Our Blog

Michael van Gerwen completed a brilliant double by winning both of the first two Speedy Services UK Open qualifiers in Crawley at the weekend.

‘Mighty Mike’, who has now won the last three Pro Tour events consecutively, defeated Dave Chisnall in Saturday’s final before seeing off Brendan Dolan in Sunday’s decider.

“This feels amazing,” said van Gerwen, who grabbed the £6,000 first prize on both days.

“Not many people have won two of these in the same weekend so I am proud of myself for achieving that.

“It was very tough but I played well on both days. My form is good and I want to keep it going.”

There was also success for reigning UK Open champion Robert Thornton, who hit a nine-dart-finish in his quarter-final defeat to Chisnall on Saturday.

Raymond van Barneveld reached Sunday’s semis but was beaten by Dolan, after ‘Barney’ had ended Simon Whitlock’s run to the last eight.

The draw for the first European Tour event of 2013 was also made at the weekend following the qualifier, which took place on Friday evening at the K2 Centre.

John Henderson’s reward for progressing through that qualifier was a first round clash against fellow Scotsman Thornton at the inaugural UK Masters.

Arron Monk, who also won through Friday’s qualifier, will face Ian White at the Minehead event in March.

Whitlock faces Finnish World Cup star Jarkko Komula, while James Wade was drawn against Adam Hunt.

van Gerwen will play Jelle Klaasen, van Barneveld is up against Tomas Seyler and James Hubbard will face Nigel Heydon.

Vincent van der Voort meets Tony West, Mark Webster will take on Simon Craven and Paul Nicholson will play David Pallett.

The £100,000 event takes place from March 8-10 at Butlins Minehead resort.

By Chris Murphy