Jermaine Wattimena has taken a swipe at Ryan Joyce after the Englishman's luggage troubles contributed to a 6-3 defeat in the opening round of the European Championship in Dortmund. Wattimena, the 2024 finalist, threatened a whitewash as he raced into a 5-0 lead, but had to settle for a commendable 6-3 scoreline after Joyce staged an attempted comeback.
'The Machine Gun' took out checkouts of 106 and 120 as the normally clinical Joyce spurned a number of chances. Wattimena led 5-0, but seven missed match darts allowed Joyce to claw his way back into the contest. At the ninth time of asking, Wattimena got over the line. Speaking to the media, including DartsNews, the Dutchman lamented his sloppy ending despite the win. "To be honest, I think I let myself down in the match because he came back," he said. "I think Ryan let himself down as well because he missed some doubles. I hit mine, and then the game went a different way. What can I say? It wasn't that good a game because when we play each other, it's always a difficult match. I'm just a little bit happier that I won the game."
Joyce had the unfortunate caveat that his regular darts equipment and clothing were not in Dortmund, having taken a different route not to the supposed location. He was forced to find some replica darts which he would not be able to use to good use with an uncharacteristic number of doubles missed. This topic was posed to Wattimena, who had a perspective on this. "That's a question. To be honest, when you travel a lot in darts, I think — and we probably travel to England more often than we travel here — you have to be prepared. What I always do is put my shirt, my treasure, my darts and everything I need in my backpack. So I've always got my clothes when I arrive. If my suitcase is lost, I can still play darts with my own darts and wear my own shirt. I've got everything I need. But there are some darts players who never learn."
He explained how he does this. "Because you can take your points out," he commented. "Most darts players can take their points out now and carry their darts in their hand luggage as well. There's no problem at all."
Wattimena reached the final back in 2024, where he lost to Ritchie Edhouse. He has special memories of Dortmund and is most certainly fond of the city. "I come to Dortmund a lot, so it's not that far away from me. And you know that I support Dortmund as well. I watch the matches, I play here at night, and I do a lot here in Dortmund. I've got friends in Dortmund as well."
For him to get back on the big stage and win was a step in the right direction. He has not kicked on to the levels he would have hoped for in 2026 but there is still time to turn that round. "I know what you mean. I think you're 100% right. My floor tournaments have been better than my TV tournaments. That's what you're saying, and you're right about that. But I know I can perform on stage. I play well. I want to show that I can play well on stage. If I can reproduce on stage what I can do on the floor, I think I'll be a more dangerous player."
Wattimena is now in the second round of the European Championship. Dutch darts is in a very good place, with the likes of Gian van Veen, Wessel Nijman, Danny Noppert, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Kevin Doets leading the next wave of talent. "What you're saying is that I'm a little bit lower down the pecking order than the other Dutch players?" he questioned. "But when we talk among all the Dutch players, we know where we stand, to be honest. We also know that Kevin is a really good player. We talk a lot with each other, and we practise together sometimes, like at this tournament. So I don't think so. I don't think it's an important factor when there are Dutch players ranked above you, if you know what I mean."
The world number 17 admitted that the media expectation and attention was less than the top players such as van Veen, who is the reigning champion. "No, not at all. When you're high up in the rankings, like Gian, you get more media experience than I do, or Kevin, or someone else."
