Richard Veenstra
Wikipedia - Richard Veenstra
Richard Veenstra (born 10 July 1981) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Veenstra previously participated in British Darts Organisation (BDO) and World Darts Federation (WDF) tournaments. He won 12 BDO/WDF singles titles, including in the 2019 Dutch Open and 2016 WDF Europe Cup. He the runner-up at the 2019 BDO World Trophy and 2018 Finder Darts Masters.
Veenstra obtained a PDC Tour Card in 2023, and reached the last 32 in his PDC World Championship debut in 2024. He has reached five quarter-finals in Players Championship events.
He was also a two-time world championship semi-finalist at Lakeside, reaching the last four at the 2016 BDO World Championship and the 2022 WDF World Championship.
History
BDO/WDF
In October 2014, Veenstra won the Luxembourg Open beating Mark Oosterhuis in the Final 6–4. He reached the semi-finals of the 2015 Denmark Masters and England Open. In October 2015, he won WDF World Cup Pairs with Wesley Harms to beat Scott Mitchell and Mark McGeeney 6–3. On his debut at the 2016 BDO World Darts Championship, Veenstra caused an upset beating compatriot and third seed Jeffrey de Graaf 3–2 in the first round, before beating English player Martin Atkins comfortably 4–0 in the second round. Veenstra then defeated defending champion Scott Mitchell 5–3 to reach the semi-finals, which he narrowly lost to Jeff Smith 6–5.
In September 2016, Veenstra won the WDF Europe Cup singles by beating Jim Williams in the final 7–5, averaging 93.18. In September 2018, he won both the BDO British Open and BDO British Classic in the same weekend.
At the 2022 WDF World Darts Championship, Veenstra recorded the highest three dart average in the venue's history with 104.91, to defeat Luke Littler 3–0 in the last 16. In the quarter-final he almost achieved a nine-dart finish en route to a 4–2 victory against Brian Raman, but missed double 12. Veenstra was defeated in his semi-final match against Neil Duff, losing 5–2.
PDC
At 2023 European Q-School, Veenstra secured a PDC tour card for the 2023 and 2024 seasons by finishing second on the European Q-School Order of Merit.
Veenstra enjoyed a run to the third round at the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship in his tournament debut year. Having defeated Ben Robb and the seeded Kim Huybrechts, he fell to a 0–4 whitewash defeat to Dutch compatriot Michael van Gerwen.