The Austrian pairing of Mensur Suljovic and recent PDC Youth Tour finalist Rowby John Rodriguez was a potential banana skin for the Belgians Kim and Ronny Huybrechts but both brothers overcame their respective obstacles with relative ease, winning 4-1 and 4-0.
Lanky lefty Darin Young cranked up the pressure on Phil Taylor after he upset the odds by comfortably beating Adrian Lewis 4-1, but the Power refused to let down Queen and country as he beat old foe Larry Butler by a similar scoreline to take the tie to a final foursome. England came through unscathed as they doubled up to keep themselves on course.
It was a much easier path into the quarters for MVG and RVB as they both recorded 4-1 wins, with Barney averaging a very healthy 104, as it also was for Scotland as Wright and Thornton who eliminated the Swedes, including Magnus Caris, by winning 4-1 and 4-0.
An incredible 13 missed match-winning doubles
for Mark Webster against Krzysztof
Chmielewski saw the Welsh trail 1-nil going
into the tie’s final game of singles. Thankfully
for Webby, Richie Burnett held his nerve,
breaking in leg five and hitting tops to win
and give themselves a final chance of
setting-up a clash with Australia. At 3-3 things
weren’t looking so rosy, but Webster finally
found his form by hitting a 112 checkout when
it mattered most.
The Australians had a similarly hard time progressing as Paul Nicholson failed to replicate Simon Whitlock’s success in singles against Hong Kong, only for the pair to impose a whitewash in the decisive match.
QUARTER FINALS
.
ROUND ONE:
A tasty affair was in prospect as Northern Ireland and Scotland prepared to arrow off against one another with Premier League participants Wright and Thornton favourites to make the final four, but their dreams of reappearing on stage later in the night weren’t to come to fruition.
With neither player keen to surrender their throw, something had to give in the game between Brendan Dolan and Peter Wright and it did as the Ulsterman hit 55 in the final leg to break for a hard-earned 4-3 victory.
lands would take a 1-0 lead going into the second singles match, Kim had differing thoughts, exploding into life, hitting a 64 bull finish, 160 checkout and 84 outshot on his way to an unthinkable comeback win of 4-2.
Four breaks of throw in the first four legs highlighted the pressure that RVB and Ronny were under but when the elderHuybrechts missed the middle red bit
Robert Thornton responded in emphatic fashion by recording a match average of 110 though it was still only enough to give him a win over Mickey Mansell by the narrowest of margins, 4-3.
Something very special would be required if Northern Ireland were to prevail in pairs and that’s exactly what Dolan produced as ton plus finishes of 156 and a 136 in legs three and five gave them a memorable 4-1 victory, leading to Mansell springing upwards in delight on the stage.
With Michael van Gerwen two legs to the good against Kim Huybrechts it looked a formality that the Nethe