European Darts Championship 2022 | Day Two Preview and Order of Play
The First Round action concludes at the 2022 European Darts Championship in Dortmund on Friday with a host of star names kicking off their title quests.
Defending champion Rob Cross was among the notable early casualties on opening night at the Westfalenhallen, alongside World Grand Prix finalist Nathan Aspinall and in-form Damon Heta.
Night Two features matches from a star-studded bottom half of the draw, with seedings taken from this year’s European Order of Merit.
Michael van Gerwen begins his pursuit of a record fifth European Championship title with a familiar tie against Chris Dobey.
Van Gerwen is level with Phil Taylor on four titles, though his most recent success came in this event came in 2017, and he was denied glory by Cross in last year’s final.
The world number three is looking to add to his Premier League, World Matchplay and World Grand Prix triumphs this season and notably defeated Dobey by three sets to one in the Quarter-Finals en route to the latter title earlier this month.
Dobey is making his third appearance in this event, having secured the penultimate qualification spot after a frustrating European Tour campaign by his standards.
World number one Peter Wright begins an important European Championship campaign with a clash against debutant Ryan Meikle.
Wright claimed this title in Oberhausen two years ago and is therefore defending the prize money against his ranking as he looks to remain at the top of the pile.
The reigning World Champion has claimed the German Open title this season as well as a further two Euro Tour final appearances and will look to deny Meikle a dream debut scalp.
Meikle, a six-time Development Tour winner, is out to avenge his 7-2 defeat to Wright in the Semi-Finals of last week’s Players Championship 27.
Tenth seed Jonny Clayton, semi-finalist in 2020, opens up with a tough test against home favourite Gabriel Clemens – a player eyeing a first win at the third attempt in this tournament.
Gerwyn Price, the 2019 runner-up, starts out against Austrian ace Rowby-John Rodriguez – making his first appearance in this event since 2015.
Price, World Series Finals winner this season, won the first European Tour event of the year but withdrew from six subsequent events and failed to progress beyond the Quarter-Finals in his six other outings.
A resurgent Rodriguez enjoyed a superb run to the final of the European Matchplay – where he was agonisingly denied by Luke Humphries in a last-leg decider.
Two former major champions collide as 11th seed Dimitri van den Bergh – bidding for his first win in this event – faces two-time semi-finalist Daryl Gurney.
The opening match of the night features an all-St Helens show-down between Dave Chisnall and Stephen Bunting, with ‘The Bullet’ out to avenge his 6-0 whitewash when they last met in a televised event at The Masters in January.
Chisnall has claimed the Belgian Darts Open title and a Players Championship event in recent weeks, while Bunting has made two Semi-Finals on the Euro Tour in 2022.
Reigning Masters champion and Premier League runner-up Joe Cullen faces a tricky opener against Ross Smith – quarter-finalist in the most recent Players Championship event.
Cullen reached the Semi-Finals in Salzburg 12 months ago, losing out to eventual champion Cross, while Smith is making his third appearance in this event having reached two Euro Tour Quarter-Finals this term.
World number six Jose de Sousa faces a tough opening assignment against German number two Martin Schindler – runner-up in a Players Championship event earlier this year.
The action gets under way from 6pm BST (7pm local time), with First Round matches to be contested over the best of 11 legs.
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European Championship 2022 Day Two Schedule
Friday October 28
First Round
5.45pm-10pm
Dave Chisnall v Stephen Bunting
Dimitri Van den Bergh v Daryl Gurney
Joe Cullen v Ross Smith
Jose de Sousa v Martin Schindler
Peter Wright v Ryan Meikle
Gerwyn Price v Rowby-John Rodriguez
Michael van Gerwen v Chris Dobey
Jonny Clayton v Gabriel Clemens
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