The Europe Super League contenders

Crazy nine darter set the tone but Florian Hempel ends a dramatic week on top at the Europe Super League, writes Paul Nicholson

By Paul Nicholson

Darts

Sat November 12, 2022 · 3y ago

Paul Nicholson travelled to Germany to cover the Europe Super League and shared his experiences in his latest Sporting Life column.

What is the PDC Europe Super League?

Affectionately known by many as the German Super League owing to the one country participation of the players, this event follows a rigorous schedule of competition over five days to see who comes out on top after group stages and a latter stage knockout. The winner receives a spot at Alexandra Palace for the 2023 Cazoo World Championship.

In previous times, we have seen some great players emerge from this event, and they have gone on to much bigger times.

The past couple of years have seen the likes of Martin Schindler and Nico Kurz win. Both have won in ridiculously dramatic finals against Florian Hempel and Dragutin Horvat respectively.

That 2020 final between Kurz and Horvat lives in peoples darting memories due to multiple reasons. It was played behind closed doors in a bubble due to the covid pandemic, which saw a bruising schedule of play embraced by a hungry crop of players.

The final saw a fancied Kurz win 10-9 to be the first player to defend this title, after seeing a championship shot missed by his opponent.

All this after the players were told when they could throw by now famous lollipop man Deddy Skibb. This was made famous during the pandemic as he stood there marshalling the social distancing protocols with a sign that stipulated when the players could enter the exclusion zone. It all seemed very comical at the time, but in order to see this event played, it was highly necessary.

Who are the favourites going into the event?

As the 24 players are split into four groups of six, we see definitive experience and strength in certain quarters, but here are some of the favourites from each group.

Group A - Florian Hempel, Fabian Schmutzler, Franz Rötzsch.
Group B - Ricardo Pietreczko, Dragutin Horvat.
Group C - Max Hopp, Nico Kurz, Daniel Klose, Christian Bunse.
Group D - Lukas Wenig, Nico Springer, Rene Eidams.

Of those favourites mentioned, 3 have PDC tour cards and will definitely be under the microscope. You have four former winners of this event. Nico Kurz having won it twice in 2019 and 2020. On top of that you have 2 former finalists, Dragutin Horvat being a one time champion in 2016 but a hree-time runner-up.

Maybe Max Hopp is under the microscope most as the highest profile player here. He is very close to losing his tour card after being a long time member of the PDC elite. He could really use some confidence and some results to bolster his stature as the best player Germany have produced to date. As a former winner in 2013, he will want to become only the second two time champion, nine years on from that success.

Day one - Group stage one, day one

I think it is very obvious that the story of day one was the nine-darter from Dragutin Horvat, which flooded social media due to the fact that he dropped one of the darts prior to landing it in the requisite treble 19. He went on to pierce the double 12, and take the leg against Christopher Toonders, who was a late replacement for Stefan Siepmann. That was the 6th nine-darter in the history of this event. Consequently, Horvat won that match 6-2 averaging 90.27.

Horvat had a very up and down day, the nine-darter being the highlight, but he walked away with only two wins from his five games, which means a big day is needed on Tuesday to avoid elimination from Group B.

After 10 matches over two days, and playing each player in the group twice, two people are sent packing from the 6-person groups and then the players will be split again come Wednesday morning into two groups of eight.

As far as Monday was concerned, the main story from a disappointment factor was the much maligned Max Hopp. He walked away, like Horvat, with two wins from five. He averaged 83.77 for the day which was 18th of the 24 players. I am sure he wasn’t happy with that return, but sometimes players need a kick up the backside to fire themselves into orbit.

On the flip side, we saw undefeated days for Florian Hempel, Niko Springer and Daniel Klose. Klose was involved in the final game of the day as he was the only person to defeat Nico Kurz, and sees himself in a very strong position to be part of Wednesday through Friday. Not many people will not know much about Daniel, but a recent run to a finals night in The Modus Super Series will tell you something relevant to his form. Funnily enough, he’s my pick to win this week.

The form players came to the fore, and with the likes of Pietreczko, Kurz and Wenig getting 4 wins from 5, and they have to be fancied like the undefeated crew to progress easily to round two.

Tuesday will bring more pressure and tension, and for the likes of Eidams, Hopp, Horvat and Fabian Schmutzler, losses early could be fatal.

Day two - Group stage one, day two

You know for a fact that leg difference will come into play, and seeing Max Hopp in the bottom two of Group C to start the day on leg difference proves that.

It did indeed come down to the last match for Max, as he was forced to beat Christian Bunse in his last first round group game to progress, and he held up under pressure very well. If he had lost that game, he could have been overtaken by Bunse and seen his early exit from the competition, but he will go into the second round with a big sigh of relief.

