Schedule Saturday afternoon European Darts Trophy 2025 featuring Michael Smith, Josh Rock, Rob Cross and Chris Dobey

Day One is in the books at the European Darts Trophy Gottingen as we look ahead to Saturday's action which features the top names coming into the fray with some top ties to run through in our preview.

Michael Smith, Chris Dobey, Rob Cross and Josh Rock are the leading lights starting their campaign on Saturday with only really Luke Littler and Stephen Bunting also missing from the evening session so it is a near complete field of top names starting this afternoon.

The European Darts Trophy is part of the Euro Tour calendar again for the first time since 2018. Previously this tournament was on the schedule from 2013 to 2018, but was then temporarily scrapped. Wes Newton won the first edition in 2013, before Michael Smith was the best in 2014 and 2015. Michael van Gerwen then took the title in 2016, 2017 and 2018, and will get the chance to defend his title this weekend after seven years.
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The first match sees Danny Noppert open his account. He will take on Wessel Nijman. The latter held off debutant Paul Krohne's fightback from 5-2 down to win in a deciding leg to move through to this all-Dutch clash.

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Then it is perhaps the game of the day which won't be seen as thus but could produce in James Wade who has found a new lease of life as of late. He reached the UK Open final recently and played well in Wieze last time out until he ran into Luke Littler again. He has put Lickgate behind him but can he send Ross Smith packing.

Smith will have different ideas and given his 106.44 average against Michael Unterbuchner, it is very much a tie to savour. 'Smudger' himself said he is bothered who he is going to play and so Wade or not, he will hope to recapture that.

"I'm happy with the win and the good performance, and bring on tomorrow," said Smith as per PDC. "I'm ready for James and I'm not bothered about who I play - I just concentrate on who I'm playing.

Ross Smith was a revelation on Friday.

Then it is Rob Cross who faces off against Andrew Gilding. Fresh from Premier League duty, Cross will be pleased not to have to tussle for crowd support after vanquishing Gerwyn Price on Thursday in Cardiff. But like the other Premier League stars who didn't both going to Hildesheim, he should be fresh realistically. Truth betold, 'Goldfinger' didn't have to break too much of a sweat in his opener. He saw off Callan Rydz who was pretty poor.

Another tie of the session could yet be Damon Heta who as ever brings the entertainment facing off against another livewire in Cameron Menzies. The Scot defied a 170 checkout from Soutar to win the all-Scottish affair 6-2 taking out 66% on his doubles as both averaged over 99.

Heta on the otherhand has had an interesting week as he was at Cheltenham as he took on top jump jockeys in 'Dartenham' a special tournament filmed for the Jockeys' Cup on Racing TV. He will aim to hurdle the Scot in his opener on Saturday.

Back to life, back to reality sing Soul II Soul but for Chris Dobey it is certainly real as he returns after Newcastle glory.

Chris Dobey has had the week of his life of sorts albeit not on the dartboard as his beloved Newcastle United saw off Liverpool last weekend. He promised to spend the Premier League winnings from Nottingham if he won the night on it but he didn't albeit he likely would've spent it celebrating anyway.

Likely on cloud nine, it is back to reality and it is the grind of the European Tour for 'Hollywood' to get his teeth back into. He faces Jermaine Wattimena who eased past Marko Kantele to start Friday afternoon.

Michael Smith faces another player who is in need of form in a tie which on paper in the past would've been one to savour. Now it is one where no-one is particularly sure what turns up. 'Bully Boy' had a sudden reprieve due to Stephen Bunting and didn't have to play on Friday. He now takes on Ricardo Pietreczko. He saw off Daniel Klose 6-3 to open her tally but it is still very much Martin Schindler out on his own in terms of home hopes right now.

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Smith has plummeted on the otherhand and seems to be gaining some confidence again but will likely see the Premier League and the two Luke's with envy knowing what could be.

The same can be said for Connor Scutt after he spurned five match darts for his first win on the European Tour and it handed Gian van Veen a free passage through coming from 5-3 down and he now faces Josh Rock in one of the leading ties of the afternoon session. Ryan Joyce finally was heralded as dangerous in our preview yesterday and he showed that.

He thrashed Joe Cullen 6-0 in a whitewash win and will hope to exact the same fate on Dimitri van den Bergh. All winners will move through to the latter stages on Sunday. Gary Anderson, Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright, Michael van Gerwen and Luke Humphries all play in the evening.

TV Guide

The tournament will be broadcast by PDC TV. As usual with Euro Tour tournaments, the European Darts Trophy consists of three tournament days. The afternoon sessions will start daily at 12 p.m., while the evening sessions will start at 6 p.m.

The first round will take place on Friday, where the 16 Pro Tour players will face 16 players who emerged from the various qualifying tournaments. The winners of these matches will face a player from the top-16 of the world rankings in the second round on Saturday. The third round will be played on Sunday afternoon, before the quarterfinals, semifinals and final are completed on Sunday evening.

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Distribution of prize money

All participants starting from the first round are guaranteed £1250 in prize money, while the top-16 enter from the second round and receive £2,500 anyway. This amount eventually rises to the grand prize of £30,000 for the winner.

An important detail is that players who are automatically seeded via the Order of Merit and lose their first match will not be awarded prize money on the various rankings. This does apply to qualifiers who are later designated as seeded by the withdrawal of others.

Schedule European Darts Trophy 2025

Saturday, March 22

Second round

Afternoon session (from 12 p.m.)

Danny Noppert v Wessel Nijman

James Wade v Ross Smith

Rob Cross v Andrew Gilding

Damon Heta v Cameron Menzies

Chris Dobey v Jermaine Wattimena

Michael Smith v Ricardo Pietreczko

Josh Rock v Gian van Veen

Dimitri Van den Bergh v Ryan Joyce

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