Dirk van Duijvenbode came extremely close to re-writing darting history earlier, as he almost hit TWO 9-darters in a Development Tour event in Coventry today! In the last leg of his first round match against Tommy Wilson, van Duijvenbode missed D12 for the magical 9, but remained unperturbed, hitting the 9-darter in his next match against Kurt Parry! Only Michael van Gerwen has matched this sort of feat; in his 2013 World Championship semi-final against James Wade; van Gerwen hit 17 perfect darts; missing D12 for two 9-darters in succession.
This isn’t the first 9-darter of the weekend; Matt Dicken produced the perfect leg in his first round match against Nathan Aspinall on Saturday afternoon. The standard amongst the PDC youngsters is absolutely frightening; but the abundance of Dutch talent emerging through the ranks is equally remarkable.
Yesterday, Raymond van Barneveld’s protégé Mike Zuydwijk produced the fourth highest average in PDC history, in his 4-0 whitewash of Christopher Bent. Zuydwijk averaged 130.56 and used just 46 darts to complete the rout.
Peerfect from van Peer!
The second Development Tour event yesterday was won by another Dutch talent; Berry van Peer. Van Peer dominated the second tour event, dropping just five legs in seven matches. He has replicated this form today, recording a fantastic 125.25 average in a 4-0 demolition of Cain Unwin in the third Development Tour event.
Although it’s admittedly a short format, it’s still a phenomenal achievement and an indication into the consistently heavy scoring these players are capable of producing. It’s Zuydwijk, van Duijvenbode and van Peer who will earn most plaudits from this weekend’s Development Tour events and rightly so. The future’s Dutch, the future’s orange!
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