"It’s actually bizarre that cannot be done" - Vincent van der Voort feels Ritchie Edhouse has been hard done by amid missing out on European Championship qualification

It has been confirmed that Ritchie Edhouse will not be travelling to Dortmund to defend his European Championship title he surprisingly won last year in a seismic shock, defeating Jermaine Wattimena in the final. He sits just outside the top 32 qualifying spots, and will not feature in the final Euro Tour event this year in Hildesheim.

This brings up the question whether Edhouse deserves to be at the tournament to defend his title, qualifying on the basis that he is the holder. This is something that Vincent van der Voort passionately agreed on, but stated that the PDC would never let it happen.

"Yes, I agree with that. It’s actually bizarre that cannot be done," he said on the Darts Draait Door podcast. "Because if you win such a tournament, then it is also fun for the organisation that the champion returns. For the audience too, and for the player himself of course, because now he sits at home. That should be arranged differently, but the PDC is very strict in that. It’s all about ranking, and that’s it."

Van der Voort picked out some of the brightest darts talents from his home country, with Dirk van Duijvenbode being up there. However, The Dutch Destroyer belives that he 'overthinks' when on the oche, which holds him back from progressing.

"Dirk overthinks everything, and Dirk must play on very much aggression," he said. "If you become a bit insecure, it also goes at the expense of aggression. Then you withdraw a little more into yourself, and then Dirk simply has it difficult. Dirk is also not the biggest talent. I don’t dare to say that anymore. You are not allowed to say that. No, those are your words. But he also overthinks everything, so then it becomes very difficult for him."

One player that he was a lot more positive on was Gian van Veen, who has continued his imperious form to rise amongst the best in the world. "You see again that Gian makes a step every year. Last year you thought he would throw so well that he would not improve that. But now when he throws well, he also wins his matches."

"Often those players who are very good, they come very quickly, and then it drops away for a bit and then it becomes even better. He makes a step every year towards that top 16. He has not yet very often shown at TV tournaments what he is capable of. Sometimes in terms of average, but not results. Against Humphries it was indeed the highlight. He of course also reached a semifinal at the European Championship. So we already got some results there. But you are waiting for that one moment that he also completely breaks through there."

Van Veen had a golden opportunity to win his maiden European Tour title in Switzerland last weekend, but was defeated in the semi-finals by the eventual winner Spethen Bunting. "I think he would have won. It feels wasteful. Yes, certainly. We must be honest though. Bunting deservedly won from him. He was the better player," van der Voort said.

When questionned whether Danny Noppert was underated, van der Voort said: "That is possible because he always delivers. He is always in the mix. But you rarely hear his name. If you look at his results, they are really good. He has won the UK Open. He is stable in the top 16. He plays a lot of quarterfinals, semifinals. But he never gets the credit because his style is not spectacular. He is a bit quiet, calm. He doesn’t shout, he doesn’t celebrate big. And then people think he is boring. But in terms of performance, he is really good."

It has been an up and down period for Michael van Gerwen. There have been fleeting moments of brilliance from the three-time World Champion, like when he recently won the World Series of Darts Finals against Luke Littler.

This has not been consistent enough from the man who once dominated the sport, with this now a distant memory. Van der Voort, a good friend of van Gerwen, believes that he can still win titles not playing his ominous best, but his dominant days in the sport are long behind him.

"That is a difficult one. Because his absolute top level, that was bizarre," he said. "That 2016–2017 period, when he threw everything above 110. That will not return, I think, but he can still play very high 105 averages, 107. That is still possible. That [dominance] will not come back, but he can still win everything because even with a bit lower level, he is still good enough."