Dutch joy continues at Players Championship 28: Plaisier, Noppert and Van Duijvenbode join Josh Rock in semifinals

The Dutch performed excellently at the 28th Players Championship tournament of the season in Wigan. No fewer than three Dutchmen made it to the last four of this event.

Dirk van Duijvenbode advanced to the semifinals by beating Ryan Joyce 6-2. With a 15-darter and a 12-darter, 'Aubergenius' quickly took a break lead, before Joyce came back to 2-2. Van Duijvenbode then broke him again, before he did not surrender another leg. In the last four Van Duijvenbode will face Josh Rock, who was too strong for Jonny Clayton, 6-4.

On the other side of the bracket, we get a Dutch semifinal between Wesley Plaisier and Danny Noppert. Plaisier showed resilience after falling behind 3-5 against Jose de Sousa. With two 15-darters, Plaisier came back to 5-5 before the Dutchman decided the match with a 13-darter.

Noppert was responsible for eliminating former world champion Michael Smith. After an early 2-0 deficit, Noppert was ahead 5-3, but Smith came back to 5-5 with a 12-darter and a 14-darter. The leg-decider was then joy for 'The Freeze'.

A total of 125,000 pounds in prize money is distributed at each Players Championship tournament. The winner of the event will receive a check for 15,000 pounds.

