Burnham-On-Sea’s Gary Anderson has been knocked out of the World Darts Championship after a thrilling semi-final with Dutchman Gian Van Veen on Friday evening (January 2nd).
Van Veen and Anderson put on one of the most electric shows seen during the championships. It was expected to be an exciting match and they delivered just that with 25 180s, 67 140s, and an average over 102 each.
It was the Burnham-On-Sea resident who took the early advantage with 15-, 11-, and 18-dart legs, including a break of throw helping him wrestle a 1-0 lead.
However, Van Veen’s scoring went to a new level in set two as he opened his account with a 10-darter and reached a monster 113 average which helped him break back to level things up, before making it two sets in a row as he held his throw under real pressure.
It then started to look like trouble for Anderson as Van Veen picked things up to a 109 average and, with it, found the first break of throw since the second set with an 11-darter at the perfect moment to clinch the deciding leg and move 3-1 ahead.
The atmosphere then went up a notch in the fifth set. After Anderson started with a 10-dart leg and broke Van Veen’s throw by scoring a 170 checkout, the Dutchman went and claimed an 11-darter and then took it to a decider with a 170 checkout of his own.
Gary simply could not believe his luck as the Dutchman matched him and then came through for a solid 4-1 advantage.
‘The Flying Scotsman’ did not let that get him down and used his big-game experience to break throw and bring the score to 4-2 and, despite his doubles starting to elude him, he came through the pressure once again to nudge the score back to 4-3.
However, with nervy darts taking over, Van Veen came through on tops to put himself one set away and then landed a double 16 to book his spot in the final.
“To win this kind of game, Gary threw everything at me. His finishing and scoring was great,” Van Veen told Sky Sports. “I withstood it. Of course, the crowd was a bit against me but it’s fair play because Gary is such a fantastic human being, such a fantastic darts player. I’m so happy!”
“Even now winning this game, five years ago I was struggling playing darts. Three or four years ago, I was in Barnsley, struggling with darts and crying at the table.”
“Now look at me four years later. It’s all been worth it. All the people that work so hard for me – even my parents when I was 12, 13 years old, they were driving me to all my tournaments everywhere in the Netherlands and here we are, unbelievable.”
The World Darts Championship comes to its conclusion today, Saturday January 3rd, when Littler and Van Veen will battle it out to be crowned champion.
