The Darts Shop

ADRIAN Lewis headed home to the Potteries today after his bid to conquer the world shattered after a thrilling shoot-out at Alexandra Palace.
The number seven seed from Cross Heath made a second-round exit from the PDC Ladbrokes.com world championship after Paul Nicholson came through a thriller in a seventh set tie break.
Lewis finished the match with an average of 96.33 having hit 10 maximum 180s, but it wasn’t enough to take him through to the last 16.
Lewis led the match for the first time at 3-2 and after the Australian-based Geordie drew level to force a deciding set, both players had their chances to take a grip on the match.
Nicholson missed a dart at double 18 to win the contest in the fourth leg and four more attempts were off target in the next.
Lewis cashed in to send the match into a tie break at 2-2 – and then he missed crucial doubles to lead 3-2 and then 4-3.
Nicholson held his nerve to sink back-to-back finishes of 129 and 121 to win the decisive set 6-4.
Lewis shrugged: “It wasn’t my day and I’m going back to the practice board. Every time I had the chance to go in front I would wire the double and I couldn’t put them any closer.
“He played well and deserved to win. He took out some good shots.”
Nicholson announced his arrival as a force during November’s PartyPoker.net Grand Slam of Darts where he claimed the scalp of BDO number one Gary Anderson and incensed many in the crowd before bowing out in the group stages.
He responded to Lewis starting the match with an 11-darter by taking out 125 and went on to win the opening set.
Lewis levelled with the aid of two maximum 180s and then pegged back to 2-2 after Nicholson won the third before ‘Jackpot’ went ahead for the first time in the match.
Nicholson said: “It was a scrap from start to finish and there wasn’t anything between me and Adie. I had the game in my hands, then let it go and won it back again.”

WELSHMAN Barrie Bates stormed into the quarter-finals of the Ladbrokes.com World Championship at Alexandra Palace with a stunning victory over Mark Dudbridge.

Bates followed Phil ’The Power’ Taylor – a 4-1 winner over Kevin Painter – into the last eight with a crushing 4-0 success over his English opponent.

The Bedlinog man, who is enjoying his best run in the Worlds after shaking off a nagging foot injury, was always in control against Dudbridge and afterwards thanked the crowd for supporting him.

“The English fans have been great. I’m the only Welshman up there, but they have stood by me. I wasn’t fancied to get this far, but I know I’ve got the game in me and I’m getting better and better,” said the former lorry driver, who will next meet the winner of the third round clash between Dennis Smith and Mervyn King.

As for Taylor and Painter, the duo memorably met in one of the most enthralling finals of this tournament in 2004, when Taylor won in sudden death, but there was no repeat of that drama as ‘The Power’ ominously swept a nervy-looking 17th seed aside.

Taylor broke the match open with a run of 10 consecutive legs after Painter had won the opening set.

It was a performance to give Taylor hope of claiming his first title at this tournament since 2006 and add to his record tally of 11 PDC crowns.

Taylor will meet the winner of this afternoon’s match between eighth seed Wayne Mardle and Co Stompe in the quarter-finals.

James Wade progressed to the third round with a 4-2 win against Tony Eccles, although it was not a convincing display from the world number three.

Wade struggled for consistency throughout, but held his nerve at the key moments to hold off the challenge of his Hartlepool rival.

Next up for Wade will be Dutchman Vincent van der Voort after he beat Colin Osborne 4-1 in yesterday’s afternoon session.

Paul Nicholson caused a shock when he ousted sixth seed Adrian Lewis 4-3 in their second-round match.

Phil Taylor tonight goes head-to-head with one of his biggest rivals – and says he's planning to dish out a trouncing.
'The Power' from the Potteries and Kevin Painter write another chapter in their rivalry when they meet at the Alexandra Palace with a place in the quarter-finals of the PDC Ladbrokes.com world championship at stake.
Taylor set up tonight's clash by handing Dutch teenager Michael van Gerwen a 4-0 hammering in the second round on Saturday night and has dropped only three legs on his way through to the last 16.
He warned Painter: "If he doesn't play well, I'm going to trounce him. Kevin's a competitor, he never gives in, but I'm here to win back the world championship."
Taylor has done that 13 times before and had to hold off a tremendous challenge from Painter in the 2004 final before coming through in sudden death in the 13th set.
Twelve months later, their quarter-final shoot-out at the Circus Tavern ended in a post-match bust up that led to both being fined.
Painter was incensed by Taylor completing a 5-1 thrashing by checking out on the bulls-eye when he was left 50 – and it was a bulls-eye finish that took 'The Power' through to tonight's show down.
He finished his demolition of Van Gerwen with a 121 finish and a 102.57 average.
Van Gerwen had missed a dart at a double to beat him in the first round last year and Taylor suffered no such alarms when they met again.
Taylor, beaten only four times in the 15-year history of the PDC event, started the match with a 103 finish and hit top gear in the second set.
He started it with a 10-dart leg after starting with back-to-back 180s, won the second leg with a 105 check out and wrapped up the set in 13 darts.
He went on to finish the match in style and said: "I'm pleased with my form. Michael's got a lot to learn, but he was playing the master. I wanted to keep him under pressure and I did that."
Painter, involved in a bust-up with Potteries thrower Adrian Lewis in April that led to both being handed suspended bans, reached the last 16 with a 4-1 win over Carlos Rodriguez from Spain, having been taken all the way to a sudden death final leg by Matt Clark in the first round.

