Van Duijvenbode recalls footballer Van de Beek telling him about Smith’s criticism: ‘It just gave me an extra push to get back on track’

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Once again, Dirk van Duijvenbode escaped elimination at the World Darts Championship. The Dutchman saw Karel Sedlacek miss a match dart in his first game on Thursday afternoon against Ross Smith, he survived five match darts.

Van Duijvenbode was then relieved. ‘Aubergenius’ admitted that he was close to elimination, but according to him, he should never have come to this.

“Although for most of the game I didn’t feel he was the best player,” he told Viaplay. It just had to be 3-2 for me in sets and it became 2-3. It wasn’t until the last set that he suddenly started throwing well…”.

The fact that the match was finally decided after a sudden death leg only adds to the luster of victory, Van Duijvenbode said. “I believe I have now won a match eight times at Ally Pally and only once has it not ended in a deciding set. Oh, I really like that too. On the biggest stage, it’s wonderful, this pressure. Even if I had lost, I would have thought back to this pot with a certain pleasure. Only when I win is of course even more beautiful.”

Sometimes things got heated between the two players, who sometimes celebrated for quite a long time on stage. However, something preceded that. A message from footballer Donny van de Beek prompted him.

”Donny said, ‘Do you know what Ross Smith is saying? That you cheered excessively after a 180. Louder than when he won the European Championship. Pfft. This taunted me. Especially when you saw how he was raving today every time he threw a 180. And he pumped up the crowd too. Sometimes when I was in danger of losing, it just gave me an extra push to come back. Of course I’m doing well because he misses five matchdarts. But you have to throw it away. I kept thinking: give me one of those chances and I’ll finish it. I have to be honest, I felt nervous when this chance came up, but I did it.”

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