“I played that exhibition purely on willpower, it was a tough day,” Van Veen said in the latest episode. On the Sunday after the final he was due to board a flight at 1:15 PM and land in Germany at 3:30 PM. However, he had a delay of over three hours, and then he also had to wait for his luggage. The tournament started at 8:00 PM, so he still had to rush. “I walked into the venue at 7:30 PM, so I was just in time,” the Dutchman laughed.
The evening itself didn’t go quite as Van Veen had expected either. He played pairs with Cathy Hummels, as the duos had to consist of a top darter and a celebrity. “She’s a presenter and she said she has OnlyFans and does pilates,” he recalled. “She also has almost 700,000 followers on social media, so I had to tag along everywhere to record videos. She was very nice, but she couldn’t play darts. We lost in the semi-finals and in two legs her highest score was 35. Quite often all three of her darts missed the board.”
There were highlights too. Both legs they won were finished by Hummels. The celebrities didn’t have to check out on a double, so she only had to hit the big segments. Once she found the big 12, and the other time she even hit tops. “I walked to the board to point out where it was. Then the referee told me I’d better tell her to hit two big segments. But I had full confidence and she just nailed that tops with her first dart. I was in stitches.”
Van Veen now has a few days off, but a proper holiday isn’t on the cards for the Dutch thrower. Van Veen was actually going to go on holiday, but his run to the final has put a line through that. Later this month he already has to report for the first two World Series events in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Still, he will sneak away for a few days. “It’s been five very busy days in this new year. I really can’t complain, not at all, but all the hustle that comes with it… I’m looking forward to catching a few days of sun.”
Van Veen climbed to third in the world rankings thanks to his strong World Darts Championship run
Whereas in the ‘old days’ players had the entire month of January off after the Worlds, the arrival of the World Series has ensured the elite are back in action immediately. Now that Van Veen has climbed to third in the world rankings, he’s part of that elite and will have to play again next week in Bahrain. He has had to adjust his plans accordingly. “It’s not going to be a holiday, that was just a bit too… The sun’s shining nicely in Dubai too, so I’ll head there for a few days.”
It will be Van Veen’s first time competing at these tournaments. He can learn a lot there and pick up more prize money, but it will likely mean skipping other events at times. “In recent years I always thought: ‘end of June you’ve got World Series and in August and January. Then you’ve got a nice break’. Well, that won’t happen this year. So I’ll have to skip some of the smaller tournaments to get my rest. That really is necessary,” said Van Veen.
His new position in the world rankings also means that besides trips to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, he’ll be able to travel to the World Series events in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. He wants to make the most of that opportunity. “Same as with the Worlds final: you don’t know how often you’ll be invited for things like this. So the first time, I’m doing them all.”
