On Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023, the very first ADC Europe darts tournament was held at MFC 't Centrum in Ooltgensplaat.
These darts tournaments featured the European Qualifier Tour, where one could qualify for the
MODUS Super Series.
EQT 1
Chris Landman showed his good form. He defeated Sietse Lap (4-2), Marcel Teders (4-0), Jimmy van Schie (4-3), Davy van der Zande (4-3) and Mike Hermans (4-0) to take on young German Ole Holtkamp in the semifinals. He was previously too strong for Youri Brouwer (4-2), Stef Goyvaerts (4-2), Jeremy Dijke (4-0), Jordy van den Broek (4-2) and Roy van de Griendt (4-0). In this first semifinal, it was Holtkamp who quickly worked his way to a 2-0 lead, but Landman eventually fought his way back to a 3-2 deficit. In the sixth leg, Landman had darts to make it 3-3, but it was still Holtkamp who qualified for the final.
On the other side of the schedule some surprises, we saw Arne Spee and Bram van Dijk face each other in the semifinals. Spee had previously been too strong for Martin Jongejan (4-3), Tufail Badal (4-1), Cedric Waegemans (4-1), Tom van den Hoogen (4-3) and Carlo van Peer (4-0). Van Dijk reached the semifinals by defeating Mike Niezen (4-0), Saskia Jonkman (4-0), Steve de Buck (4-2), Nico Plovier (4-3) and John Desreumaux (4-3). In this second semifinal, Spee took the lead 0-1, but then it was one-way traffic from Van Dijk and Spee was defeated 4-1.
The final was not their best match of the day for both Ole Holtkamp and Bram Van Dijk. Despite an early lead for Van Dijk, it was the young German Holtkamp who took the win (4-2) and therefore qualified first for the MODUS Super Series.
EQT 2
Previous winner of the day Ole Holtkamp had to acknowledge his superiority to Johann Brouwer already in the first round. John Desreumaux did not play his way past Marcel Bos in the second round and Jeroen Mioch did not get past Nico Plovier in the third round for the second time this day, despite a nice win over Dennie Olde Kalter in the first round.
Chris Landman once again made his presence felt and made it to the semifinals, where he would meet Ricardo Ham from Rotterdam. Landman had previously proved too strong for Renars Juskevics (4-0), Sander van Oostenbrugge (4-0), Mike van Leeuwen (4-0), Johann Brouwer (4-2) and Youri Brouwer (4-1). Ricardo Ham felt well in his element during EQT 2, defeating Corné Groeneveld (4-3), Tim Kaijser (4-1), Jimmy van Schie (4-1), Maikel Kustermans (4-2) and Tom van den Hoogen (4-2), before taking on Landman in the semifinals. This semifinal turned out to be a very exciting one, also because some doubles were missed here and there. Landman quickly jumped out to a 0-2 lead, but from that moment on it was the man from Rotterdam who struck and took the win.
In the other semifinal it was Belgians Jeroen Caron and James Vanbesien who faced off against each other in the battle for the MODUS Super Series spot. Caron showed good form during EQT 2 with victories over Tonny Wolfert (4-2), Stefano van Zeele (4-0), Michel van der Horst (4-2), Timothy Verbrugghe (4-2) and Gilbert van der Meijden (4-2 with an average of 104.56). Vanbesien, on the other hand, did not beat the least players either: Derk Telnekes (4-0), Massimo Balsamo (4-3), Zyon Raman (4-1), Nico Plovier (4-2) and Revelino Dubois (4-1). In this second semifinal, it was clear who was going to win, as with an average of 103.66, Vanbesien was defeated 4-0 by Jeroen Caron.
In the final between Vanbesien and Caron, the tension was clearly on Caron and it was Ham who took the lead with a 20-darter and two 17-darters. Despite Ham's 3-0 lead and the necessary match darts, Caron worked his way back into the match to 3-3. In the deciding leg Ham started strong, but weakened allowing Caron to lay on for the victory and he did so with his sixth matchdart. This qualified the Belgian for the MODUS Super Series.
Since there were also places to be given away on day rankings (which filter out the day's tournament winners), it was Chris Landman, Bram van Dijk, James Vanbesien and Tom van den Hoogen who also managed to qualify for the MODUS Super Series.