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European Darts Championship 2023 | Day One Preview and Order of Play

Jamie Shaw in European Championship 26 Oct 2023

Van Barneveld and Smith collide (Photo by Kelly Deckers/PDC)

The 2023 European Darts Championship gets under way in Dortmund on Thursday with six World Champions starring on an unmissable opening night.

The £500,000 ranking major features the top 32 players from the 2023 European Tour Order of Merit battling it out at the Westfalenhallen from October 26-29.

First Round ties from the top half of the draw take centre stage on opening night as a host of big names bid to avert an early exit.

One of the stand-out fixtures of the evening sees reigning World Champion Michael Smith take on five-time World Champion Raymond van Barneveld.

Smith claimed the German Darts Grand Prix title earlier this year and recently reached the Semi-Finals of the World Grand Prix for the first time, having also claimed Bahrain Masters glory and a ProTour title this season.

The world number one will be out to avenge his 6-4 defeat to Van Barneveld in last month’s World Series Finals in Amsterdam, a result he later admitted inspired his run at the World Grand Prix.

Van Barneveld returns to this event for the first time in eight years, having reached the Quarter-Finals of the European Matchplay, but his performances in majors this season have proved underwhelming, with First Round exits at the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix.

Rob Cross, one of only three players to have lifted this trophy on more than one occasions, starts his campaign with a show-down against former World Matchplay champion Dimitri van den Bergh.

Cross claimed this title in 2019 and 2021 and is therefore defending £120,000 in prize money from that latter triumph against his ranking.

The 2018 World Champion began the year by finishing runner-up in The Masters and has gone on to claim a brace of World Series titles, as well as his first Euro Tour title.

Van den Bergh is making his fourth appearance in this competition since 2017 and qualified in 28th position after failing to surpass the Third Round stage in any of his nine Euro Tour appearances during the year.

Gerwyn Price launches his latest bid for a maiden European Championship title with a tie against 21-year-old Irish star Keane Barry.

Price finished runner-up in Göttingen four years ago, averaging just 84.5 in the final, and is out to end a two-year wait for a televised ranking title, having lost out to Luke Humphries in the final of the World Grand Prix earlier this month.

Barry, semi-finalist in last year’s UK Open, returns for a second appearance in this competition, having reached two Quarter-Finals on the European Tour this term.

Peter Wright, the 2020 European Champion, opens up with a show-down against home favourite Gabriel Clemens.

The pair met in the First Round of the recent World Grand Prix, with Wright claiming a comfortable straight sets win over the double-start format, but Clemens has previously recorded wins over the Scot in the World Championship and Grand Slam of Darts.

Wright has shown signs of a timely return to form in recent weeks, reaching the final of the German Championship and the Semi-Finals of the World Series of Darts Finals.

Clemens, semi-finalist at this year’s World Cup of Darts, is one of three Germans in the draw and will look to utilise home advantage as he seeks a first win in this event at the fourth time of asking.

The opening match of the tournament sees reigning UK Open champion Andrew Gilding face 2022 UK Open champion Andrew Gilding.

The duo also met at this stage of the European Championship 12 months ago, with Noppert prevailing 6-3 en route to reaching the Quarter-Finals.

Gilding was a quarter-finalist at the World Grand Prix, defeating Rob Cross and Gary Anderson along the way, while Noppert has failed to progress beyond the Last 16 stage of a televised ranking major this year to date.

Reigning World Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall is tasked with a tough opener against 2021 Players Championship Finals runner-up – Ryan Searle.

Aspinall ended a four-year wait for a second major title in Blackpool this summer and was runner-up in last month’s World Series Finals, as well as the German Darts Grand Prix earlier in the campaign.

Searle enjoyed a run to the Quarter-Finals of the World Matchplay and was a semi-finalist in the first European Tour event of the season – the Baltic Sea Darts Open.

Another mouth-watering tie sees top seed Dave Chisnall take on reigning Masters champion Chris Dobey.

Chisnall has enjoyed a sensational Euro Tour campaign which has seen him rack up three titles this year and reach a further final, but he has never made it beyond the Quarter-Final stage of this event in 11 previous attempts.

Dobey boasts fond memories of this fixture from 12 months ago on this very stage – when he triumphed 10-7 with a 104.6 average to reach his third major ranking Semi-Final.

He notably defeated Michael van Gerwen en route to the Quarter-Finals of the recent World Grand Prix but will be wary of a potential ‘Chizzy’ backlash after the St Helens star suffered a shock First Round exit in Leicester and struggled for form in the recent Players Championship series.

The final match of the night sees in-form Stephen Bunting bidding for revenge when he faces German number two Martin Schindler.

Schindler dumped Bunting out of the World Grand Prix in a fifth set decider to reach the Quarter-Finals – his second of the year following on from the UK Open.

Bunting was runner-up in this season’s German Darts Open and famously exploded into life on his European Championship debut in 2014 – defeating Phil Taylor on his way to reaching the Quarter-Finals.

The action gets under way from 6pm BST, with First Round matches to be contested over the best of 11 legs.

WATCH ALL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES STREAMED LIVE

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European Darts Championship 2023 Day One Schedule

All times BST (local time +1 hour)

Thursday October 26

First Round

5.45pm-10pm
Danny Noppert v Andrew Gilding
Nathan Aspinall v Ryan Searle
Dave Chisnall v Chris Dobey
Rob Cross v Dimitri van den Bergh
Gerwyn Price v Keane Barry
Peter Wright v Gabriel Clemens
Michael Smith v Raymond van Barneveld
Martin Schindler v Stephen Bunting

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European Darts Championship 2023 | Day One Preview and Order of Play

European Darts Championship 2023 Day One Schedule

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