Humphries took no time to warm up. The Englishman threw very strong arrows from his first arrows and Van der Velde, despite an average of over 104 – despite two bouncers (arrows falling from the board) – was 5-0 behind after the first session.
Dutch darts player Jurjen van der Velde pulls off a major upset against number 12 in the world
For the 22-year-old Groninger, the tournament seemed to turn from a dream into a nightmare after great victories in the group stage over Martin Lukeman and Chris Dobey. Because after the short break Humphries continued happily. But after 7-0 the concentration disappeared Cool Hand Luke and the consistent Van der Velde was able to take the leg. He enjoyed a small party with the audience.
164 finish
Because that was already his mission beforehand: to enjoy being number 147 in the world against the captain of the world rankings. A stunt was simply not possible for a second. But with a 164 finish he stole the show for a while. “I had no tension at all on stage and enjoyed every moment. I was already 9-2 behind or so,” he said afterwards at Viaplay.
“For myself, I think I put on a pretty good match, but I couldn’t do anything against Humphries today. I couldn’t do anything about this. He was one, two, maybe three sizes too big,” said Van der Velde.
Round of 16 Wednesday
Luke Woodhouse – Ricky Evans 9-10
Gerwyn Price-Martin Schindler 10-6
Luke Humphires – Jurjen van der Velde 10-3
Chris Dobey-Michael Smith 9-10
Ridiculous ending: Chris Dobey and Michael Smith miss twenty match darts together
Round of 16 Thursday
Lukas Wenig – Niko Springer
Josh Rock – Connor Scutt
Luke Littler – Wessel Nijman
Michael van Gerwen – Danny Noppert