Luke Woodhouse sent the Dortmund crowd wild as he hit a nine-darter on the way to a 6-3 victory over Dirk van Duijvenbode in round one of the European Championship. The perfect nine for Woodhouse came in the fourth leg and against the throw, two 180s being followed by a T20, T19, then accurate D12 to finish it off. Woodhouse managed to recompose himself immediately and from there held his throw well before finishing off the contest with a bullseye finish.
He will now face Gian van Veen after the defending champion battled hard to a 6-4 win against Andrew Gilding. "It felt really good," Woodhouse told ITV Sport. "I had a chance at the Worlds and that didn't go very well.
"I know it is a cliché, but the important thing is the win, so I tried to keep myself calm and crack on with the game. "I am feeling really good at the moment, I have had a very good year. I didn't want to be one of those people who hit a nine-darter then lost the game." Van Veen had a tougher night than his round two opponent as he came up against a high-scoring Gilding who was hitting maximums for fun.
The Dutchman held his throw in the ninth leg and then came up with the crucial break of throw on D8 for the match and the chance to continue to defend his title and become the first back-to-back winner since 2018. Gerwyn Price dispatched two-time champion Rob Cross with a strong 6-2 showing in a battle of former world champions. The Welshman reeled off four legs in a row from 1-1 before Cross could hit back, a 127 checkout on the bull in the first leg and a 135 finish in the last bookending a stellar showing.
He will now face Cameron Menzies who was clinical in a 6-3 victory over the in-form fourth seed Neils Zonneveld. The Scotsman found three big breaks of throw that gave him breathing room and with 87 for the match, he held his nerve to take out the bullseye for his spot in the second round. Elsewhere, top seed Ross Smith survived a scare to pull off a 6-4 victory over Karel Sedlacek.
Once the scores were level at 1-1, it was a game of breaks of throw as both players scored well but struggled on the doubles. That was the undoing of both players and in a nervy 10th leg, Smith was the one who eventually landed the final dart in D2 for the first hold of throw since the second leg. In the second round he will play Damon Heta after the Australian pulled off a nervy 6-5 win over 2018 European Champion James Wade to make it through to the second round of the European Championship.
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