Jules Van Dongen was the third American in action at Lakeside, when he took on Ryan de Vreede. Van Dongen, the 11th seed, was highly fancied to make a good showing here, and he started in superb fashion with a fabulous 177! However, de Vreede answered brilliantly with a 180! The pair came down together, but when Jules missed three at 32, de Vreede stepped up ro take the first leg. Soon it was 2-0.

The man from Missouri broke back in the third leg with a D7, and then stuck in a beautiful 13-darter to tie the set. The fifth leg went with the throw, and de Vreede was a set up.

Van Dongen raced into a 2-0 lead in the second set, only to see his opponent level at 2-2. A miss from 52 let de Vreede in to take a 2-0 set lead. The Seacoast Open champ again raced into a 2-0 lead in the third set, and despite Ryan taking the third leg, Jules pulled back to a one-set deficit.

Into the fourth, and Jules again won the first leg. However, this was to be the last winning double that he hit, and he was out by a score of 3-1. A disappointing finish to a match that was interrupted by power outages and lengthy delays due to technical issues, but Jules Van Dongen will be back for sure.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) sees the lone remaining American, Leonard Gates, take to the Lakeside stage. His match against Steve Hine starts at 3.00pm local time.

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