Grand Slam of Darts qualifiers, Digi Mart USA News (Leicester, England): German darts professional Niko Springer secured one of the last available spots for the Grand Slam of Darts, which runs from November 14 to 22 and is broadcast live on SPORT1, after a strong performance at the qualifying tournament on Friday in Leicester.
Springer, from Mainz, claimed one of the final ten places by defeating Stefaan Henderyck of Belgium 5:1 in legs. He had earlier beaten Justin Hood 5:1 and Alexander Merkx 5:2, and his three-dart average of 112.25 points against Henderyck was described as outstanding.
Springer is the fourth player from Germany to qualify for the major tournament in Wolverhampton, following Gabriel Clemens, Jan Schmidt and Martin Schindler.
Eight German participants traveled to Leicester on Friday. However, Dominik Grüllich, Leon Weber, Max Hopp, Arno Merk, Marvin Kraft, Lukas Wenig and Ricardo Pietreczko were all eliminated by the penultimate round of qualification at the latest.
England’s Stephen Bunting also advanced to the Grand Slam of Darts, beating Jimmy van Schie 5:2 in the decisive round. The top-seeded Bunting opened by defeating Merk 5:0 and averaged 101.55 points, then came back from 3:5 down to Callan Rydz…
(see note below).
Ricky Evans recovered from a 0:3 deficit against Cristo Reyes to win 5:3 in the decisive round, including checkouts of 161 and 124. Joe Cullen also overturned a 0:3 deficit to beat Michael Smith 5:3.
Bradley Brooks qualified with a 5:2 win over Dave Chisnall. Rusty-Jake Rodriguez beat Tom Bissell 5:2, and Maik Kuivenhoven beat Chris Landman 5:2.
Carl Sneyd defeated Andy Boulton 5:2, Tom Sykes beat Adam Leek 5:3, and Alan Soutar won 5:3 against Mike De Decker.
Several prominent players will not feature at this year’s Grand Slam of Darts, including Dimitri Van den Bergh, Daryl Gurney, Peter Wright, Damon Heta and Danny Noppert.
