Monday, December 18, 2024
Column CM139
Happy Birthday, Vincent van der Voort!
Birthday: December 18, 1975
Lives in: Pumerend, Netherlands
Born in: Pumerend, Netherlands
Nickname: The Dutch Destroyer
Darts: 23-gram Winmau Signature
Walk-on Music: Give it Up (K.C. & The Sunshine Band)
Dutchman Vincent van der Voort started to play darts when he was ten years old and in 1991 won the WDF Europe Cup Youth. He celebrated his first seniors win in 2002 at the Danish Open which, he won again in 2006. Van der Voort won some more titles on the BDO/WDF Circuit, was a member of the Dutch National Team for many years and took part from 2002-2007 in the BDO World Championship. His best result was the quarterfinals in 2005 where he lost to Raymond van Barneveld.
In those days at the beginning of the year after the BDO World Championship players regularly switched from the BDO to the PDC and in 2007 Vincent van der Voort was one of them. He switched together with Jelle Klaasen, the 2006 BDO World Champion, and at the time talked about as some kind of sensational teenager, comparable to Michael van Gerwen and Mervyn King. The four players had the same sponsor – a kitchen producer – and were sometimes called “the kitchen boys.” There even appeared some funny commercials in which the sponsor somehow combined kitchens and darts.
I saw all four players early in the spring of 2007 in London where they took part in some UK Open Qualifiers. The qualifiers were then open for anybody to watch (usually there was only a very, very small crowd) and played in some pubs. At this time, van Gerwen was the most unobstrusive and least dangerous of the four while van der Voort and King looked like they would have no problems fitting into the PDC and would be a danger to many of the players.
And rather astonishingly I turned out to be right…
Vincent van der Voort reached the final of this UK Open and lost to Raymond van Barneveld. Due to this success – which was his biggest in all his years in the PDC – van der Voort moved into the Top 20 of the Order of Merit.
In the following year, he reached the UK Open semifinals. In 2011, he reached the Players Championship Finals. In all other Majors he never got further than the quarterfinals. He reached that placing in the PDC World Championship in 2011 and 2015. All in all he was successful enough to stay among the Top 32 for a rather long time.
In 2009, he lost in the group phase of the Grand Slam of Darts to Anastasia Dobromyslova. I am sure that haunted him for some time.
Over the years, van der Voort won some Players Championships and a single European Tour Event. Since 2016, he has experienced a lot of hurtful back problems, slid down the rankings and talked about ending his career. When it just looked as if he’d recovered Covid 19 hit and he missed the 2022 PDC World Championship due to a positive Covid test.
That to a certain degree was van der Voort’s end in the PDC. His back problems returned, he lost his motivation and the Dutchman didn’t manage to qualify for either the World Championship 2023/24 nor 2024/25 and now will lose his Tour Card.
He will not completely withdraw from darts – the popular Dutchman announced he will take part in the World Seniors Darts Championship 2025. After six BDO World Championships and 16 PDC World Championships the first World Seniors World Championship will follow – van der Voort’s 23 World Championship.
Van der Voort’s throwing style is the opposite of Paul Lim’s rather slow and deliberate style. He was always known for a very fast, almost rushed throw, which doesn’t look well controlled. As long as all is going well it works; the problems start when it’s not going well.
On December 18, van der Voort celebrated his 49th birthday. Happy Birthday, Vincent!