Andy Hamilton overcame a scare against qualifier Tony Ayres before keeping his world championship bid on track.

The No.7 seed from Stoke trailed 2-1 against the newcomer from Sussex, only to reel off three straight sets to book his place in the last 16 at London's Alexandra Palace.

He will now face the young Dutch ace Jelle Klaasen, who later whitewashed his compatriot Jan vander Rassel.

Hamilton struggled early on, but found some fine form as the contest progressed to land eight 180s and an impressive six ton-plus finishes, including the highest possible checkout of 170.

"I finished well and that's what won me the game," said Hamilton. "Some of the finishes hurt him but I need to get the whole package together now."

Barrie Bates and Ronnie Baxter also booked their last-16 spots. Bates matched Hamilton's six ton-plus finishes in ending the hopes of American Bill Davis, who had knocked out defending champion John Part last week but went down to a 4-2 loss.

Baxter took an impressive 4-1 win over Denis Ovens, coming from a set down to set up a third round meeting with world No.2 Raymond van Barneveld.

Ovens ultimately paid the price for six missed darts for the fourth set, which would have levelled the game but saw him fall 3-1 down as Baxter pulled through for victory.

"It was very much a case of job done," said Baxter. "I gave away the first set, which was a bit unlike me but I relaxed as the game went on.

"The fourth set was important and in the last set I played how I would like to all the time.

"It's been a long time since I've done that on stage and I can go a long way if I stay relaxed and do that again."

The ice man
Of the guys that have reached the last 16, so far the most impressive has been Barney. He's gone back to the darts he used when he first came to the PDC and he now looks like the most comfortable player in the tournament.

I reckon it's all down to ice skates...

Barney is apparently a keen ice skater and he has been studying speed skating to improve his darts technique. He's looked at the way that speed skaters lean forward and allow their foot to leave the skate and he's applied that to the art of releasing a dart.

As the Sky Sports flight cam shows, if you release the dart too early then the parabola will be too high - but if you take your hand off too early and "push the dart" then it will fly lower.

But a bit like Robert Stephenson watching a kettle, Barney has figured out how a skate can stay on the ice while the ankle flexes. He's applied that technology to darts and his release is now better than ever before.

Now that his release is perfect, the other things that use to faze him - like the crowd and the venue - don't bother him. He needed a Zen Master to win two years ago, but he looks as cool as anything right now.
Top of the Klaas
The man that looks the most inspired up there is another Dutchman, Jelle Klaasen.

This Cristiano Ronaldo look-a-like is a very cool dude who was world champion at the age of 21. I sometimes wonder how his darts go in because he lifts his back leg up like a ballet dancer and twists his shoulder as he throws - yet on Sunday night he had about nine 180s and he's been very, very impressive.

One has to say Wayne Mardle is looking strong. He shared twenty 180s with Robert Thornton on Saturday night which is remarkable when you consider that in the first world championship in 1978 there were only 37 in the entire tournament.

Wayne has shaken off his show-pony image once and for all and has proved he is a battler. Not only that, but he's worked out the equation to balance show business and efficient darts.

As for Phil Taylor, I still think he throws his new shorter darts slightly wrong when he's under pressure, causing it to dip around the double 16.

His muscle memory seems to be troubling him and we haven't seen the best of him yet. Maybe we'll see it against Kevin Painter, who is notorious for his verbals on stage.

The problem is he sometimes puts himself off as much as the other player, but he seems to have refined that in this tournament. Taylor v Painter should be a classic on Monday night.

Phil Taylor of England stepped up his challenge in the Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship with a 4-0 defeat of Michael van Gerwen of the Netherlands on Saturday night.