As for the entirety of his Group C friends, they all had their ups and downs apart from Daniel Klose who didn’t taste defeat again. He was Mr Consistency once more and will definitely be a threat for the whole thing.

Coincidentally, Michael Hurtz only made round two because Hopp beat Bunse too, so he will feel very fortunate.

As for the other groups, we saw players like Fabian Schmutzler eliminated from Group A with a game to spare. It just didn’t work out for him as Florian Hempel did was Klose did in not tasting defeat. Having said that he needed a little slice of comeback combat to take out his last opponent Marcel Gerdon, who progressed on 4-points, but only just.

In Group B, it wasn’t meant to be for Robin Beger and late entrant Christopher Toonders. They left with 3 and 2 points respectively, but sailing through was a very capable Ricardo Pietreczko on 9-points as well as Dragutin Horvat, Kai Gotthardt and Marco Obst closely following him.

Finally, Group D saw things finalised with games to spare too, as Stefan Nilles and Jonas Aplowski said goodbye. It was academic for Lukas Wenig, a somewhat under par Rene Eidams who just graduated and dark horse Manfred Bilderl. As for Niko Springer, he is just getting going. Another player to get 10 perfect points from 10 games, and he could yet be the story of the week.

Day three - Group stage two, day one

Just to give you an indication of the top level experience of who is left, 14 of the 16 remaining players have European tour games in their memory. Only Marcel Gerdon and Marco Obst haven’t graced a PDC Europe stage in front of fans. I wonder if that will be valuable in getting through Wednesday and Thursday which will see two groups of 8. By the end of day two, the field will be cut in half and 8 more players will leave Niedernhausen with Alexandra Palace still merely a dream.

The story of day three was the continued dominance of Florian Hempel. He is still after three days of competition, undefeated and is the only player to not taste a loss. That’s 17 wins straight averaging 91.69. As impressive as it is, the objective of group phase darts in the PDC Europe Super League is to get to Friday and be undefeated that day. He will be hoping to remain lossless all week long, and if he does that, he will be in London at Christmas time again.

As for the other strong parties, Niko Springer tasted defeat for the first time in his final game on Wednesday. It appears after an incredible start to the day where he lost only 2 legs in his first 4 matches, he just ran out of steam, but he has done himself a lot of good in qualifying for finals day on Friday already. 6 points from 7 is looking good as long as he doesn’t go to sleep on Thursday.

The Europe Super League contenders

Daniel Klose had his worst day of the week but he still wound up with 5 points and is very much part of the executive in Group B alongside Springer and the some of the chasers. He registered his best statistical performance for the week versus Dragutin Horvat, toppling the 100 mark for the first time and only the third person to do it all day.

In Group B, the likes of Michael Hurtz, Marco Obst and Manny Bilderl will have to be close to perfect on the final day of qualifying to secure a top 4 spot, with 4 points in total for all three of them, they have become the sacrificial lambs in that crop of players.

In Group A, Hempel leads and is closely followed by Lukas Wenig who really picked things up, as did Renee Eidams. Experience has been crucial in this side of the draw and with the likes of Marcel Gerdon and Kai Gotthardt not getting much for their efforts, you would fancy those guys have too much to do based on how they have played this week.

On an important note though, Max Hopp on 2 points and a leg difference of -14 has a lot to do to progress. Either Thursday is his best day of this challenge or he will be out before afternoon tea.

However, tour card holding Ricardo Pietreczko struggled and only got 3 wins and is far from safe. He will be hoping that Wednesday was his bad day and only better things are imminent.

Overall, its been a great day of consistent competition, but Thursday is all about stamina, strength of mind and execution of their game plans. Their energy reserves will be severely tested, of that there is no doubt.

Day four - Group stage two, day two

With two games to spare in the action on Thursday, Group A was already sorted. The players progressing to the knockout stages on Friday would be Florian Hempel, Ricardo Pietreczko, Lukas Wenig and Rene Eidams. A very strong looking bunch going forward and some of those players will be taking a lot of belief into the quarter finals.

Particularly Ricardo as he bounced back brilliantly wining 6 of his 7 games.

Hempel did lose his unbeaten record for the week after playing his 18th match, Rene Eidams being the first person to topple him 6-2, but if you are going to lose a game, better to do it on Thursday rather than Friday. Last years finalist will definitely know about that.

For Max Hopp is was ultimately a bridge too far, and with 3-points on the board with two matches left, he had no hope of progression. It seems now that maybe the loss of his tour card is inevitable, but like we have seen for others, it could be a perfect way for him to hit the reset button. We didn’t rite off Martin Schindler when he lost his card, and we cannot rite off Max too.

