FORGOTTEN DARTERS: Karin Krappen, two-time major winner, yet always in the shadow of Francis Hoenselaar

In this section, we regularly reminisce about a 'forgotten darter' from the past. Today it is the turn of Dutch player, Karin Krappen.  

Karin Krappen was born on 10 December 1973 in Rotterdam. She started playing darts in 1992 and made a first appearance in 2000 by winning the Antwerp Open, beating her compatriot Francis Hoenselaar in the final.

Three years later, Krappen was allowed a first appearance at the BDO World Championship. At Lakeside Country Club, however, she immediately went down in her opening match against the same Hoenselaar. However, Krappen continued to do well at the international tournaments and managed to qualify for the BDO WC again in 2004. This time she defeated Scotland's Anne Kirk 2-0 in the opening round. In the semi-finals, she eventually lost 2-0 to the later world champion Trina Gulliver.

2005 ended up being the best year of her career. She won the French Open, Finnish Open and Swedish Open, but especially the World Darts Trophy. In this major, she was too strong for Mieke de Boer in the first round in an all-Dutch duel, 2-0. In the semi-finals, she pulled off a huge coup by beating the then almost unbeatable Gulliver 2-0. Krappen, who actually spent her entire career in the shadow of compatriot and later world champion Hoenselaar, faced Hoenselaar in the final and also beat her 2-0.

At the BDO World Championships, she never got beyond the semi-finals (3x), but in 2007 she did manage to win a second major. At the Winmau World Masters, she beat Trina Gulliver 4-2 in the semi-finals and English Karen Lawman 4-3 in the final. It was the second and also last major victory for Krappen.

Krappen did win some international titles in subsequent years, such as the Flanders Open in 2010 and the Czech Open the same year, but she failed to qualify for the World Championship between 2010 and 2013. In 2014, she entered Lakeside one last time, but in the opening round she went down 2-1 against Anastasia Dobromyslova.

After a seven-year absence from the international circuit, Krappen made an appearance at the WDF World Masters in late 2022. In the group stage, she won two of her three matches, but at the last 128, she went down 5-2 against Scotland's Lynsey Ward. Since then, she has not played any international tournaments.