Dimitri van den Bergh denies nine-dart Ross Smith after Cameron Menzies sees off Peter Wright as round 2 at Dutch Darts Championship concludes

The field for the third round at the 2024 Dutch Darts Championship is now complete with Martin Schindler, Cameron Menzies, Dimitri van den Bergh and Gian Van Veen all securing their place on Saturday night.

Schindler has impressed on the European Tour this year, notably taking first title win at the International Darts Open a few months ago. Against the vastly experienced and always tricky customer Brendan Dolan, Schindler impressed again. After the first eight legs all went with the throw, it was the German who spurted towards the finish line with legs of 15 and 18 to take a 6-4 win, averaging a very respectable 96.72 in the process.

After his stunning win over Raymond van Barneveld on Friday night, Cameron Menzies had another tough task in multiple World Championship winner, Peter Wright in round 2. Continuing on from where he left off with some excellent darts, Menzies fired six 180s and averaged just below a ton with his 99.42. Despite Wright hitting five 180s of his own and averaging over 102, it was Menzies who prevailed, taking a 6-3 win to book himself in round 3.

In the next second round tie Dimitri van den Bergh took on Ross Smith. 'Smudger' was struggling early on and slipped to an early 4-0 deficit. As Smith began to make a comeback though, the Englishman took two legs on the bounce to get back to 4-2 behind. Then, in leg 7, Smith struck perfection. Starting the leg with a 174, Smith backed it up with a 180 and then secured perfection with a brilliant 147 checkout. Sadly for the former European Championship winner however, it wasn't enough to win the match as van den Bergh refocused and saw it through to take the 6-4 win.

Closing the night, Gian Van Veen became the final man to secure their spot in round 2. Not without difficulty and a little good fortune either against Dom Taylor. With the match going all the way to an 11th and deciding leg, Taylor had his chance for victory bit saw a pair of matchdarts come and go at double 12 and double 6 respectively. After Taylor missed, Van Veen punished to pin double 4 and secure the victory in dramatic fashion.

Distribution of prize money

At the Dutch Euro Tour tournament, a total of £175,000 in prize money will be divided among the 48 participants. They will receive at least £1250 in starting money. The top-16 seeded players who enter the Dutch Darts Championship from the second round will receive 2,500 pounds anyway.

They do - like the 16 Order of Merit qualifiers starting in the first round - have to win their first match in order for the prize money to count toward the world rankings and the other rankings. The winner of the Dutch Darts Championship 2024 will ultimately go home with the top prize of 30,000 pounds.