It was also disappointment for Nico Kurz, but he never really showed the levels of others and maybe had too much in the way of ring rust compared to the guys at the top. Marcel Gerdon and Kai Gotthardt will be pleased with making round two, but if they are to kick on from here, they will have to find another gear in 2023.

As for Group B, things were a little more nervous in the middle of the table but with those same two games to spare, we will see names like Niko Springer and Franz Rötzsch in the quarter finals. Rötzsch particularly impressive like Pietreczko on Thursday, undefeated going into their final two matches of the day which saw them both progress with time to spare.

As for the latter stages of play, it was a scrap for two spots between Daniel Klose, Dragutin Horvat and David Schlichting and this had the same feeling of Hopp, Bunse and Hurtz from Tuesday.

Schlichting was keeping pace with Horvat, but as he watched on as Klose and Horvat played each other in their 6th game of the day, he saw the game go all the way to leg 11, and ultimately it was Dan The Man who had the darts and the win, courtesy of converting 232 in 5 darts which saw him progress to the last 8.

With one match left, the last spot would be decided with one more point on the line for both Horvat and Schlichting, but crucially the latter having a better leg difference by even. A mere victory for Schlichting and he would be in the quarter finals. Horvat most definitely in trouble.

Then, you get to their opponents. Horvat would take on an undefeated Franz Rötzsch from Thursday and Schlichting, Niko Springer. Talk about an uphill battle. The two who want to get through against the top two from Group B.

Consequently, fourth placed Schlichting was swept aside by a brilliant display by Springer. Niko planting a 13-darter in the last leg of a 6-1 drubbing, and then all David could do was wait and see if Franz could beat Horvat to send him through.

The final group game wasn’t of the same quality, but Horvat took a 4-1 lead and I am sure he started to feel like the job was almost done. But, taking on an undefeated player is never easy. Nobody wants to finish a day on a loss, no matter whether you’re safe or not.

After even legs the lead was 5-2 for Horvat, and he was one leg away but in leg 9, Rötzsch missed vital doubles to prolong the match, and Dragutin pounced with three darts at double 12 to send him through to another final day in this event which has been so good to him.

The nice thing to see was that Horvat and Schlichting embraced at the end and David wished him luck. Great sportsmanship from the younger talent.

That means there will be two former champions in the last eight, Horvat and Eidams.

Quarter Finals

Florian Hempel v Dragutin Horvat ( Best of 13 legs)

A fascinating opening game saw the favourite for the title have a slightly shaky start, losing three of the first 4 legs, but his response after that was exemplary. At 3-1 down, Florian was averaging 95 and his opponent 105, but from that point, it was Hempel who took charge with legs in 12, 13, 20, 16 and 15. It got him to the verge of victory, but withstanding a brief fightback he was able to find a 14 dart break of throw to close out the match on tops.

Overall, a hard fought week for Dragutin Horvat, but it wasn’t meant to be a second Super League win.

It is Hempel that goes forward with the 7-5 win averaging 96.87 and he may take some stopping if he can maintain that kind go level.

Rene Eidams v Daniel Klose (Best of 13 legs)

My pick for the title in Dan Klose against one of the dark horses. The way that Rene played on Thursday made everyone take notice. So, could Mr consistency take out the man who is still nicknamed The Cube, but these days looks more like a straw considering his weight loss.

The game was all about three leg bursts, it turns out that Dan Klose had two of them in him, and Rene only had one, which got him back into the match at 4-3 up, but after the pair traded 17-darters, Daniel found his second three leg bunch to take the game on the bullseye with an 86 checkout and by 7 legs to 5. He was the more reliable of the two, of that there is no doubt.

Franz Rötzsch v Lukas Wenig (Best of 13 legs)

These two know an awful lot about each other. Not only are they friends, but pairs partners away from this event. Plus, they won a soft tip pairs title a mere week ago.

Only one player could win this though, and the damage was done in the first four legs. Lukas Wenig out of the blocks getting past the half way point without response from Franz, and averaging 113 for his blistering start made things so hard for his friend.

There was a brief repost from Rötzsch taking legs 5 and 6 in 29 darts, but after that the favourite for the match took no time in wrapping up a 7-3 win, tipping the ton average with a 56 on tops for the match.

In the half of the draw that sees four players who have never played at Ally Pally, Wenig lays down the marker. With one quarter final left, only one person is left that has played in London at Christmas, and that’s Hempel.

Niko Springer v Ricardo Pietreczko (Best of 13 legs)

Miraculously, after so many games this week, this is the first time they have played each other. This after 24 games each.

