Luke Woodhouse sent the Dortmund crowd wild with a nine-darter on his way to a 6-3 victory over Dirk van Duijvenbode in round one of the European Championship. The perfect nine came in the fourth leg, against the throw, with two 180s followed by a T20, T19 and an accurate D12 to finish it off.
Woodhouse quickly recomposed himself, held his throw well and closed out the contest with a bullseye finish. He will now face Gian van Veen, after the defending champion battled to a 6-4 win over Andrew Gilding. Van Veen had a tougher night, facing a high-scoring Gilding who was hitting maximums for fun. He held his throw in the ninth leg and then broke on D8 for the match, keeping alive his chance to become the first back-to-back winner since 2018.
Gerwyn Price dispatched two-time champion Rob Cross 6-2 in a battle of former world champions. The Welshman reeled off four legs in a row from 1-1, bookended by a 127 checkout on the bull and a 135 finish. He will now face Cameron Menzies, who was clinical in a 6-3 win over fourth seed Niels Zonneveld, finding three big breaks of throw and closing out with 87 for the match.
Elsewhere, top seed Ross Smith survived a scare to beat Karel Sedlacek 6-4, while Damon Heta came from 5-3 down to beat 2018 European Champion James Wade 6-5. Stephen Bunting also won a last-leg thriller against Danny Noppert with a clutch 160 finish.
Source: Sky Sports Champions League · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing