This past weekend, darts fans were treated to seeing some great competition among players at the latest European Tour event.
This event was the last order of merit ranking event in the Netherlands in 2025, which made it an extra special opportunity for Dutch players to perform for their home crowd.
The crowd showed up and was loud for all six sessions across the three days, leading to some controversy and frustrated players at times due to there being many whistlers.
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Who performed the best this weekend?
Welsch number one and world number five Jonny Clayton took home his first European Tour title since winning the Austrian Darts Open in 2023.
He faced Germany’s Nico Springer in the final, who had a fantastic weekend and showed why he should be featured more in PDC events.
Springer is just 24 years old, and by far had his best run in a European Tour event in his career.
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This weekend was just Springer’s 10th European Tour event appearance.
He averaged over a 98.00 in five out of six games this tournament, including a 107.56 average against Ricardo Pietreczko in a 6-2 quarterfinal win.
Springer jumped up 17 spots this weekend and now stands as the world number 76.
He’s in a similar position that Nijman was in less than 12 months ago, as Nijman has soared through the order of merit, currently at world number 43.
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Nijman and Springer faced off in the semifinal this weekend, which was a treat for fans to be able to see two potential future bright stars in action, having their best European Tour weekends in their young careers.
Nijman didn’t play up to his potential against Springer but had a great weekend including a last-leg decider that he won against Dutch favorite Dirk van Duijvenbode.
Dutch fans were also treated to seeing Dutch legend Raymond van Barneveld in action, winning his first game on Friday, but losing to Ross Smith in the second round of action.
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Dirk had an incredible performance in front of the Dutch home crowd against James Wade Saturday, with four ton-plus finishes including a 170 ‘big-fish’ checkout.
The European Tour is back in action this upcoming weekend from 30 May – 1 June for the European Darts Open.