Taylor, the world No. 1 and 13-time World Champion, dropped just three legs and averaged 102.5 against a helpless van Gerwen.

"I'm very pleased," said Taylor. "Every time he hit a big shot I wanted to match him and put him under pressure, and I did that.

"He's got a lot to learn yet but he was playing the Master. I'm here to win the World Championship and I really want this title."

Taylor now meets fellow Englishman Kevin Painter on Monday night in a repeat of the 2004 World Championship final, which the Stoke legend won in a sudden-death leg.

Painter booked his place in the last 16 with a 4-1 defeat of Spain's Carlos Rodriguez, while another former finalist, Mark Dudbridge of England, saw off Austrian Mensur Suljovic in straight sets.

Dennis Smith of England earned a spot in the third round by coming from 3-0 down to win 4-3 against 23-year-old Englishman Kevin McDine, while Holland's Co Stompe defeated number nine seed England's Alan Tabern 4-1.

England's Wayne Mardle - a five-time World Championship semi-finalist - set up a third round clash with Stompe after edging past Robert Thornton in a seven-set thriller.

Mardle led 3-1 before Thornton hit back to level, but the Romford ace who hit four ton-plus finishes in the game - delighted the 2,500 crowd at Alexandra Palace by winning the deciding set 3-1 to progress.

"I should have won 4-1 but Robert was great and came back strongly," said Mardle. "I was just relieved to get through at the end but the crowd were amazing and I couldn't have won without them."
Mark Dudbridge completed a 4-0 victory over Mensur Suljovic although the scoreline did not do justice to the Austrian.

Suljovic, who beat three-time finalist Peter Manley in the previous round, pushed his opponent all the way but it was by delivering on the big darts that the 20th seed went through.

 Tony Eccles and Colin Osborne remain on course for a last 16 collision at the Labrokes.com World Championship after producing contrasting performances to reach the second round.

Eccles scraped past Remco van Eijden 3-2, having lost the plot at the halfway point after initially powering into a 2-0 lead.

But it was easy street for Osborne, who took out a tournament-high 167 finish on the way to demolishing van Eijden’s fellow qualifier Charles Losper 3-0.

These two will meet in the third round if they win their next matches on Monday, when Eccles faces James Wade and Osborne tackles Vincent van der Voort.

Kirk Shepherd was threatening to quit darts and go back to his old day job after his shock first-round defeat.

Shepherd, the £5.25-an-hour sheet metal worker who reached last year's final at the Ladbrokes.com world championship, was hammered 3-2 by Dutchman Jan van der Rassel.

Never reaching the standards which catapulted an unseeded 21-year-old into the final against John Part 12 months ago, Shepherd admitted: "I am sick. I had a couple of chances to get myself into the match but I blew it.

"I think I'm going to go back to work - I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I've had so many ups and downs over the last year and it hasn't done me any favours. I've earned about £15,000 in prize money on the circuit since I joined the PDC full-time, and I won £50,000 for reaching the final - but you soon go through it."

Shepherd has struggled to land the arrows on target, and was always behind against qualifier van der Rassel.

FIRST ROUND RESULTS

Tony Ayres (Eng) bt Andy Smith (Eng) 3-2,

Paul Nicholson (Aus) bt Adrian Gray (Eng) 3-0,

Jan van der Rassel (Ned) bt Kirk Shepherd (Eng) 3-2,

Tony Eccles (Eng) bt Remco Van Eijden (Ned) 3-2,

Ronnie Baxter (Eng) bt Marko Kantele (Fin) 3-1.

Jelle Klaasen condemned Colin Lloyd to his third first round exit in four years at the Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship with a comfortable straight sets triumph.

Klaasen powered to an impressive victory on Monday by winning eight straight legs to romp to victory.

The Dutchman took the opening leg before Colchester-born Lloyd landed a maximum on his way to levelling – and hit another in the next only for Klaasen to reply in kind with a 180 of his own to edge in front.

Klaasen then took the fourth leg against the darts to grab the first set and a 1-0 lead.

Klaasen, who suffered a sudden-death first round defeat to fellow Dutchman Vincent van der Voort last year, won the opening leg of the second set against the darts with a 70 finish.

He then doubled his lead after Lloyd missed two darts at double top, and a 14-darter gave him set two and a commanding lead.

Klaasen – a victor against Lloyd in the recent European Championship – won the first two legs of set three in convincing fashion to punish Lloyd further, hitting a 13 darter in the second.

And the end was swift as Klaasen landed double eight.

Veteran John MaGowan put his straight-sets triumph over Chris Mason at the World Darts Championship down to a spot of practice in his garden shed after winning his first-round clash.

