Maria starts her 2018 campaign today in Holland

PLYMOUTH’S top lady darts player Maria O’Brien begins her 2018 international campaign today when she competes in the Bauhaus Dutch Open at De Bonte Wever in Assen.

The Dutch Open, which was held for the first time in 1973, is the largest open darts tournament in the world and will boast prizemoney in just the two ladies’ events of 9,750 Euros.

No fewer than 5,500 darts players from across the world will compete in all events and for the first time in its history, will include a tournament for paradarters.

Maria will compete first in the ladies’ doubles with partner Deta Hedman and the duo will be hoping to replicate their success of 2017.

GOING DUTCH: Maria O'Brien will begin her 2018 campaign when she competes in both the ladies' singles and doubles events at the Dutch Open which starts today in Assen.

The two players only came together as doubles partners last year but won the Swedish pairs title when defeating the all-Dutch combination of Aileen de Graaf and Sharon Prins 4-2 in the final.

In September, O’Brien and Hedman won the Winmau BDO British Open Pairs title at The Spa, Bridlington with another accomplished performance.

They played five matches in getting to the final, dropping just a single leg along the way, before they edged out Dobromyslova and Winstanley 3-2 in the final.

The draw has not been kind to them though and in the opening round, have been paired against the reigning BDO World champion Lisa Ashton and her daughter Danielle.

The singles competition will commence tomorrow morning and Maria will be on board 11 where she will begin her assault on the title against Priscilla Groeneweg of The Netherlands.

She will be hoping to pick up good ranking points so that she can qualify at the end of the year once again for the BDO World Championships.

The last 64 from all events will be contested on the final day and the finals will be broadcast live and free by Winmau TV.

The link for the televised finals is: http://www.winmau.com/sec/1391/WINMAU_TV/

The English times for the televised finals in the two events that Maria is playing in is as follows.

11.45am – Ladies Pairs Final, best of seven legs.

15.30pm – Ladies Singles Final, best of nine legs.