Schedule Sunday night Dutch Darts Championship: Luke Humphries favourite for European Tour glory

At the Dutch Darts Championship we have now reached the quarter-finals. Eight players are still in contention for victory in Autotron Rosmalen. Sunday evening features Jonny Clayton and Luke Humphries involved.

Rosmalen hosts the seventh Euro Tour tournament of the season this weekend. It is the fifth time the Dutch Darts Championship has been played. The first edition took place in 2018 in Maastricht and was won by Ian White, who settled with Ricky Evans (8-5) in the final. Four years later, the Dutch Darts Championship moved to Zwolle. Then it was Michael Smith who got to lift the cup. Bullyboy' won the final 8-7 against Danny Noppert, for now the only Dutch finalist in the history of this event.

Since the 2022 edition, this tournament does appear annually on the Euro Tour calendar. However, for the third time in a row it got a different location. In 2023 it was Leeuwarden that hosted the Dutch Darts Championship. The title was a triumph for Dave Chisnall after an 8-5 victory over Luke Humphries. Starting in 2024, the event will be held in Rosmalen, which is now playing for the second year in a row. Josh Rock is the defending champion after taking the win against Jonny Clayton (8-4).

We kick off the evening with Humphries against O'Connor. 'Cool Hand Luke' did not have a tough match against Michael Smith, he settled with a simple 6-0 whitewash. O'Connor had no trouble either, beating Edhouse 6-3 to easily qualify for the next round. The Irishman already managed to beat the Englishman four times, but the last time dates back to 2020. After that, the last four encounters went to Humphries, who is 8-4 ahead in the mutual balance.

Next it was the turn of Jonny Clayton and Danny Noppert. 'The Ferret' made a great comeback against Ross Smith, where he came back from 1-4 to win 6-4. Danny Noppert won in a great match against Damon Heta by throwing an 11-darter in the deciding leg. The Dutchman already won 6-2 over Belgian Vandenbogaerde and will now battle Clayton for a spot in the semifinals. It will be only the seventh meeting between Clayton and Noppert. The Welshman already managed to beat the Dutchman four times, so the mutual balance is now 4-2 in Clayton's favor.

Then Wessel Nijman got to try to beat Ryan Searle in the third quarterfinal. Ryan Searle gave Mansell no can do with a 0-6 whitewash. Mansell also threw an average of 78, so not very surprising that Searle easily qualified for the quarterfinals. Wessel Nijman had a great Dutch clash with Dirk van Duijvenbode, where the decisive leg eventually ensured Nijman's win. The Englishman and the Dutchman only faced each other once before. Then the win went to Nijman who won 6-1 against Searle.

In the battle for the last semifinal spot, Niko Springer will take on Ricardo Pietreczko. Niko Springer threw 102 average and the Big Fish against Martin Schindler in a German underdog match. With that, he was too strong for Schindler, eventually winning 6-2. Daryl Gurney played in the final afternoon match against Ricardo Pietreczko. Pickachu was just too strong for Gurney at 6-5. We have seen this German friendly three times before. Of these, Pietreczko walked away with two of the three.

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

The first round will take place on Friday. The 16 Pro Tour players are then paired with one of the 16 players who managed to get through the various qualifying tournaments. The top-16 seeded players enter the tournament on Saturday in the second round. The denouement of the tournament follows on Sunday, with the third round first in the afternoon session. Sunday night the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals will follow.

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 top prize of 30,000 pounds for the winner.An important detail is that players who are automatically placed 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.

Fourth Round.

Luke Humphries v William O'Connor

Jonny Clayton v Danny Noppert

Ryan Searle v Wessel Nijman

Niko Springer v Ricardo Pietreczko