodhouse

Ross Smith v Jermaine Wattimena

Jonny Clayton v Berry van Peer

Damon Heta v Brendan Dolan

Ryan Searle v Richard Veenstra

Danny Noppert v Chris Dobey

Gary Anderson v Andreas Harrysson

Dirk van Duijvenbode v Joe Cullen

Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 GMT)

Dave Chisnall v Ryan Joyce

Michael Smith v Mike De Decker

Gerwyn Price v Gabriel Clemens

Michael van Gerwen v Peter Wright

Krzysztof Ratajski v Luke Littler

Luke Humphries v James Wade

Josh Rock v Stephen Bunting

Rob Cross v Lukas Wenig