Peter Wright impresses, Van Veen edges out Barney, Dobey and Cullen comfortably win, ET2 Day 1 Recap
Peter Wright sets the standard on day one of the German Darts Grand Prix as he secured a 6-3 win over Jose de Sousa where he averaged an impressive 103.94 to get his weekend off to the best possible start.
With a 66.7% checkout rate and 4 180’s thrown, the Scotsman is hoping to keep on improving as he looks to overcome a poor spell and is showing signs of playing at the brilliant best that he is capable of.
Stable mates Nathan Aspinall and Chris Dobey sealed comfortable victories, with both players winning 6-2 respectively.
Gian van Veen and Raymond van Barneveld had an exciting tussle which saw both players going back and forth – with van Veen progressing through thanks to winning in a last leg decider.
Fellow Dutch players Jermaine Wattimena and Richard Veenstra came out on top with wins, with Wattimena producing a dominant whitewash win over Rotzsch and Veenstra edging out Mueller 6-3.
It was one way traffic for Masters winner Joe Cullen as he defeated UK Open champion Andrew Gilding 6-2 where he averaged just shy of a ton in the process.
James Wade took on Daryl Gurney in his opening round clash, but fell at the first hurdle as he was on the back end of a steady performance from Superchin who averaged 97 compared to his below par average of 88.
Cameron Menzies and Mike de Decker put on a show in their opening fixture, with both players piling in 7 180’s between them and both sharing a 50% checkout rate on the outer ring. Menzies came out the winner as the game ended 6-4 in his favour and he hit 2 100+ checkouts on route.
Fellow Scotsman Alan Souter could not follow suit as he struggled to get going and put in a sub par performance of 83.49, as Brendan Dolan rounding off a comfortable 6-2 win and averaging a more than respectable 94.26.
Steve Lennon sealed an important win over Lukas Wenig to reach the second round, winning 6-3.
English players Luke Woodhouse and Ryan Joyce both advance to tomorrow’s action, where important wins over Dutch players Niels Zonneveld and Kevin Doets will help capture their spots at the World Matchplay in July.
Martin Schindler comfortably won his game in front of the home crowd as he was victorious 6-1, however fellow German Gabriel Clemens came within a double away of progressing through in his game. Despite averaging over 10+ points less than his opponent throughout the game, Dimitri van den Bergh put on a show to close out the session and win by the narrowest of margins.
European Tour 2 – German Darts Grand Prix Day 1 Results
Ryan Joyce 6-4 Kevin Doets
Brendan Dolan 6-2 Alan Soutar
Franz Rotzsch 0-6 Jermaine Wattimena
Cameron Menzies 6-4 Mike de Decker
Jeffrey de Zwaan 6-5 Matthias Ehlers
Oliver F Mueller 3-6 Richard Veenstra
Niels Zonneveld 5-6 Luke Woodhouse
Chris Dobey 6-2 Viktor Tingstrom
Lukas Wenig 3-6 Steve Lennon
James Wade 3-6 Daryl Gurney
Andrew Gilding 2-6 Joe Cullen
Martin Schindler 6-1 Vitezslav Sedlak
Nathan Aspinall 6-2 Michael Unterbuchner
Raymond van Barneveld 5-6 Gian van Veen
Peter Wright 6-3 Jose de Sousa
Dimitri van den Bergh 6-5 Gabriel Clemens