The 67-year-old, who came through qualifiers last month to earn his place, outclassed Mason, a finalist in three PDC Pro Tour events this year.

A finish of 70 in two darts gave him the first set at London's Alexandra Palace before Mason found some form to run him close in the second.

MaGowan, who clinched the third despite missing four doubles, said: "It's my best win, certainly in a World Championship. I've been practising hard for this. I've a shed at home and have been in there ever since I qualified, and with plenty of local players too. "It's sharpened me up and that showed."

Finland's Marko Kantele, making his debut in the competition, beat Lourence Ilagan 5-2 in the final preliminary match to set up a clash with Ronnie Baxter.

Last year's surprise runnerup Kirk Shepherd is confident he can clinch the title. He said: "I was an unknown outsider but always believed in my ability and this year I'm looking to go one better. I gave up my job as a sheet metal worker to put in more practice."

He has a tough task in round one against Jan van der Rassel.

Adrian Lewis hit eight 180s in a 3-1 win over Russell Stewart, but said: "I lost concentration at times."

Well, despite all of the hype, and a valiant effort, Anastasia Dobromyslova, nicknamed "From Russia With Love", says goodbye to the Ladbrokes.com PDC World Championship.

Dobromyslova gaveRemco van Eijden some serious cause for concern during this fascinating encounter, but the Dutchman, also a qualifier, eventually picked up his game to win 5-3 in their preliminary-round match.

Dobromyslova gave a good account of herself. She came on stage to Girls, a Sugababes song, and each throw was accompanied by enthusiastic applause from the crowd. Van  Eijden fared less well and faced a constant, if good humoured, barracking. 

The crowd erupted when Dobromyslova took the first leg against the darts. But she then hit a rough patch, but clawed her way back to 3-3 to the crowd's great pleaseure. She also  threw a maximum 180 in the fifth leg, winning it in an impressive 13 darts — showing that she has the class and talent to play at this level.

She got close to forcing a tie-break but she narrowly missed an 81 checkout.

Dobromyslova and the Dutchman were evenly matched, both with averages of about 80, but it was her doubles that let her down.

We will see more of the Russian when she plays in a tournament in Doncaster next month. Dobromyslova switched to the PDC after leaving the  BDO this month. 

As far as other results for the day go:

Peter Manley, the No 13 seed and three-times finalist, was beaten 3-2 by Mensur Sulijovic in yet another surprise result.

 Andy Hamilton progressed to the second round in straightforward fashion, an average of over 101 leading him to a 3-0 win against Michael Barnard.

Wayne Mardle took a fairly easy scalp in his opening-round match against David Fatum, 'Hawaii 501' lost only one leg and ended up winning 3-0 and setting up himself up for a second-round meeting with Robert Thornton.

Denis Ovens beat Steve Maish 3-0.

Charles Losper won 6-4 in his preliminary-round encounter with Sudesh Fitzgerald.

Mark Walsh took a 3-2 win over Jamie Caven but, no doubt, was gutted to miss the double 12 which would have given him a 9-dart finish - the first in the history of the PDC World Championship - not to mention a very tasty £20,000 bonus.

Well, a bit of a shocker on the opening night as defending champion John Part was ousted from the championship on the opening night of the Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship. Not just beaten, but thrashed by qualifier Bill Davis.

Davis, an American from Philadelphia, saw off his Canadian opponent 3-0 in front of an excited crowd at Alexandra Palace.

Davis was obviously overwhelmed by his victory, and in an interview with Sky Sports afterwards he said: "It's just crazy, this is amazing. Anything can happen here."

Part, seeded fourth this year, won the title last year,his third World Championship title, beating Kirk Shepherd, but he was well and trylly thrashed in this years opening round.

Davis, 49, hit a 116 finish to win the first set 3-1, and Part, despite hitting 5 180s in three legs to also lost the second.

The American led 2-1 into the second before Part levelled, but a double 10 gave him the biggest victory of his career.

Part, as ever, was the gentleman in defeat: "I had a chance of a good run in this tournament but I never got going," he said.

"I didn't get out of the gate and you can't afford to turn up and not be at your best. I was prepared but it's too hard to narrow it down to anything specific." he added philosophically.

Other casualties included; sixteenth seed Roland Scholten, beaten 3-2 by newcomer Carlos Rodriguez.

England's Wayne Jones, the 25th seed, lost 3-1 to Scottish Order of Merit qualifier Robert Thornton.

The night's final match produced another surprise, with England's 24th seed Andy Jenkins sent crashing 3-1 by Dutch qualifier Co Stompe.