van Gerwen and Vincent van der Voort made their PDC debuts at this event reaching the last 16. Jelle Klaasen reached the last 32. 21 – Michael van Gerwen becomes the first player to beat Raymond van Barneveld since his world title win ending his run of successive victories at 21 matches. Van Gerwen was also the last player to beat van Barneveld back in November. He lost in the quarter-finals to Alan Warriner-Little. Andy Hamilton won his first PDC pro tour title with a final win over Colin Lloyd. 27 – Tony Eccles wins the German Gold Cup in Bremen beating Dutchman Remco van Eijden by 3 sets to 1 to claim the €700 first prize. Heike Ernst beat Thea Kaaijk to take the women's title. 28 – Chris White wins the Las Vegas Open, a category two BDO event beating John Kuczynski in the final. John Part and Wes Newton teamed up to win the pairs events and also the cricket doubles. The women's title was won by Stacy Bromberg. February 1 – The Holsten Premier League gets underway with wins for Raymond van Barneveld, Dennis Priestley and Peter Manley. Phil Taylor was on the verge of his first ever Premier League defeat but extended his unbeaten run to 29 matches with a 7–7 draw against Roland Scholten. 3 – Kevin Painter wins the non-ranking PDC event JR 128 Plus tournament in Eastbourne defeating Wes Newton 5–4 in the final. 3 – John Markovic, former manager of Bob Anderson and Richie Gardner dies following a long illness. The Serbian-born businessman also contributed to the formation of the WDC (now the PDC) in 1992. 4 – Scott Waites, from Yorkshire, wins the BDO Dutch Open (his first major title) in Veldhoven – coming through a field of 2867 players to win the €4,500 first prize. Trina Gulliver took the women's singles title. 4 – Dennis Smith claimed the PDC Eastbourne Open title with a victory over Shayne Burgess. 6 – Mervyn King announces that he is following his stablemates Klaasen, van Gerwen and van der Voort by switching to the PDC. The BDO consider taking legal action as King (along with Klaasen) have signed contracts to play in the 2008 BDO World Championship. 8 – Phil Taylor is held to a draw for the second week running in the Premier League this time by Dennis Priestley. Raymond van Barneveld