Van den Bergh reaches maiden European Tour quarter-final, set to face Clayton after all-Welsh clash with Williams

Dimitri van den Bergh has broken new ground in terms of the European Tour with ‘The Dreammaker’ reaching his maiden Quarter-Final after a dominant 6-1 win over his compatriot, Brian Raman at the International Darts Open.

Van den Bergh produced a 99 average, a sole 180 but 40% on the doubles including a high checkout of 119 to win through and claim a spot in the final session for the first time.

The aforementioned highest checkout was pinned in the opening leg with Van den Bergh sending a message early on after Raman missed a 145 to hold. His opponent got a leg on the board at 2-1 down but this proved to be solitary.

A 15-darter on double 16 saw Van den Bergh hold and he pinned the same target for a 4-1 lead after Raman couldn’t pin 81 before sealing the win in style with an 82 checkout using bull-double 16.

He will now face Jonny Clayton who edged through the all-Welsh encounter with rising talent Lewy Williams sealing it 6-4 with a 96 average, a high checkout of 134 and 46.2% on the doubles.

‘The Ferret’ went 3-1 up in the early going with that 134 checkout as he stole a march but Williams returned to the foray and took the lead at 4-3.

But Williams missed the chance for four legs on the spin and could have been one away but Clayton levelled up instead at 4-4 with ‘The Prince of Wales’ still throwing for a 5-4 lead instead of the win.

But he was left frustrated by a lack of scoring power and Clayton popped up with a 129 set up to leave 32 which he pinned to go one away where he had the throw which he sealed to move into the Quarter-Finals.