Florian Hempel meets Englishman Keegan Brown at the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) World Darts Championship, which begins on December 15th. This was the result of the draw made by the PDC for the field of 93 players and three players.
The man from Cologne is the only German starter in the first round this year. Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler are already seeded for round two at the event in London’s Alexandra Palace as numbers 25 and 29 in the world rankings. In the event of a win, Hempel, who surprisingly made it into the third round last year after beating Schindler and Dimitri van den Bergh, would face Luke Humphries, one of the title contenders.
Schindler’s opponents identify Martin Lukeman and outsider Nobuhiro Yamamoto. After a strong year on the European Tour, the Englishman is quite a tricky task for the 26-year-old German. Gabriel Clemens plays against the winner of the duel between William O’Connor and Beau Greaves. The debut of the 18-year-old Englishwoman is eagerly awaited. Fallon Sherrock meets “Rapid” Ricky Evans.
In the afternoon, England’s Ryan Joyce, Canada’s Jeff Smith and Wales’ Richie Burnett secured the last three World Cup tickets. The new world champion will be determined on January 3rd, the game plan is expected by December 30th at the latest.
UPPER HALF
1st quarter:
Gerwyn Price (WAL/1) – Luke Woodhouse (ENG)/Vladyslav Omelchenko (UKR)
Raymond van Barneveld (NED/32) – Ryan Meikle (ENG)/Lisa Ashton (ENG)
Ryan Searle (ENG/16) – Adam Gawlas (POL)/Richie Burnett (WAL)
Jose de Sousa (POR/17) – Simon Whitlock (AUS)/Christian Perez (PHI)
2nd quarter:
James Wade (ENG/8) – Jim Williams (WAL)/Sebastian Bialecki (POL)
Gabriel Clemens (D/25) – William O‘Connor (IRL)/Beau Greaves (ENG)
Danny Noppert (NED/9) – Ritchie Edhouse (ENG)/David Cameron (CAN)
Daryl Gurney (NIR/24) – Alan Soutar (SCO)/Mal Cuming (AUS)
3rd quarter:
Michael Smith (ENG/4) – Jermaine Wattimena (NED)/Nathan Rafferty (NIR)
Martin Schindler (D/29) – Martin Lukeman (ENG)/Nobuhiro Yamamoto (JPN)
Joe Cullen (ENG/13) – Ricky Evans (ENG)/Fallon Sherrock (ENG)
Damon Heta (AUS/20) – Adrian Lewis (ENG)/Daniel Larsson (SWE)
4th quarter:
Luke Humphries (ENG/5) – Keegan Brown (ENG)/Florian Hempel (D)
Vincent van der Voort (NED/28) – Cameron Menzies (SCO)/Diogo Portela (BRA)
Dave Chisnall (ENG/12) – Andrew Gilding (ENG)/Robert Owen (ENG)
Stephen Bunting (ENG/21) – Geert Nentjes (NED)/Leonard Gates (USA)
BOTTOM HALF
1st quarter:
Peter Wright (SCO/2) – Mickey Mansell (NIR)/Ben Robb (NZL)
Kim Huybrechts (BEL/31) – Keane Berry (IRL)/Grant Sampson (RSA)
Dimitri van den Bergh (BEL/15) – Rowby-John Rodriguez (AUT)/Lourence Ilagan (PHI)
Krzysztof Ratajski (POL/18) – Danny Jansen (NED)/Paolo Nebrida (PHI)
2nd quarter:
Jonny Clayton (WAL/7) – Steve Beaton (ENG)/Danny van Trijp (NED)
Brendan Dolan (NIR/26) – Jamie Hughes (ENG)/Jimmy Hendriks (NED)
Nathan Aspinall (ENG/10) – Boris Krcmar (CRO)/Toru Suzuki (JPN)
Callan Rydz (ENG/23) – Josh Rock (NIR)/Jose Justicia (ESP)
3rd quarter:
Michael van Gerwen (NED/3) – Niels Zonnelveld (NED)/Lewy Williams (WAL)
Mensur Suljovic (AUT/30) – Mike De Decker (BEL)/Jeff Smith (CAN)
Dirk van Duijvenbode (NED/14) – Karel Sedlacek (CZE)/Raymond Smith (AUS)
Ross Smith (ENG/19) – John O’Shea (IRL)/Darius Labanauskas (LIT)
4th quarter:
Rob Cross (ENG/6) – Scott Williams (ENG)/Ryan Joyce (ENG)
Mervyn King (ENG/27) – Matt Campbell (CAN)/Danny Baggish (USA)
Gary Anderson (SCO/11) – Madars Razma (LAT)/Prakash Jiwa (IND)
Chris Dobey (ENG/22) – Martijn Kleermaker (NED)/Xicheng Han (CHN)