Noppert and Van den Bergh further boost European Championship hopes with first round victories in Gibraltar

Danny Noppert and Dimitri van den Bergh have further boosted their European Championship hopes with victories in the first round at the Gibraltar Darts Trophy.

Noppert started the weekend just outside the top 32 at 38th but with how close it is between the players around him he will now be in the provisional places for the moment.

He defeated Keegan Brown in a closely fought 6-5 win with both players averages being around the 93 mark.

There was also three 180's apiece but the different may have come in the doubling with 'Noppie' being more clinical; the Dutchman will hope to improve his chances further tomorrow when he takes on Michael Smith who himself has a battle to make it to Gottingen despite being seeded.

Van den Bergh is further up and looks to have basically confirmed his spot at the European Championship now. He edged past Scott Taylor 6-3 with a high checkout of 135 and 54 percent on the doubles with their averages the only close part of proceedings.

In the other tie, Michael Rosenauer edged past Anthony Lopez in a 6-4 win with the quality not there in comparison. They both averaged in the 70's with the doubling not there either with Rosenauer only through due to him hitting 24 percent compared to 17 percent. Next it won't get easier though with Ian White his next test.

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Evening Session (1915 local time, 1815 BST)
Jeffrey de Zwaan (96.35) 6-3 (86.12) Steve West
William O’Connor (85.8) 4-6 (85.19) Chris Dobey
Keegan Brown (93.46) 5-6 (93.19) Danny Noppert
Anthony Lopez (71.82) 4-6 (76.84) Michael Rosenauer
Dimitri Van den Bergh (93.09) 6-3 (93.26) Scott Taylor
Darius Labanauskas v Jose De Sousa
Robert Thornton v David Francis
Ritchie Edhouse v Jamie Hughes