European Q-School Stage 1A review

With the Stage 1A of the PDC European Q-School having come to an end I think it’s time to write a review on the first three days of PDC Q-School action in Niedernhausen, Germany. Overall the Dutch, German and Belgian players dominated. Among the 55 qualifiers 19 are Dutch, 18 are German and 6 are Belgian, which means only 12 are from the rest of Europe. According to my division of Europe, 7 of them are from Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Lithuania & Hungary), 3 of them are from Southern Europe (Austria & Croatia) and 2 of them are from Northern Europe (Denmark)

The Netherlands

Day one was very successful for Dutch darts. Since one of the favourites Richard Veenstra, the BDO World Championship 2016 semi-finalist, reached the last four of the day together with fellow Dutchmen Michael Plooy, who has played three Euro Tours back in 2017 and one more in 2018, and Lorenzo Pronk, who won the Men B ranking circuit 2018/2019 of the NDB, which is the second level ranking of the Nederlandse Darts Bond (Dutch Darts Association). The second day the four qualifiers for the Final Stage were spread throughout four countries with Davy Proosten being the only one from the Netherlands. On the third day of action Raymond van Barneveld, who has averaged 100+ four times in the first three days of action and did it each day a little bit better. On day one he reached the last 16, on day two he made it to the last 8 and on Wednesday he was one of the four unbeaten players. Also Dutch Jeremy van der Winkel, who started the third day of action without a point, so hadn’t made it to the last 32 in the first two days of action, made it to the last four.
Moreno Blom, Wesley Plaisier (the Dutch champion of 2018/2019) and Patrick van den Boogaard and Jeroen Mioch are the Dutch players who ended in the top 10 of the PDC Q-School Stage 1A Order of Merit, while 43 players made it to the Final Stage via this way. 13 of these 43 are Dutch.
For a more comprehensive report about the results of the Dutch players I would refer to the Dutch website Dartfreakz.nl, for which I’m writing as well among others this report or, if you prefer English, the website Dutch Darts which offers daily reports.

Germany

Lukas Wenig was the first German to make it to the Final Stage after he made it to the last four on Tuesday. On day three Nico Kurz and Franz Roetzsch, two of the Germans I personally give the best shot of winning a PDC tour card, joined him after winning all-German clashes in the last 8. 15 Germans made it to the top 43 of the PDC Q-School Stage 1A Order of Merit including Ricardo Pietreczko, Steven Noster, Sven Hilling and Michael Unterbuchner. These four players had made it even to the top 10. Daniel Meyer ended 44th and therefore has to wait whether or not he did better than the number 44 of Stage 1B will do or for possible players withdrawing for the Final Stage. A comprehensive report about the results of the German dart players in Stage 1A can be found on Modern German Arrows.

Belgium

To be honest I was a little bit surprised none of the Belgians made it to the best four on one of the three days. On day one Remo Mandiau surprised many dartsfans, including myself, by making it to the last 8, where he lost 6-4 against Richard Veenstra. He ended fourth at the PDC European Q-School Stage 1A Order of Merit after bowing down early doors on day two against Chris Landman and reaching the last 16 on day three. BDO World Trophy 2015 champion Geert de Vos showed he still can play darts. He topped the PDC European Q-School Stage 1A Order of Merit with a total of seven points. Geert de Vos was a quarter finalist on day one and three, so just came short of qualifying immediately on two of the three occasions, while on day two he lost against Lukas Wenig, who went on to make it to the best four of the day. Jeffrey van Egdom (13th), Kenny Neyens (17th), BDO World Championship semi finalist 2020 Mario Vandenbogaerde (24th) and Philip van Gasse (31st) are the other Belgian who have made it to the Final Stage. For a more comprehensive report about the results of the Belgian players I would refer to the Dutch website Dartfreakz.nl, for which I’m writing as well among others this report.

