Nathan Aspinall and Raymond van Barneveld progressed to spherical two of the German Darts Championship on Friday, on an evening Dirk van Duijvenbode landed a nine-darter.
The spotlight of the evening noticed Van Duijvenbode nail an excellent nine-dart leg in Hildesheim towards Karel Sedlacek.
The Dutchman conjured up the magical nine-darter in leg 4 of the competition, earlier than following up a 116 end with a match-winning 135 to win by means of a charming affair towards the Czech No 1.
Aspinall produced an exhibition of ending in his 6-3 success towards debutant Maximilian Czerwinski, changing 84, 85, 90, 99, 116 and 160 finishes to triumph with a 103 common and prolong his lead on the prime of the European Tour rankings.
Raymond van Barneveld was one other big-name participant who made it by means of spherical one on Friday
Van Barneveld battled previous host nation consultant Kevin Troppmann to progress to a gathering with third-seed Jonny Clayton.
Joe Cullen will miss out on the European Championship for the primary time in a decade following his 6-2 defeat to Ricky Evans, who will tackle Josh Rock in what guarantees to be a quickfire contest.
German No 2 Ricardo Pietreczko will play reigning champion Peter Wright in a repeat of the 2023 last on Saturday afternoon, after overcoming Radek Szaganski in a hard-fought encounter.
Nevertheless, 2019 winner Daryl Gurney suffered a chastening 6-2 defeat to Christian Kist, who reeled off six consecutive legs to e book a showdown with sixth-seed Gerwyn Value on Saturday evening.
Ryan Joyce was Friday afternoon’s stand-out performer, averaging 104.24 in his 6-2 victory over a powerful Justin Hood, which units up an intriguing showdown towards top-seed Stephen Bunting.
William O’Connor, who stays within the hunt for a European Championship place, beat Andrew Gilding 6-4 and his reward is a tussle towards German No 1 Martin Schindler for a spot within the final 16, with the Irishman needing to achieve no less than the semi-finals to protect his qualification hopes.
Rob Cross can be but to substantiate his qualification, and the two-time European champion faces Cameron Menzies in spherical two, after the Scot defied Wesley Plaisier’s quickfire begin to dump out the Dutchman.
Steve Lennon will lock horns with Australian No 1 Damon Heta, after averaging 97 to dispatch Swedish No 1 Jeffrey de Graaf and register his first European Tour victory of the marketing campaign.
Luke Woodhouse is about to satisfy Danny Noppert in a battle of the current European Tour finalists, after following up a 110 end with a 13-darter to halt the resistance of Tom Bissell.
German Darts Championship
Friday October 17 (spherical one)
Afternoon Session
Cameron Menzies 6-4 Wesley Plaisier
Niels Zonneveld 6-2 Darius Labanauskas
Steve Lennon 6-2 Jeffrey de Graaf
Wessel Nijman 6-2 Martin Kramer
Ryan Joyce 6-2 Justin Hood
Luke Woodhouse 6-4 Tom Bissell
Krzysztof Ratajski 6-1 Felix Springer
William O’Connor 6-4 Andrew Gilding
Night Session
Jermaine Wattimena 6-2 Keane Barry
Christian Kist 6-2 Daryl Gurney
Ricardo Pietreczko 6-3 Radek Szaganski
Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-4 Karel Sedlacek
Raymond van Barneveld 6-3 Kevin Troppmann
Ricky Evans 6-2 Joe Cullen
Gabriel Clemens 6-2 Tomislav Rosandic
Nathan Aspinall 6-3 Maximilian Czerwinski
Saturday October 18 (spherical two)
Afternoon session (1200 BST)
Gian van Veen vs Zonneveld
Damon Heta vs Lennon
Danny Noppert vs Woodhouse
Ryan Searle vs Ratajski
Mike De Decker vs Nijman
Rob Cross vs Menzies
Peter Wright vs Pietreczko
Dave Chisnall vs Clemens
Night session (1800 BST)
Ross Smith vs Aspinall
Jonny Clayton vs Van Barneveld
Gerwyn Value vs Kist
James Wade vs Wattimena
Chris Dobey vs Van Duijvenbode
Martin Schindler vs O’Connor
Josh Rock vs Evans
Stephen Bunting vs Joyce
Sunday October 19
Afternoon session (1200 BST)
Third spherical
Night session (1800 BST)
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Closing
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