Josh Rock - | - Dirk van Duijvenbode

Wesley Plaisier - | - Danny Noppert

Josh Rock (90.15) 6 | 4 (97.18) Jonny Clayton

Dirk van Duijvenbode (97.97) 6 | 2 (90.03) Ryan Joyce

Wesley Plaisier (94.10) 6 | 5 (93.69) Jose De Sousa

Danny Noppert (96.92) 6 | 5 (96.23) Michael Smith

Jonny Clayton (95.87) 6 | 5 (93.53) Dave Chisnall

Josh Rock (110.89) 6 | 2 (91.91) George Killington

Dirk van Duijvenbode (99.06) 6 | 1 (99.55) Wessel Nijman

Ryan Joyce (95.41) 6 | 4 (89.73) Mervyn King

Wesley Plaisier (100.00) 6 | 5 (96.90) Krzysztof Ratajski

Jose De Sousa (108.47) 6 | 1 (86.79) Mensur Suljovic

Michael Smith (97.22) 6 | 4 (89.04) Ryan Searle

Danny Noppert (97.91) 6 | 5 (99.91) Mickey Mansell

Dave Chisnall (91.68) 6 | 5 (85.81) Danny Lauby

Jonny Clayton (95.86) 6 | 4 (92.74) Stephen Burton

George Killington (86.68) 6 | 1 (82.03) Karel Sedlacek

Josh Rock (90.91) 6 | 3 (86.38) Andrew Gilding

Dirk van Duijvenbode (100.81) 6 | 3 (96.05) William O'Connor

Wessel Nijman (97.53) 6 | 2 (88.63) Matthew Dennant

Mervyn King (86.71) 6 | 0 (79.36) Jelle Klaasen

Ryan Joyce (90.84) 6 | 3 (87.43) Richard Veenstra

Krzysztof Ratajski (105.88) 6 | 2 (89.95) Boris Krcmar

Wesley Plaisier (91.24) 6 | 1 (84.64) Florian Hempel

Mensur Suljovic (88.19) 6 | 5 (93.41) Jimmy van Schie

Jose De Sousa (99.89) 6 | 1 (83.16) Benjamin Reus

Ryan Searle (95.35) 6 | 5 (96.07) Gabriel Clemens

Michael Smith (91.44) 6 | 3 (84.08) Martin Lukeman

Mickey Mansell (101.62) 6 | 5 (101.82) Jermaine Wattimena

Danny Noppert (99.09) 6 | 3 (90.23) Radek Szaganski

Danny Lauby (93.80) 6 | 2 (91.38) Christian Kist

Dave Chisnall (97.45) 6 | 2 (87.82) Paul Krohne

Stephen Burton (86.76) 6 | 4 (96.60) Raymond van Barneveld

Jonny Clayton (87.77) 6 | 5 (93.02) Keane Barry

Karel Sedlacek (89.50) 6 | 3 (86.48) Steve Beaton

George Killington (90.09) 6 | 5 (95.04) Jeffrey De Graaf

Andrew Gilding (90.97) 6 | 2 (82.81) Jeffrey Sparidaans

Josh Rock (90.99) 6 | 3 (87.42) Josh Payne

Dirk van Duijvenbode (99.46) 6 | 2 (93.51) Ryan Meikle

William O'Connor (92.93) 6 | 5 (92.31) Stephen Bunting

Wessel Nijman (103.42) 6 | 3 (96.40) Jim Williams

Matthew Dennant (95.01) 6 | 5 (97.86) Rob Cross

Jelle Klaasen (84.10) 6 | 3 (90.33) Robert Grundy

Mervyn King (93.89) 6 | 4 (87.40) Berry van Peer

Ryan Joyce (97.30) 6 | 3 (89.22) Darryl Pilgrim

Richard Veenstra (99.04) 6 | 5 (96.06) Ted Evetts

Krzysztof Ratajski (97.88) 6 | 1 (88.89) Lukas Wenig

Boris Krcmar (87.76) 6 | 4 (87.99) Luke Littler

Wesley Plaisier (100.71) 6 | 2 (99.09) Ritchie Edhouse

Florian Hempel (90.56) 6 | 1 (84.14) Gerwyn Price

Jimmy van Schie (105.24) 6 | 3 (95.95) Brendan Dolan

Mensur Suljovic (91.97) 6 | 3 (92.06) Dom Taylor

Benjamin Reus (97.13) 6 | 3 (93.05) Adam Hunt

Jose De Sousa (100.79) 6 | 5 (94.56) Luke Humphries

Gabriel Clemens (94.78) 6 | 4 (87.61) Kim Huybrechts

Ryan Searle (104.00) 6 | 2 (93.41) Steve Lennon

Michael Smith (99.91) 6 | 3 (103.25) Robert Owen

Martin Lukeman (96.09) 6 | 3 (91.64) Daryl Gurney

Jermaine Wattimena (99.41) 6 | 2 (84.31) Niels Zonneveld

Mickey Mansell (100.10) 6 | 3 (90.79) Simon Whitlock

Radek Szaganski (97.94) 6 | 4 (96.80) James Wade

Danny Noppert (107.04) 6 | 2 (93.53) Dylan Slevin

Danny Lauby (86.21) 6 | 5 (84.80) Alan Soutar