Eastern Europe
The PDC World Championship youth runner-up 2019 Adam Gawlas from the Czech Republic showed he is a player who is really capable of winning a PDC tour card this year with several fans expecting him to do so by making it to the last 4 on the first day of action. Gawlas only dropped four legs in five matches with averaging 90+ in four of them. The young Czech darts players whitewashed German Daniel Meyer, without even averaging 90, before he won four times 6-1 against German Sven Hilling, Belgian Francois Schweyen, fellow Czech Jiri Brejcha who averages 98,8 himself and Croatian Pero Ljubic, who had defeated Raymond van Barneveld the round before.
Jiri Brejcha might be regarded as one of the surprises of PDC Q-School 2021 so far. As noted above he made it to the last 16 on day one but lost 6-1 against in imposing Adam Gawlas, despite averaging 98,8 himself. On day two he lost 6-3 against Moreno Blom, who is in great form regarding his 5th spot at the PDC Q-School Order of Merit Stage 1A. On the third day he made it to the last 32 where he lost in a deciding 11th leg against Nico Kurz, who went on to make it to the best four of the day. This results meant he ended 11th on the PDC Q-School Order of Merit Stage 1A.

Photo: Bulls.nl
After two days this PDC Q-School didn’t seem to be successful for Poland after Tytus Kanik and Krzysztof Kciuk won a PDC tour card in 2018 and 2020 respectively. Sebastian Steyer lost twice against Michael Rasztovits on both day one or two. The fact the Austrian went on to qualifying for the Final Stage on day two might have been what the, until then, pointless BDO World Trophy semi finalist 2019 needed, since he defeated German Sebastian Pohl and Dutch Moreno Blom before losing 6-5 against Geert de Vos in the last 16 on day three.
Artur Jaa lost twice in the last 128 in the first two days of action, not averaging 60+ yet. He seemed relatively lucky to reach the last 32 by winning 6-1 despite averaging only 52. In his fourth match of PDC Q-School he finally past the 60-average mark but lost 6-0 averaging 64,5.

Boris Koltsov, a Russian player of who most darts fans expect a lot, but the Viking haven’t really met the expectations yet. Perhaps 2021 will be his year. On the first day of PDC Q-School he went out in the last 32 losing 6-2 against Mario Vandenbogaerde. On the second day of action he was one of the unbeaten four. His highest average so far was 90,7 but he had beaten German Ricardo Pietreczko in the last 8, who is the number two of the PDC European Q-School Stage 1A Order of Merit, so he is certainly a player to keep an eye on during the Final Stage this year.
Lithuanian Mindaugas Barauskas seems to improve himself each day. He went out early doors on day one, reached the last 32 on day two where he lost 6-3 against Davy Proosten before he made it to the last 16 on the third day being beaten 6-1 by Raymond van Barneveld. The player from the same country as Darius Labanauskas ended 19th on the PDC European Q-School Stage 1A Order of Merit.
Hungarian Patrik Kovacs might be regarded as a dark horse for winning a PDC tour card by some, but so far he didn’t really impress despite being a little bit unlucky. He lost 6-5 against Davy Proosten on day one. He started day two with two whitewashes before losing 6-5 against former BDO World Championship participant Jeffrey van Egdom from Belgium. Also on day three he started with a 6-0 victory before losing 6-3, despite averaging 92,3 against Chris Landman from the Netherlands who was only the second player to pass the 100-average mark.

