James Wade eases through with whitewash win at the 2024 Dutch Darts Championship

James Wade has eased into Saturday at the Dutch Darts Championship. The Machine secured a whitewash win in opener on Friday night.

Wade recorded a somewhat simple but also important 6-0 victory over Finnish qualifier Teemu Harju. 'The Machine' didn't even have to show his best game, and he didn't. Wade achieved an average of 85.08 and a finishing percentage of 35.3 percent. With his victory over Harju, Wade has doubled his prize money at this tournament to 2,500 pounds. Money that the eleven-time major winner can put to good use in the battle for qualification for the World Matchplay in July. Wade, who has always attended Blackpool since 2006, currently occupies the last qualifying spot in the qualifying race.

Elsewhere, Moreno Blom also, who only managed to qualify for this event on Thursday by becoming one of the four winners at the Host Nation Qualifier also move through. He got the match against Joyce off to a strong start with a 15-darter in the first leg, before breaking Joyce with a 118 finish. Joyce halved the deficit with a 144 finish, before Blom threw a 14-darter and a 130 check-out to make it 4-1.

Then there were briefly two legs in which Blom got a little sloppier, allowing Joyce to come back to 4-3. However, Blom maintained his break lead by throwing a 14-darter for 5-3. Joyce then was not out in five innings, while Blom did with a 14-darter to take the lead 6-3. Saturday night, Blom gets to face Chris Dobey in the second round.

Kevin Doets also secured his spot in the last 32 at the Dutch Darts Championship. After a difficult match Doets defeated Mike de Decker, who missed a matchdart.

With a 17-darter in the first leg and a 100 finish in the second leg, Doets quickly gained a break lead. The Dutchman failed to make it 3-0 and was broken back by De Decker, who then registered 2-2 with an 11-darter. Moments later, De Decker beautifully made it 3-3 with a 170 finish. Doets then regained the lead with a 94 finish for 4-3. De Decker levelled the score with double 20 and then took advantage of two double misses by 'Hawk Eye'. A 16-darter gave De Decker his first lead of the match. In the tenth leg he was able to finish it off, but the Belgian missed a matchdart on double 18. Doets then forced a deciding leg with a 13-darter and then took the victory with a 17-darter. In the second round, Doets gets to show what he can do against Michael van Gerwen.