Christian Kist (84.31) 6 | 4 (85.81) Danny van Trijp

Dave Chisnall (85.30) 6 | 3 (80.82) Graham Usher

Paul Krohne (88.99) 6 | 2 (89.16) Jitse Van der Wal

Raymond van Barneveld (95.84) 6 | 3 (89.91) Jules van Dongen

Stephen Burton (94.37) 6 | 3 (85.96) Arron Monk

Jonny Clayton (96.47) 6 | 3 (89.13) Ricky Evans

Keane Barry (96.18) 6 | 2 (89.97) Lee Cocks

Karel Sedlacek (82.75) 6 | 4 (84.82) Luke Woodhouse

Steve Beaton (85.05) 6 | 5 (91.13) Cam Crabtree

Jeffrey De Graaf (87.40) 6 | 5 (91.55) Damon Heta

George Killington (94.98) 6 | 3 (92.28) Brett Claydon

Andrew Gilding (93.10) 6 | 4 (90.04) Richie Burnett

Jeffrey Sparidaans (96.02) 6 | 5 (95.21) Daniel Klose

Josh Rock (94.13) 6 | 5 (89.72) Scott Williams

Josh Payne (93.14) 6 | 4 (91.34) David Evans

Dirk van Duijvenbode (98.27) 6 | 3 (93.24) Andy Baetens

Ryan Meikle (100.59) 6 | 2 (92.15) Patrick Geeraets

Stephen Bunting (98.02) 6 | 0 (84.28) Danny Jansen

William O'Connor (100.63) 6 | 3 (90.66) Adam Gawlas

Wessel Nijman (105.69) 6 | 4 (89.34) Darren Beveridge

Jim Williams (99.09) 6 | 5 (94.71) Justin Hood

Rob Cross (94.02) 6 | 5 (87.37) Nathan Rafferty

Matthew Dennant (98.39) 6 | 3 (86.19) Maik Kuivenhoven

Robert Grundy (95.10) 6 | 5 (86.96) Joe Cullen

Jelle Klaasen (82.21) 6 | 4 (86.52) Callum Goffin

Mervyn King (90.37) 6 | 5 (94.17) Chris Dobey

Berry van Peer (78.68) 6 | 2 (70.63) Michele Turetta

Ryan Joyce (104.85) 6 | 1 (87.43) Martijn Dragt

Darryl Pilgrim (87.90) 6 | 3 (88.39) Tim Wolters

Richard Veenstra (95.15) 6 | 5 (96.16) Gian van Veen

Ted Evetts (89.38) 6 | 4 (90.33) Nick Kenny

Krzysztof Ratajski (99.32) 6 | 3 (90.34) Callan Rydz

Lukas Wenig (90.45) 6 | 5 (87.09) Kevin Doets

Luke Littler (95.98) 6 | 3 (87.88) Owen Bates

Boris Krcmar (95.56) 6 | 4 (91.65) Jacques Labre

Ritchie Edhouse (90.10) 6 | 3 (86.35) Thibault Tricole

Wesley Plaisier (102.80) 6 | 2 (95.12) Matt Campbell

Gerwyn Price (97.58) 6 | 3 (94.88) Jurjen van der Velde

Florian Hempel (102.57) 6 | 4 (101.73) James Hurrell

Brendan Dolan (82.79) 6 | 4 (93.81) Adam Warner

Jimmy van Schie (86.41) 6 | 5 (85.22) Vincent van der Voort

Dom Taylor (93.20) 6 | 5 (91.81) Martin Schindler

Benjamin Reus (88.35) 6 | 5 (93.34) Ricardo Pietreczko

Adam Hunt (94.24) 6 | 1 (83.51) Jeffrey De Zwaan

Luke Humphries (90.33) 6 | 3 (90.61) Jamie Atkins

Jose De Sousa (88.15) 6 | 5 (80.84) Owen Roelofs

Gabriel Clemens (92.06) 6 | 4 (84.44) Robbie Knops

Kim Huybrechts (85.89) 6 | 3 (86.65) Dimitri Van den Bergh

Ryan Searle (94.96) 6 | 3 (82.83) Rowby-John Rodriguez

Steve Lennon (93.80) 6 | 4 (88.98) William Borland

Michael Smith (96.73) 6 | 5 (92.77) Andy Boulton

Robert Owen (93.02) 6 | 5 (86.09) Chris Landman

Daryl Gurney (92.17) 6 | 4 (83.41) Lee Evans

Martin Lukeman (98.85) 6 | 5 (93.76) Ian White

Jermaine Wattimena (91.78) 6 | 5 (92.69) Graham Hall

Niels Zonneveld (90.13) 6 | 3 (92.36) Jamie Hughes

Mickey Mansell (96.48) 6 | 2 (86.75) Michael van Gerwen

Simon Whitlock (87.38) 6 | 2 (79.19) Joshua Richardson

James Wade (95.05) 6 | 2 (91.04) Rhys Griffin

Radek Szaganski (90.32) 6 | 3 (93.00) Madars Razma

Danny Noppert (97.08) 6 | 2 (84.02) Connor Scutt

Dylan Slevin (94.25) 6 | 1 (83.04) Mario Vandenbogaerde