De Vreede looks to pay tribute to deceased friend with Lakeside win: "It would be nice to win and dedicate it to him"

Ryan de Vreede is one of only two Dutch players taking part in the men's tournament at Lakeside from 2-10 April.

At the iconic venue in Frimley Green the first ever edition of the WDF WC will be played. Besides De Vreede, Richard Veenstra will also be competing in the men's event. De Vreede, who goes by the nickname Pacman, travels to the United Kingdom on Friday to further prepare for his tournament.

"Of course I am looking forward to it'', says De Vreede in an interview with Dartsnieuws. "Normally it is in January or December, but due to corona it has been postponed to April. But it just feels the same, I don't care when it is played.

The Lakeside stage has produced many champions, including Raymond van Barneveld (1998, 1999, 2003 and 2005), Jelle Klaasen (2006) and Christian Kist (2012).

As a teenager, De Vreede watched the great successes of his fellow townsman Barney from The Hague, with one tournament in particular. That turned out to be the stepping stone for his own darts career.

"I saw the last one (Lakeside title of Van Barneveld, ed.) in 2005 against Martin Adams. After that I started playing darts in 2006, partly because of that match. I always watched it before, but that match was the final straw for me to start playing darts."

There are many players who have played at both the BDO and PDC World Championships. However, De Vreede is one of the few players who first played the PDC's World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace in 2015, before trying his luck in 2016 at the other.

De Vreede describes these two participations as two completely different experiences. ''Lakeside has a very small stage, compared to Ally Pally. The atmosphere is very different, very quiet. The year before I played at the PDC World Championship, of course. That was very disappointing for me. At Lakeside it didn't go as planned but for me it was a lot better than the year before.

Early December De Vreede qualified for Lakeside at the qualifying tournament in Assen. The success came just after an emotional week, in which good friend and famous dart player from The Hague, Marcel Blik, passed away.

De Vreede dedicated his qualifying success to 'Blikkie'. Even when he steps onto the stage at Lakeside, he takes the memories of his former teammate with him.

"I had a good relationship with him. We played competition with each other for five years and often went to tournaments together. Normally it will give me a boost. It would of course be nice to win the tournament and dedicate it to him.''

The 29-year-old Dutchman will play Francesco Raschini from Italy in the first round, a completely unknown opponent to De Vreede. Also research gave no information.

"I don't know him and I have never seen him throw. I have looked on the internet, but couldn't find much. But everyone who stands there can play darts and you always have to do your best to win.''

When the tournament is successful for De Vreede? "If I win the whole tournament, of course, then it will be successful. Achieving a good result is more important to him than showing good play. I would rather win playing bad than lose playing well. But I assume that I play well and if I do, I can win.

If De Vreede gets through his first round, Jules van Dongen will be waiting in the second round. Van Dongen, a native of the Netherlands but now in possession of an American passport, is currently holding a PDC Tour Card.

Exceptionally the PDC has allowed new Tour Card holders who qualified for Lakeside before to play in Frimley Green. This was because the WDF World Championship would normally be held before the Q-School. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the event was postponed to April.

De Vreede understands that the WDF wanted these players to participate. Otherwise the WDF would have been in the situation that they had to think about who to add.

Not all the relevant Tour Card holders are still competing at Lakeside. Nick Fullwell, Cameron Menzies, Brian Raman, Connor Scutt and Jules van Dongen did take the chance, while Ross Montgomery and Mario Vandenbogaerde have withdrawn and are focusing on Pro Tour tournaments in the PDC.

What choice would De Vreede have made? That depends on how I would have done on the Pro Tour ranking. If I was in a good position, I probably would have missed out on Lakeside'', says De Vreede.