From 6-3 down to a deciding leg
Humphries had the match where he wanted it at 6-3. A best of 19 is a long way from over at that point, but it is long enough that he usually closes it out, and the building had gone quiet in the way Dutch crowds do when an Englishman starts controlling a scoreboard.
He did not close it out. Van Duijvenbode took the lead back leg by leg, drew level late on, and forced the match into a nineteenth and deciding leg that he won. The 101.14 he averaged across the full distance is the number that explains the rest of it: he outscored Humphries all afternoon, which against this opponent is rare enough on its own, and this time the finishing arrived at the same moment.
What makes this less of a bolt from the blue than the scoreline suggests is that it is the second time in under a month. Van Duijvenbode beat Humphries 6-3 in the second round of the Hungarian Darts Trophy in Budapest at the end of August — a result that ended a run of nine straight defeats to him. Amsterdam made it two in a row against a player he had never previously solved.
The reserve who was never meant to be in Amsterdam
Van Duijvenbode was not in the original 32. He was the first reserve from August’s Tour Card Holder Qualifier, and he only entered the draw under PDC Rule 3.7 when Man Lok Leung withdrew through illness. He inherited Leung’s slot, Leung’s round-one tie with Viktor Tingström, and a place in the half of the draw nobody was studying.
That is now a quarter-final and a guaranteed ÂŁ17,500, and it is the second time he has made this tournament awkward for everyone. He was the runner-up here in 2022, losing 11-10 to Gerwyn Price in a deciding leg.
Saturday afternoon’s last 16 in full
Four second-round ties filled the afternoon session, all over the best of 19 legs — nearly double the best of 11 used in round one, and a format that rewards scoring consistency rather than a hot opening twenty minutes.
| Winner | Score | Beaten |
|---|---|---|
| Dirk van Duijvenbode | 10-9 | Luke Humphries |
| Gian van Veen | 10-7 | Karel Sedláček |
| Josh Rock | 10-7 | Ryan Searle |
| Ross Smith | 10-5 | Daryl Gurney |
Daryl Gurney’s week ended where the fairytale usually does. He was a reserve call-up too, he knocked out defending champion Michael van Gerwen 6-5 on Thursday, and then he ran into Ross Smith playing the best darts of his career. Smith won the Hungarian Darts Trophy three weeks ago and currently tops the European Tour Order of Merit; 10-5 was never in doubt after the halfway point.
The best average of the session belonged to the loser
Gian van Veenagainst Karel Sedláček was the quality match of the afternoon and the cruellest. Sedláček averaged 103.30 and lost. Van Veen averaged 101.52, found 160 and 147 on the way through, and won 10-7 — which is the whole argument for why doubles decide tournaments and scoring decides nothing on its own.
Bars are scaled from a 95.00 baseline so the gaps are visible. Source: Darts World, NOS, Dartsfreakz and Darts Actueel. Averages for the Rock–Searle and Smith–Gurney ties are not corroborated widely enough to list here.
A Dutch derby, and a first-time finalist guaranteed
The two Dutchmen drew each other. Van Veen plays Van Duijvenbode in Sunday’s afternoon session, which means the Netherlands is guaranteed a semi-finalist in Amsterdam two days after Van Gerwen went out in round one — and also guaranteed that it cannot have two from this side of the bracket.
| Quarter-final | Route to it |
|---|---|
| Gian van Veen v Dirk van Duijvenbode | Beat Sedláček 10-7 and Humphries 10-9 |
| Josh Rock v Ross Smith | Beat Searle 10-7 and Gurney 10-5 |
The other two quarter-finals come out of Saturday’s evening session, where Luke Littler, Gerwyn Price, James Wade and Jonny Clayton all went in carrying a first-round win.
There is a piece of arithmetic buried in those four names on this side of the draw. Only five men have ever won the World Series of Darts Finals — Van Gerwen six times, Price twice, Wade, Clayton and Littler once each. None of Van Veen, Van Duijvenbode, Rock or Smith is on that list. Whoever comes through these two quarter-finals will be a first-time finalist at this event, and a first-time champion if they win the thing.
What the quarter-finals are worth
The eight players beaten in round two collect ÂŁ10,000 each, double the ÂŁ5,000 first-round fee. Reaching the last eight lifts that to ÂŁ17,500, a semi-final to ÂŁ30,000, and the winner on Sunday night takes ÂŁ100,000 from the ÂŁ450,000 fund. The routes the 32 players took into this field are set out in our guide to Amsterdam qualification.
For Humphries the ÂŁ10,000 is the small part. This is the one major-standard trophy he has never won, and he has now gone out in the last 16 of it to a man who was on the reserve list a fortnight ago. Quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final are all played on Sunday 20 September; after that the season moves to Leicester for the World Grand Prix on 28 September, which sits with the rest of the run-in on our 2026 calendar, and every result in Amsterdam feeds the live PDC Order of Merit.