Referee Kirk Bevins could only watch with his mouth open and burst out laughing. Aspinall defeated Mario Vandenbogaerde in the 2nd round: 6-2. Tomorrow he will play against Raymond van Barneveld or Martin Schindler.
Danny Noppert won his first match at the International Darts Open with great difficulty. The Freeze, who was allowed to skip the first round in Riesa, Germany, because of his position in the world ranking (eighth) yesterday, narrowly defeated eighteen-year-old public favorite Liam Maendl-Lawrance: 6-5.
Noppert is the only Dutchman who took action in the afternoon session. Tonight Michael van Gerwen, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Raymond van Barneveld will go on the hunt for a ticket for the eighth finals in the Sachsenarena in Riesa.
Noppert missed a lot of doubles, especially in the opening phase. Partly because of this, the first five legs were all breaks. It was not until the sixth leg that silver-plated Noppert kept the break: 4-2.
At 5-3, the Dutchman missed several match darts. Maendl-Lawrance, yesterday still too strong for Richie Burnett (1995 BDO World Champion) in the first round, took advantage and forced a decisive eleventh leg. Noppert was the better in this. The Freeze will play in the eighth finals tomorrow afternoon against Van Duijvenbode or the German Gabriel Clemens. Tomorrow are also the quarter- and semi-finals and the final.
Afternoon session
Danny Noppert – Liam Maendl-Lawrance 6-5
Damon Heta – Brendan Dolan 6-3
Jose de Sousa – Lee Evans 6-0
Rob Cross – Steve Lennon 6-3
Joe Cullen – Alan Soutar 2-6
Dave Chisnall – Andrew Gilding 6-2
Josh Rock – Florian Hempel 6-4
Nathan Aspinall – Mario Vandenbogaerde 6-2
Evening session (from 7.10 pm)
Jonny Clayton – Brian Raman
Dimitri Van den Bergh – Niko Springer
Peter Wright – Joseph Justice
Michael van Gerwen – Matt Campbell
Gerwyn Price – Ross Smith
Dirk van Duijvenbode – Gabriel Clemens
Martin Schindler – Raymond van Barneveld
Michael Smith – Mike De Decker
