Raymond van Barneveld suffers Dutch Darts Championship blow as four home stars qualify in Maastricht

Jimmy van Schie, Heine Uuldriks, Richard Veenstra and Maikel Verberk secured places in the Dutch Darts Championship at Thursday afternoon’s Host Nation Qualifier in Maastricht. Raymond van Barneveld narrowly missed out on a place and will therefore be absent from the main event.

The qualifier awarded the four remaining places at the Dutch Euro Tour event, which takes place in Maastricht from 16 to 18 October. All Dutch players were eligible to compete, except those who had already played in the Tour Card qualifier.

Van Schie lived up to his status as favourite, beating Dylan Hauser (6-2), Alexander Merkx (6-1), Dennis van der Ende (6-4) and Patrick Dekker (6-3). He also averaged 101.48 in his second match against Merkx, making him the only player at the qualifier to record an average above 100.

Veenstra came through a tough section of the draw that also featured Benito van de Pas, Owen Roelofs, Sietse Lap, Raymond van Barneveld, Jerry Hendriks and Martijn Dragt. He beat Alwin Kamphuis (6-0), Ricardo Ulrich (6-2) and Roelofs (6-4) to reach the final round. Van Barneveld had defeated Richard Wagenaar (6-2), Stan Willems (6-3) and Dragt (6-4). Veenstra then beat Van Barneveld 6-3 in the final round, with his opponent missing several darts at doubles. ‘Barney’ consequently missed out on valuable prize money in the World Championship qualification race. He will need strong results at the final four Players Championship events to qualify for the World Darts Championship.

Maikel Verberk will also feature at the Dutch Darts Championship. He began his qualifying campaign with wins over Cas Maessen (6-1) and Ziggy Schenk (6-2), then beat Patrick Maat (6-4) and Wesley Plaisier (6-5).

Heine Uuldriks will make his European Tour debut. He qualified with victories over Dustin Straver (6-0), Marcel Otter (6-5), Mathijs Zantingh (6-1) and Marc Vleghert (6-2).