PDC European Q-School Day One Round-Up | Van Schie, Merk, Klose and Jansen reach Final Stage

The first stage of PDC European Q-School is underway with Day One concluded at Wunderland in Kalkar with Jimmy van Schie, Danny Jansen, Arno Merk among others sealing their spot in the final stage on Day One in Germany.

As is the case between January 5-7, the Final Stage only beckons for those who win through to the Last 16 of PDC European Q-School and the rest is done based off Order of Merit. Albeit this too also leaves less room for error with more players getting through automatically both in the first stage and the two finalists in the Final Stage meaning that the Order of Merit is less of a safe bet.

The likes of Michael Unterbuchner, Alexander Merkx, Danny van Trijp, Jamai van den Herik, Jurjen van der Velde, Adam Gawlas, Jannis Barkhausen, Adam Sevada, Jesús Salate, Ben Robb, Tomoya Goto, Andreas Harrysson, Levy Frauenfelder, Bradly Roes, Chris Landman, Florian Hempel, Andy Baetens, José de Sousa, Patrick Geeraets, Jitse van der Wal, Radek Szaganski, Jelle Klaasen, Martijn Dragt, Danny Lauby, Benjamin Reus, Michele Turetta, and Matt Campbell all qualify for the Final Stage by right. This through a mix of lost Tour Cards, Development, Challenge and Affiliate Tours.

But who qualified on Day One. Jimmy van Schie was perhaps the standout name. The WDF World Champion who has come so close before and is very much a PDC nearly man. He should've qualified for the PDC World Darts Championship perhaps losing in the final round of the qualifier. He also should've got his Tour Card last year but after a good early run dived off a cliff points wise and failed to get there.

He will no doubt see this as his big chance to follow Andy Baetens who had to return to Q-School but did the WDF to PDC World title pipeline. One also Shane McGuirk over in the UK will hope for with the Arrow through on Day One in Milton Keynes.

Van Schie took down Kris Mievis 5-1 in the final round averaging 81. He has been joined by a slew of well known faces. Arno Merk is one of them. The German was one of the leading lights at the Ally Pally. He whitewashed Peter Wright after beating Kim Huybrechts then lost to Michael van Gerwen. He won't return tomorrow after taking down Michael Hurtz.

Danny Jansen, a former PDC tournament winner is through having taken down one of a few Croats in the field in Tomislav Rosandic 5-1. Romeo Grbavac did get through though seeing off Gilbert van der Meijden 5-2.

Boris Krcmar was terrible in his last game averaging 69 in losing 5-0 to Sietse Lap as he seemed to run out of steam. While other winners included Benjamin Pratnemer. The Slovenian Star took down Jeffrey de Zwaan as 'The Black Cobra' has to return tomorrow after a 5-4 loss. Patrick Maat, Danny Blom, Stefan Dees headline a heavy Dutch contingent. While Marvin Kraft, Daniel Klose and Paul Krohne join Merk for Germany. Simon Teysen won an all Belgian battle with Brian Raman.

Krohne though won't be back. It was confirmed shortly after his win over Dennis van Bergen that the German who is currently studying would go home after today so won't be in the final stage. He has often been an interesting talent as he has the game to trouble the best as was shown today where he barely dipped under 90 all day. But he relinquished his Tour Card and played WDF Darts all year to play Lakeside and now seemingly wants a Challenge Tour chance before trying to fully commit.

Pascal Rupprecht also aims to return and he saw off Mitja Gustorf 5-0. Florian Preis also joins the German contingent taking down Jiri Brejcha 5-0. Finally Teemu Harju was the final player through and the sole Finn involved in the final stage thus far. Day Two sees the penultimate chance to make it but for those names it is home time at least for now before they return on January 8.

Patrick Maat (85.29) 5–3 (77.70) Michael De Meyer

Benjamin Pratnemer (82.04) 5–4 (81.60) Jeffrey de Zwaan

Jimmy van Schie (81.94) 5–1 (74.75) Kris Mievis

Danny Blom (99.41) 5–1 (86.21) Luitsen Elzinga

Stefan Dees (81.62) 5–2 (75.07) Jarno Bottenberg

Arno Merk (90.44) 5–3 (84.93) Michael Hurtz

Pascal Rupprecht (83.50) 5–0 (75.07) Mitja Gustorf

Danny Jansen (88.10) 5–1 (86.72) Tomislav Rosandic

Florian Preis (89.46) 5–0 (76.04) Jiri Brejcha

Romeo Grbavac (88.01) 5–2 (85.78) Gilbert van der Meijden

Simon Teysen (76.21) 5–4 (76.26) Brian Raman

Marvin Kraft (88.12) 5–4 (90.51) Sietse Lap

Filip Bereza (87.38) 5–0 (80.52) Michael van de Ven

Daniel Klose (90.31) 5–1 (79.27) Jose Justicia

Teemu Harju (85.22) 5–4 (86.47) Jeffrey Keen

Paul Krohne (95.86) 5–2 (80.05) Dennis van Bergen