"After my good year, I give myself a good chance" - WDF number one Jimmy van Schie amongst favourites to secure PDC Tour Card at Q-School

Jimmy van Schie will compete for the right to gain a PDC Tour Card when the final stage of European Q-School starts on Thursday. Given his results on the WDF Tour, the 31-year-old Dutchman is considered one of the favorites to secure that coveted Tour Card.

His height of 2.07 meters makes many people sit up and take notice. Besides advantages, it also has disadvantages; for example, Van Schie has developed a panic fear of roller coasters. "You always have a sign at roller coasters telling children how tall they have to be to get in. With me, it's the other way around. I'm too tall for those things, so I don't go to amusement parks anymore, haha," he told AD.nl.

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Van Schie has also been in action at the PDC several times this year and there, too, his height was the topic of conversation. "Yes, even those top players noticed it of course," he laughs. "At the floor tournaments there is a kind of bar that connects the different darts boxes, but for me that really only makes a difference of 5 centimeters with my head. Nathan Aspinall warned me the other day: are you watching out for your head? Stuff like that. And then there's a laugh afterwards, of course."

Jimmy van Schie on the Lakeside Country Club stage during the past WDF World Championship 

Van Schie, who won eight titles in the WDF system last year, lost 3-1 to his compatriot Jarno Bottneberg in the second round of the WDF World Championship. But almost he would have been on the stage at Alexandra Palace instead of Lakeside. After all, in the final of the Western European qualifying tournament, he lost to Swiss Stefan Bellmont after missing two matchdarts. "I still don't know where it went wrong there then. I wasn't nervous and there was nothing going on. And yet I gave it away. Whether I was sick of it? Yes and no. It's a dream to make it to the PDC World Darts Championship, but I had already qualified for Lakeside so I could still just go there."

In his few tournaments at the PDC, Van Schie already felt particularly welcome. "I was really surprised at how warmly you are received there. Everyone welcomes you, wishes you success. I immediately felt at home. Suddenly you are among the men you always see on television shining. That I can stand among them, throw against them and also offer them a match. Very nice. And I throw freely. Without stress, or whatever. Those two things together are the key to success for me."

Many people already assign Van Schie a good chance to capture his PDC Tour Card this week. "After my good year, I give myself a good chance," he said. "But I don't want to put the pressure on myself of having to. If I make it, that's great. But don't I make it? Then I will continue where I left off: win a lot of tournaments."

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