2024 Toto Dutch Darts Masters
The 2024 Toto Dutch Darts Masters was held from 26-27 January 2024 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands. This was the second staging of the event which also formed the second event in the 2024 PDC World Series of Darts.
The tournament was held a week after Luke Littler lifted his first PDC title and the press surrounding the event were all talking about what the sports newest superstar could do back in Europe as well as what Michael van Gerwen and the other Dutch players could do on home soil.
Last week saw no shocks in the opening round as all eight PDC invitees progressed through to the next round of the competition, but this was going to be more difficult as among the regional representatives in this tournament were player’s that have star studded careers, so it was always going to be interesting to see how they did in the event.
The players in this event consisted of the same eight players that will make up this years’ Premier League of Darts when it starts next week, they are Luke Littler, Michael van Gerwen, Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price, Rob Cross, Nathan Aspinall, Peter Wright, and Luke Humphries.
The regional representatives for this event included big names however as former UK Open winner Danny Noppert joined a former major finalist in Dirk van Duijvenbode and Matchplay winner Dimitri van den Bergh. Joining them was European Championship semi-finalist Gian van Veen, Former UK Open runner-up Vincent van der Voort, Grand Prix quarter-finalist Jermaine Wattimena and Kevin Doets, who most notably reached the last 32 of the Players Championship finals.
The headline act of the regional representatives however was Dutch darting hero and a five-time champion of the world in Raymond van Barneveld as he had his homecoming and made his debut in the Dutch Darts Masters.
First Round
The night kicked off with Nathan Aspinall taking on Danny Noppert and in the first upset of the night Nathan Aspinall was defeated by the local representative 6-2. Nathan only managed to clock in an average of 88 some 7 points lower than his opponent who hit four maximums on his way to a victory in the opening game.
This was followed by another shock as two-time World Champion Peter Wright took to the stage taking on another home player in Kevin Doets, this match also ended 6-2 in the dutchman’s favour with Wright averaging just 82 a full 16 points lower than his opponent managed. Doets also threw 6 maximums on his way to knocking out Wright.
The third match of the night saw Gerwyn Price take on Dimitri van den Bergh, the two players put on a high-quality affair with a combined average of over 205 and 8 maximums between them in the end though Price only missed two doubles in the entire game compared to Dimitri’s seven which saw Price win this game 6-3.
Moving on we got Michael Smith taking on another Dutch player in Gian van Veen, Smith averaged just 88 points and in another shock result left the tournament in the first round. van Veen took the first leg and Smith followed taking out 127 to equalise, the game eventually reached 2-2 before Gian van Veen went on a run going within one of the match at 5-2, Michael Smith did look as though he may attempt to rally a comeback taking the eighth leg of the match before van Veen sealed the deal with a 15 dart leg.
Up next was the homecoming of the Dutch legend, Raymond van Barneveld as he faced Rob Cross in what turned out to be a close affair, despite the Dutchman averaging under what his English opponent achieved and overall being outscored throughout the match, Rob Cross missed 15 darts at a double which allowed his opponent back into the game and with Barney missing just two throughout the whole match he managed to progress with a 6-5 victory.
Talk of the town Luke Littler was up next and he also managed to seal a reasonably easy victory over Dirk van Duijvenbode. Littler won the game 6-2 taking out a 150 finish and hitting 4 maximums along the way his scoring prowess meant the van Duijvenbode only got 4 darts at a double through the whole match and led to a comfortable victory for the young star.
The world champion was up next Luke Humphries facing off against Jermaine Wattimena who was wiped off the board in an incredibly one side affair, Wattimena missed all four darts he was afforded at a double and exited the tournament having been whitewashed 6-0.
The first round finished in a battle of two Dutch darting legends in Michael van Gerwen and Vincent van der Voort, the game proved easy for van Gerwen who cruised to a 6-1 win only allowing Vincent two darts at a double in the whole match. And with that the first round ended with four of the PDC invitees knocked out in this round.
Quarterfinals
The quarterfinals started with a World Championship Final rematch between Luke Littler and Luke Humphries. Littler marched into the lead winning the first two legs before Humphries fired back taking the next two to keep the match level at 2-2, Humphries then continued his charge winning the next two game to lead the match 4-2 over his young opponent. Littler then attempted to repeat his nine dart heroics from last week kicking off with back-to-back maximum scores before missing with his seventh dart in a disaster he threw his eighth dart and knocked both his arrows out of the board allow Humphries who was sat on 121 a chance to take another step forward however, Humphries didn’t and Littler went on to win the leg in 14 darts. Littler followed up with another 14 darter to tie the match back up at 4-4 and took his third leg on the spin to go within one of winning the match, Humphries fought back which sent the game into a last leg decider and in revenge for what happened just a few weeks ago Luke Littler won the match 6-5 and continued his unbeaten streak as a PDC Tour Card Holder.
The second quarterfinal saw Gerwyn Price take a hard fought victory against Kevin Doets in a match that ended 6-3, the Iceman fired 6 180s in the game but ended up missing 15 darts at a double but his advantage in the scoring department allowed him to move into the semi-finals.
The third quarter final was a game between the two most successful Dutch dart players in history with Michael van Gerwen taking on Raymond van Barneveld, Michael averaged 101 and took out two ton+ finished on his way to a narrow 6-5 victory over van Barneveld who took out a 131 and averaged over 97 himself.
The final quarterfinal was contested between two other Dutch dart players Gian van Veen and Danny Noppert, this game ended 6-3 in van Veens favour as he averaged over 100 to defeat his fellow dutchman and move through the semi-finals.
Semi-Finals
The semi-finals kicked off with a match between Luke Littler and Gerwyn Price who battled on another all the way with the Luke Littler eventually coming out victorious ending the match at 7-4 the game had been tied at 4-4 before Littler went on a run that saw him book his spot in the second consecutive World Series final.
The other semi-finalists were once again two dutchman as Michael van Gerwen took on the young Dutch star Gian van Veen in a similar story to the preceding game Michael van Gerwen and Gian van Veen had the match tied at 4-4 before Michael van Gerwen went on to win the next three legs to book his spot in the final and showdown between Darts’ longest reigning World Number 1 and Darts’ next big thing.
Final
The final was a gruelling affair as the players had a combined average of 206 with Luke Littler having the higher of the two averages however, Michael van Gerwen was more clinical on the finishing, so this game ended up being an extremely close affair. Michael struck first taking the first leg in 15 darts but Littler came back winning on his throw in 13 darts, Littler then took the first edge in the game breaking the throw in 18 darts and leading the final 2-1. Michael came straight back and broke the Littler throw to tie the game up at 2-2. They continued exchanging blows and the game was tied at 4-4, both players continued holding their throw and the game was tied at 5-5 then the cycle repeated and the game was tied at 6-6. Michael van Gerwen then held his throw and then proceeded to take out 85 to end Luke Littler’s streak and earned Michael van Gerwen his first World Series title of the year 8-6.
It is clear now that Luke Littler is darts’ next big thing, he has reached three consecutive televised finals and is easily matching the best in the world, the next big test for these players will be the Premier League which kicks off this Thursday. Alarm bells must be ringing for some of these players as half of them failed to make it past the first round in Holland and will be feeling they need to up their performance if they are to win on Night 1 in Cardiff.
This was the last event of January and very shortly the first PDC Ranking events of the year kick off starting with The Masters and the first four Player’s Championship events taking place. And of course while non-ranking the Premier League will take centre stage every Thursday for the next 17 weeks.