Sunday, March 9, 2025
Column CM144
The UK Open 2025 – Day Two
On the second day of the UK Open, the sun shone in a bright blue sky with only a few small clouds. It was a little bit like summer holidays at the seaside und the Butlin’s masses all walked along the promenade. Nevertheless, probably not really happy were the many players who were eliminated from the tournament on the day, among them several who had surely hoped for more success.
The fifth round was played at four boards – the number of boards in Centre Stage venue was reduced from six to two – and there were not as many fans as on the first day either. Those attending filled Reds with the second stage and the Sky Pavillion with the main stage where the big names played.
On the main stage the day started with a strange appearance of Ryan Searle against a really well playing Luke Humphries. Searle never was in the match and lost 0-10.
There was more drama in the second match between Rob Owen and Michael van Gerwen in which Rob Owen played better than ever before while van Gerwen once again had some problems finding his doubles – and so van Gerwen was sent packing with a bitter 8-10 defeat. 
After that it was one-sided again (though Jermaine Wattimea won a few legs but was without a chance against the other Luke – Luke Littler).
The fourth match was very close again and was won by Dimitri van den Bergh – who had improved a little bit – against Chris Dobey.
Most matches of the fifth round on the second stage were hard fought matches – Cross, Rock and Clayton prevailed. The only one-sided match was the last one between Jurjen van der Velde and Nathan Aspinall – van der Velde never found a way to get into the match at all.
At Centre Stage Mensur Suljovic and Martin Schindler played their matches at the same time. Schindler won a close match against Dylan Slevin while Suljovic was without a chance against William O’Connor.
While the match between the German and Irishman was watched by a very quiet crowd, both Suljovic and O’Connor were cheered on loud – first. But then, Suljovic picked a quarrel with a woman who laughed when he had just set up to throw. The same woman had laughed several times before – it didn’t appear that the laugh Suljovic reacted to was intended to distract him – but security turned up to caution her and the atmosphere changed. O’Connor managed to calm Suljovic down but that didn’t save the match for the Austrian who now had the crowd against him – and he lost.
But Suljovic was not the only unhappy loser – Cameron Menzies lost a very close match to James Wade, Dave Chisnall lost to Krzysztof Ratajski and Connor Scutt (who had triumphed over Gerwyn Price) went out against Damon Heta.
And again, there was a draw after all the matches had ended. The stages in Centre Stage were removed and the sixth round was only played on the main stage and the second stage.
With the exception of William O’Connor and Robert Owen all players remaining in the evening session were under the Top 32 of the Order of Merit. And both O’Connor and Owen lost…
O’Connor lost to Nathan Aspinall who managed to get over the line first. Aspinall played well but somehow it looked rather strained and not at all easygoing. Robert Owen was defeated by James Wade who was just that deciding little bit better.
Reigning champion Dimitri van den Bergh went out as well. He was defeated by Michael Smith who while in a weak match was still far better than van den Bergh.
Luke Littler for the first time was a little bit in trouble against Krzysztof Ratajski but won 10-8.
The tournament ended as well for Martin Schindler – who lost 4-10 to Jonny Clayton. In the match there occurred a curious incident. One of Schindler’s darts bounced back from the board all the way to Schindler’s right shoe – were it stuck. Schindler immediately said he was not hurt but he couldn’t win another leg in the match.
Also out after the sixth round were Damon Heta and Ryan Joyce – who only won two legs against Luke Humphries.
And again when all matches were over there was a draw – the draw for quarterfinals which ended the night.
It felt very cold during my walk along the seaside back to my Bed and Breakfast and Minehead looked rather deserted…
