Woodhouse ends the title defence
Van Veen won this tournament twelve months ago. He lost it in the last 16, out-thrown for most of the afternoon by a player who has already had the week of his life — Woodhouse opened the championship on Thursday with the fifth nine-darter in the event’s history, and has now knocked out the holder.
Van Veen had chances to make it uncomfortable. He stayed within two for most of the middle of the match and got back to within two again at 9–7, but Woodhouse’s finishing held up where the Dutchman’s did not. The averages tell the shape of it: 95.34 against 91.47.
That result also settles a question this site raised on Friday. Nobody has retained the European Championship since Michael van Gerwen won four in a row between 2014 and 2017, and van Veen was the last man who could have broken the run. Dortmund will crown a ninth different champion in nine stagings.
Saturday’s second-round results
Eight ties filled the two sessions, the format stepping up from the best of 11 to the best of 19. Not one of them went the distance, and only Ratajski against Doets got within three legs of a decider.
| Winner | Loser | Legs | Avg W | Avg L |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gerwyn Price | Cameron Menzies | 10-4 | 95.75 | 94.66 |
| Stephen Bunting | Kim Huybrechts | 10-3 | 96.83 | 94.99 |
| Ross Smith | Damon Heta | 10-7 | 96.19 | 90.70 |
| Luke Woodhouse | Gian van Veen | 10-6 | 95.34 | 91.47 |
| Krzysztof Ratajski | Kevin Doets | 10-8 | — | — |
| Martin Schindler | Jermaine Wattimena | 10-4 | — | — |
| Luke Littler | Nathan Aspinall | 10-5 | — | — |
Luke Littler took the tie the week had been building towards, beating Nathan Aspinall 10–5 after a fast start, a more comfortable night than their 10–9 meeting in Amsterdam. He had opened the championship on a 105.05 average against William O’Connor and remains the only man in the draw chasing the single major missing from his collection.
Martin Schindler gave the Westfalenhalle the result it wanted, beating Jermaine Wattimena 10–4 to reach the quarter-finals on home soil. Stephen Bunting was the most ruthless of the afternoon, closing out Kim Huybrechts’ improbable week as a late call-up 10–3 on a 96.83 average. Ross Smith, the 2022 champion and the only former winner left in the field, came through 10–7 against Damon Heta.
How all eight Dutch players went out
The Netherlands dominated the European Tour this season. Four of the top eight on the final European Tour Order of Merit were Dutch, Niels Zonneveld won the last event of the series in Maastricht a week ago, and van Veen came in defending the title. It bought them nothing.
| Player | Out in | Beaten by | Legs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dirk van Duijvenbode | Round one | Luke Woodhouse | 3-6 |
| Niels Zonneveld | Round one | Cameron Menzies | 3-6 |
| Danny Noppert | Round one | Stephen Bunting | 5-6 |
| Wessel Nijman | Round one | Martin Schindler | 5-6 |
| Michael van Gerwen | Round one | Kevin Doets | 3-6 |
| Kevin Doets | Round two | Krzysztof Ratajski | 8-10 |
| Jermaine Wattimena | Round two | Martin Schindler | 4-10 |
| Gian van Veen | Round two | Luke Woodhouse | 6-10 |
Five of the eight lost in the first round, and the only reason the Netherlands had anyone at all in the second was that one of those five defeats was inflicted by a compatriot: Kevin Doets knocked out van Gerwen 6–3 on Friday. Doets then lost 10–8 to Krzysztof Ratajski, the closest any Dutch player came all week to a quarter-final.
Two of the five first-round losses were last-leg deciders, which is the part that will sting. Danny Noppert and Wessel Nijman both went out 6–5. Zonneveld, a week after winning his first PDC ranking title in Maastricht, lost 6–3 to Cameron Menzies.
Two men did most of the damage. Woodhouse beat van Duijvenbode on Thursday and van Veen on Saturday; Schindler beat Nijman in a last-leg decider on Friday and Wattimena on Saturday. Four of the eight Dutch exits were inflicted by those two alone, and both are in the quarter-finals. Add Bunting’s win over Noppert and Ratajski’s over Doets and four of the seven quarter-finalists settled on Saturday got there over a Dutchman.
Bars show players entered. The other eight places in the 32 went to Poland, Northern Ireland, Australia, Ireland, Spain, Scotland, Czechia and Belgium, one each. Counts are of the field as it played: Luke Humphries withdrew with gastroenteritis and Kim Huybrechts replaced him. Seven quarter-final places were settled on Saturday; the eighth goes to Clayton (Wales) or Rock (Northern Ireland). Source: DartsNews field list and the results above.
Sunday’s quarter-finals
Four ties are left, all on Sunday afternoon and all over the best of 19. Ross Smith meets Woodhouse, Gerwyn Price meets Bunting, Schindler plays whoever comes through Clayton against Josh Rock, and Ratajski plays Littler. The semi-finals and the final follow the same evening over the best of 21.
The money steepens sharply from here. A quarter-final place is worth £35,000 against the £20,000 guaranteed by Saturday, a semi-final £50,000, the runner-up £80,000 and the champion £150,000 out of a £750,000 fund. For Woodhouse and Schindler in particular, neither of whom has won a televised major, Sunday is worth more than any other day of their season.
The full Dortmund bracket tracks how each of the eight got here. What remains of the season is on the 2026 calendar, and the week’s effect on the standings will show on the live PDC Order of Merit.