Southern Europe

Photo: bulls.nl
Michael Rasztovits, in my opinion together with Rowby-John Rodriguez and Zoran Lerchbacher the hope for Austria this Q-School to join Mensur Suljovic and Harald Leitinger on the PDC Pro Tour circuit, made it to the last 32 on day one, where he lost 6-3 against Dennie Olde Kalter, who reached the last 16 of the BDO World Championship 2020. On day two he was one of the unbeaten four and won among others from BDO World Trophy semi finalist 2019 Sebastian Steyer, for the second day in a row, BDO World Championship quarter finalist 2020 Chris Landman and five times world champion Raymond van Barneveld averaging 90+ in two of his four matches. Sven Taferner reached the last 16 on day two in which he lost against Boris Koltsov, but the other two days he suffered a first round exit.
Pero Ljubic from Croatia kicked off strong on day one. In his quest to join Boris Krcmar on the PDC Pro Tour he reached the quarter finals beating among others Raymond van Barneveld before meeting an imposing Adam Gawlas from Czech Republic. The other two days Eimardo van Engelen was to strong for him in the last 64 and last 128 respectively. Therefore Ljubic only ended 20th in the PDC European Q-School Stage 1A Order of Merit.

Northern Europe
Two Danish players made it to the Final Stage. Andreas Toft Jorgensen made it to the last 32 on the first day of action before losing 6-3 against Nico Kurz. This was enough to be the number 34 on the PDC European Q-School Stage 1A Order of Merit. Ivan Springborg Poulsen made it to the last 32 on the third day of action, where he lost 6-3 against Remo Mandiau. This was enough to reach the Final Stage as number 37 on the PDC European Q-School Stage 1A Order of Merit.

An overview of all qualifiers for the Final Stage from Stage 1A
Day 1: Michael Plooy (the Netherlands), Adam Gawlas (Czech Republic), Lorenzo Pronk (the Netherlands), Richard Veenstra (the Netherlands)
Day 2: Lukas Wenig (Germany), Davy Proosten (the Netherlands), Boris Koltsov (Russia), Michael Rasztovits (Austria)
Day 3: Raymond van Barneveld (the Netherlands), Jeremy van der Winkel (the Netherlands), Nico Kurz (Germany), Franz Roetzsch (Germany)

PDC European Q-School Order of Merit Stage 1A
1. Geert de Vos (Belgium)
2. Ricardo Pietreczko (Germany)
3. Steven Noster (Germany)
4. Remo Mandiau (Belgium)
5. Moreno Blom (the Netherlands)
6. Wesley Plaisier (the Netherlands)
7. Sven Hilling (Germany)
8. Patrick van den Boogaard (the Netherlands)
9. Michael Unterbuchner (Germany)
10. Jeroen Mioch (the Netherlands)
11. Jiri Brejcha (Czech Republic)
12. Eimardo van Engelen (the Netherlands)
13. Jeffrey van Egdom (Belgium)
14. Marko Puls (Germany)
15. Niko Springer (Germany)
16. Dennie Olde Kalter (the Netherlands)
17. Kenny Neyens (Belgium)
18. El Abbas El Amri (Germany)
19. Mindaugas Barauskas (Lithuania)
20. Pero Ljubic (Croatia)
21. Sebastian Steyer (Poland)
22. Jens Ziegler (Germany)
23. Chris Landman (the Netherlands)
24. Mario Vandenbogaerde (Belgium)
25. Rene Eidams (Germany)
26. Sven Taferner (Austria)
27. Jaimy van de Weerd (the Netherlands)
28. Rients Visser (the Netherlands)
29. Michael Stoeten (the Netherlands)
30. Marco Obst (Germany)
31. Philip Van Gasse (Belgium)
32. Gian van Veen (the Netherlands)
33. Patrik Kovacs (Hungary)
34. Andreas Toft Jorgensen (Denmark)
35. Karsten Koch (Germany)
36. Kai Gotthardt (Germany)
37. Ivan Springborg Poulsen (Denmark)
38. Artur Jaa (Poland)
39. Gillian Koehoorn (the Netherlands)
40. Sven Fiedler (Germany)
41. Roland Hol (the Netherlands)
42. Egor Tvorogov (Germany)
43. Sebastian Pohl (Germany)

Daniel Meyer from Germany is the number 44 and has to wait whether or not the number 44 of Stage 1B does better than him or not.

PDC European Q-School Stage 1A Order of Merit