game out of the way, because it’s a bit of a sprint in
the first round, and I can relax a bit on Saturday
night now.”
Robert Thornton had the full backing of his
home crowd as he took on Andy Hamilton, with
the Stoke-based thrower at times receiving
boos from the crowd. In the end the booing
seemed to get to Hamilton and despite some at
times excellent darts under extreme pressure, he
let an early lead slip to end up on the wrong end
of a 6-4 scoreline.
“I wasn’t at my best there but I got the result,”
admitted Thornton. “I was quite relaxed
coming into the tournament, even being on
home soil, but it didn’t quite happen and I’m
just reliev