The Darts Shop

 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.