Michael van Gerwen lost in the semifinals of the Dutch Darts Championship last weekend. Still, he enjoyed the tournament in Autotron Rosmalen.
Van Gerwen was full of praise for the audience at the Autotron, which was loud. "This is wonderful. And this is not just one session huh, there are six sessions here this weekend, a couple of which are completely sold out. Thursday (when he lost the semi-final of the playoffs in the Premier League Darts) hurt a lot, but then this does me this really really good. My wife is there, too. My kids? No, they didn't want to come. They wanted to stay with the babysitter and play on the iPad,'' Van Gerwen told AD.nl.
Several top players such as Luke Humphries, Luke Littler and Rob Cross were missing from Rosmalen. "But I still have heart, you know," Van Gerwen laughed. "I've also skipped a Euro Tour at times, but I can't let my own fans down. They all buy a ticket and come here partly for me.''
14,000 spectators at the O2 Arena (which hosted the Premier League Darts playoffs) or 2,000 at the Autotron Rosmalen? "Pooh, tricky," said Van Gerwen. "Thursday was magnificent with ALL that crowd. That shows that darts has never been in such a great position as it is now. But this in Rosmalen has really done me very well.''
Unsportsmanlike
Yet there was also criticism of the Dutch crowd, for example, Belgian Mike De Decker (who lost to Kevin Doets in the opening round) felt that the crowd was not really sporting by regularly booing him. "Of course that whistling and booing is not sporting," said Niels Zonneveld, who himself was stranded in the second round.
"I do agree with Mike. The Belgian fans are also for the Belgians, but are always very respectful of other players. I don't begrudge my opponent being flamed out, but on the other hand.... We play very often in Germany and there it is exactly the same. Maybe we should all take an example from Belgium.''
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