Peter Wright knocked out on night one of European Championship.

Florian Hempel knocks out Peter Wright on night one of the European Championship. The German was making his TV debut and defeated the current champion 6-3.

Elsewhere, night one of at the European Championship saw;

  • Borland defeats Whitlock on his debut
  • Rob Cross & Mensur Suljovic progress to round two
  • Jose de Sousa and Luke Humphries set up mouth watering second round tie

Wright loses in round one again

Peter Wright who lost in round one last week to Rob Cross, followed that up with another early exit and this time it was to debutant Florian Hempel.

Last year’s champion came to the stage with another set of darts, and swapped to another set just after the break before reverting back to the darts he started with after just 12 darts.

Credit must go to Florian who put in some clinical finishing moving into round two on his TV debut.

The superb finishing from Florian Hempel early on gave him a 3-0 lead. We saw impressive checkouts of 97, 85 and 68 from the German. Peter Wright got one leg on the board, before Florian made sure he went into the break with a three leg lead.

After the break Hempel controlled the legs on throw which included a 76 checkout, he made sure in leg nine with a 40 checkout to get the biggest win of his career to date.

The Germans reward for beating the current champion, is a game against home favourite Mensur Suljovic.

Mensur eased to victory in round one against Adam Hunt. Adam Hunt struggled to find any rhythm and it was the big Austrian who took full advantage finishing the game with a 117 checkout.

The home crowd got behind Mensur who didn’t need to get out of first gear averaging 90 in a 6-2 win over Adam Hunt.

Borland shocks Whitlock

Big Willie reeled off six of the last seven legs to beat 2012 European Champion Simon Whitlock. Hempel wasn’t the only debutant to win on night one, as Borland put in a fantastic performance to beat The Wizard.

William Borland was showing debutant nerves in the early stages and found himself two behind on the Salzburg stage.

Going into the break Willie won the next three and wouldn’t of wanted the break at that time. However, the break didn’t affect the scot won the game in style with a outstanding 142 checkout. William Borland will face Joe Cullen in round two.

The final game of the night saw Rockstar put a very good performance  to defeat Ted Evetts.

Joe Cullen put recent disappointments on the stage behind him and was averaging over 100 for the majority of the game, but a number of missed doubles in the last leg dropped that to 94 to beat Super Ted.

Special One unconvincing in Salzburg

Jose de Sousa beats debutant Lewy Williams 6-4, but the performance will not please The Special One.

The key leg in this game came in leg five, with Jose getting the only break of the game in leg five. An average under 90 will not please Jose with improvements needed.

Jose De Sousa PDC Super Series
Jose De Sousa defeats debutant Lewy Williams 6-4 on night one. Credit: PDC

The Prince of Wales can take a lot of positives on his TV debut and we will be seeing a lot more of this young Welshman. However, it was Jose who progressed for a second round tie against Cool Hand.

Luke Humphries defeats Callan Rydz in a last leg decider. It was a game which we expected big scores and high checkouts. The game struggled to ever come to light and we only saw one 180 in the game which game from Callan Rydz.

We had eight breaks of throw in this game starting in leg three with the other seven coming back to back. This lead to a last leg shootout with Luke having the darts, and he completed the win with a 17 darter taking to get through this difficult tie.

Cross stumbled to victory

Rob Cross defeats Keane Barry to book his place into round two. The 6-3 score line looks like this was a one sided affair, the stats will tell you a different story. Rob Cross missed 14 darts at a double & Barry missing 11.

Rob Cross broke the throw two times in this game, with the first in leg three showing you what Voltage can do under the lights with a 148 checkout finished on tops.

The second break for Cross came in the final leg of the game, with both players missing a handful of darts until Rob Cross hit double two to set up a tie with Brendan Dolan.

Rob Cross will play The History Maker in round two on Saturday.

On a night of debutants at The European Championship, we had two players who have made numerous appearances including both being in 2012 semi finals. This time it was Brendan Dolan who progressed through to the next round with a 6-2 win over Kim Huybrechts.

After both players sharing the first four legs, it was The History Maker who found another gear to complete the win against Kim Huybrechts, who is struggling to find any sort of form on the big stage.

European Championship Day One Results

First Round

William Borland 6-3 Simon Whitlock
Brendan Dolan 6-2 Kim Huybrechts
Rob Cross 6-3 Keane Barry
Luke Humphries 6-5 Callan Rydz
Jose de Sousa 6-4 Lewis Williams
Florian Hempel 6-3 Peter Wright
Mensur Suljovic 6-2 Adam Hunt
Joe Cullen 6-0 Ted Evetts

Friday October 15
Evening Session (2000 local time, 1900 BST)
First Round x8

Adam Gawlas v Joe Murnan
Krzysztof Ratajski v Danny Noppert
James Wade v Adam Smith-Neale
Nathan Aspinall v Mervyn King
Michael Smith v Ryan Searle
Michael van Gerwen v Boris Krcmar
Gerwyn Price v Ritchie Edhouse
Damon Heta v Gabriel Clemens

Schedule of play for 2021 European Championship