It was without a doubt the best fixture of the last 8, and it didn’t disappoint. It went all the way.

Each player had a three leg burst, but at 4-4 the worst leg of the match was 18 darts and it would remain that way until the end.

From the end of leg 8, we would see nothing but holds of throw and vitally it was Springer who would hold on. Heartbreak for Ricardo but he still has a chance of making the world championship via the PDPA tour card holder qualifier in a few weeks.

Niko showed class averaging 94 and taking most of his chances without hesitation. We have known it all year, but he has real potential.

Semi-finals

Florian Hempel v Daniel Klose (Best of 15 legs)

The fact that the semi-finals had the three undefeated players from Group stage 1 is no shock. The cream rose to the top here on Friday.

At the first break in the game after 5-legs, it was Klose who got the jump at 4-1 up. It was a typical display from Daniel who didn’t play spectacularly, but he was given way too much space to thrive by Florian who could only find accuracy in leg two. An 11-darter was all he could muster and as for the rest, it was pretty ordinary.

At this stage however, it’s not about quality, it’s about staying power.

An audacious 80 checkout of tops tops started a charge for Hempel in leg 6, and after that it was a 12-dart break to get back within one and then he was level all of a sudden. It would remain that way after 10 legs. Best of five from here to the end. Game on!

As Hempel was sitting on tops for the match, Klose took out a 2-dart 85 to hang on at 7-6 down. Florian would be sitting on tops again to win, but Daniel this time took 60 in 2 and again its a last leg shootout.

With Klose having the darts, it was tense in leg 15. Hempel finally got his match dart at double 18, which he missed, but having another visit proved vital as he made his way to the final with a 16-darter. Now, who would he play?

Lukas Wenig v Niko Springer (Best of 15 legs)

Coming into this second semi-final, Springer had beaten Wenig twice in two meetings this week, but those group stage wins on Monday and Tuesday meant nothing going into this eliminator to play against Hempel in the final.

The first 5 legs were a myriad of what we would expect at this stage of the tournament. Both averaging in the mid 80’s and the worst leg proving to be the only break of throw in 21 darts by Springer. This one was always going to be close.

The tale of the tape from this magnificent game was that Niko Springer got the only break of throw in 14 legs. He was always in control after that break and he left his best finish until his very last 3 darts, taking 134 with two treble 17’s and double 16.

The fact that there was 0.03 between Niko’s two averages states just how consistent he is feeling and he will now take on Hempel for a place at the palace.

Final

Florian Hempel v Niko Springer (Best of 19 legs)

Statistically the best two players of the week played in this final, so maybe averages don’t lie.

Again, their first meeting of the week and it’s a chance at redemption for Flo who lost in last years finale after missing multiple match darts against Martin Schindler.

This is the biggest game of Niko’s life, so how he is feeling internally right now will be answered quickly.

At the first break, it was 3-2 Springer after a very shaky 5th leg. Things are also getting tense backstage between the two, and maybe that’s just a sign of how important this match has become for the two. As for why they were exchanging words, you’d have to ask them because my German isn’t proficient enough.

If you weren’t able to see the final, Hempel was wearing a shirt that made him look like a cross between “Where’s Wally” and a gondola captain. Very fetching!

As for where’s the target, it was all Springer in the middle of the match as he stretched himself taking six straight legs, until a 12-darter for Hempel stopped the rot.

At 6-4 Niko, you think its going to be deja vu for Flo just like 2021, but winning the last two legs of that mini session kept him in with a shout. Especially hitting double one with Niko on tops in leg 10.

It was 6-6 in a flash, and the climax of the whole week is upon them. I personally think it’s not just about talent, but about stamina in what is most definitely one of the most gruelling qualifying methods for Christmas darts.

Florian takes his second 12-darter of the match to have a lead for the first time since leg 2, and its getting very spicy both on and off the stage, as multiple interruptions due to fan exuberance are putting the players off.

Florian Hempel never relinquished the lead when he got it back, and after missing a 157 for the win, he came back and pierced double 10 to make sure the ghost of 2021 was exorcised.

I do not think any love was lost between the two as there was no handshake, no congratulations backstage and Springer sprung out of there like a coiled…………well, you get the picture.

Florian Hempel will go to Ally Pally AGAIN, but has won the Interwetten PDC Europe Super League for the first time. He becomes the 8th different winner in 9 years and I would have to say, it didn’t disappoint. It never does because if you like marathon sessions of this sport, it really doesn’t come any better than this.

Now that this is over, we all have license to get a little bit excited about North London at Christmas. Florian will, but he calls it “Weinachten.”