Van Gerwen suffers exit as Van Veen breaks European Tour average record

Michael van Gerwen’s difficult run of form continued on Saturday, October 17, 2026, when he suffered a shock second-round defeat at the Dutch Darts Championship in Maastricht, losing 6-5 to Irishman William O’Connor, as skysports.com reported.

The defeat extends a trend for the Dutch favourite on the European Tour. Before arriving in Maastricht, Van Gerwen lost his opening match at four European Tour events this season: the European Darts Trophy, German Darts Grand Prix, Flanders Darts Trophy, and Swiss Darts Trophy. According to skysports.com, it marks his most first-round exits in a single season since the tour began in 2012.

O’Connor secured the result by producing a display featuring three ton-plus checkouts of 136, 131, and 121, booking his place in round three.

The tournament also saw historical scoring on the same day. Gian van Veen broke the European Tour record average by posting a staggering 120.24 in a whitewash victory over Sebastian Bialecki, eclipsing the previous record of 118.66 held by Dave Chisnall, according to skysports.com.

Other matches on Saturday saw Gerwyn Price beat Scott Williams 6-3, Martin Schindler defeat Karel Sedlacek 6-4 to seal a spot at the European Championships, and Stephen Bunting beat Cameron Menzies 6-2 to jump into the qualification places. Bunting pinned six out of ten attempts at the outer ring against the Scot, leaving it late to get over the line and knocking Kim Huybrechts out of the running. Nathan Aspinall eliminated Michael Smith’s qualification hopes with a 6-1 victory, averaging over 102 to dispatch the former world champion as the World Grand Prix semi-finalist secured his win.

Brendan Dolan remained the sole player capable of pushing Sedlacek out of the qualifying spots after defeating Heine Uuldriks 6-4, having previously led 4-1 before being pegged back. Wessel Nijman and Danny Noppert also advanced to Sunday’s action by defeating Jeffrey De Graaf and Dave Chisnall respectively. Niels Zonneveld edged a last-leg decider against Krzysztof Ratajski by hitting seven maximums for the second consecutive match to secure his round three spot. Damon Heta averaged over 103 in a 6-1 victory over Jonny Clayton for his first win against the Welshman since May of the previous year, while Luke Woodhouse defeated Andrew Gilding.

The Dutch Darts Championship concludes on Sunday, October 18, with a double session featuring the remaining 16 players in Maastricht.