Wednesday night at the Winter Gardens has a lot to live up to following the incredible scenes seen yesterday, but there's still a decent evening's darts to come.
The opening game features two sulkers in Northern Ireland's Daryl Gurney and Isle of Wight's Keegan Brown. Superchin made some silly errors against Ricky Evans which made the eventual 10-7 scoreline far closer than it should have been, while the Needle's 63% on the outer ring saw him eliminate Wales' Jonny Clayton.
The sole all-English affair puts the biggest first round upsetter Stephen Bunting against Stoke's #1 dab sensation Ian White. The Bullet stunned Gerwyn Price in the second ever last leg decider in Blackpool, whereas it was far easier for the Diamond as Joe Cullen yet again crashed and burned in the first round of a TV tournament.
What could be a reprise of MVG v Durrant from last night follows with former World Champion Rob Cross against former World Masters winner Krzysztof Ratajski. Voltage produced yet another deceptively brilliant performance to thrash Chris Dobey, while the Polish Eagle disposed of little Darren Webster with ease; if both play to their top form, this will be a cracker.
Ending the last 16 are the bearded crowd favourites in "Scottish" Peter Wright and Australia's Simon Whitlock. Snakebite's high-quality battle with Vincent van der Voort saw him prevail with a 102 average, but the Wizard had to fend off the huge Scotsman John Henderson and his 101 average; Whitlock produced some of his best darts for a long time but will need to keep at it if he's to end Wright's 19 match unbeaten run.
Coverage starts from 7:00pm UK time on Sky Sports Action.
>Tonight’s matches (Best of 21 legs) Daryl "Sweet C4-line" Gurney (3) v Keegan "I would love it if we beat them" Brown BUNT MAN v Ian "Three litres of Diamond" White (10) Rob "BAuLDtism" Cross (2) v Krzysztof "Polish polish" Ratajski Snakeshite (6) v STRAYA (11)
All matches must be won by 2 clear legs, with up to 5 extra legs played to decide a winner. If the match is tied after 5 extra legs, a final sudden death leg will be played.
I wonder why noodles always come in such tiny portions. I know that in italy noodles are only appetizer sometimes, but it's like that everywhere... go to dinner in a restaurant, order noodles, leave hungry. Errytime.
White deserves more respect White a honest man, with hard work and a continuous focus on the highest quality he has conquered the world ranking he has today
Americans call pasta noodles, so presumably he's picked it up from there.
Logan Bailey
Once he gets to a major semi-final then he'll be deserving of it.
Xavier James
hes right, those kaasouffle things are amazing
Justin Edwards
Copying something from the Americans isn't an excuse.
Jordan Ward
Ffs my broadcast has been missing the sound after the last break
Eli Martinez
why is BUNT so shit, lads
Colton Torres
Pasta is something people here say when they want to sound cosmopolitan, just like al dente - something people like to say because it sounds nice and it's one of the few non-German/English words where they actually know the meaning. Pasta is the stuff I put on my toothbrush. So for me it's noodles all the way. Nothing american to it.
Ethan Thomas
comeback
Landon Anderson
...
Evan Butler
But noodles and pasta are different things.
Luke Robinson
*makes italian hand motion*
Tyler White
>But noodles and pasta are different things. What is the difference? Post a pic of noodles, please.
FUTURE GOAT IS BACK, BABY FUTURE GOAT IS BACK, BABY FUTURE GOAT IS BACK, BABY FUTURE GOAT IS BACK, BABY FUTURE GOAT IS BACK, BABY FUTURE GOAT IS BACK, BABY FUTURE GOAT IS BACK, BABY FUTURE GOAT IS BACK, BABY FUTURE GOAT IS BACK, BABY FUTURE GOAT IS BACK, BABY
reee shave his clown hair off, he's probably like Samson
Blake Williams
THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX THE MAX
>Duzza gets Snacky, Autismo and Brexit hell of a draw gets easier in the semis
Joshua White
So just the one upset as all the other favourites went through with very little fuss.
Daryl Gurney was the only seed to really be troubled by an equally poor Keegan Brown. Superchin went 3-0 up in a doubling disaster for both and it was a lead he never relinquished as the Needle struggled to do anything against the Gurney throw, only managing to break twice. Daryl won 10-7 but his 93 average won't get him much further in the tournament.
Ian White's terrible TV days continue as he managed to lose from 9-4 up and missed 5 match darts to be eliminated by Stephen Bunting. The Bullet grabbed the early break for a 3-2 lead but then won just 1 leg from the next 8 as Diamond capitalised on slack play from Bunting. Stephen then did the same to win 4 legs in a row but missed 3 darts to level up the match and went 8-10 behind. Three misses at D16 saw the former Lakeside champ get it back to 9-10 and then levelled following another pair of missed match darts for White. Two holds and breaks saw it go to 12-12, but a pair of horrendous busts on D16 and D11 with 16 left for Ian saw him eventually go out 14-12.
Rob Cross disposed of Krzysztof Ratajski with ease in an 11-5 shellacking. The Polish Eagle hit a 160 to go 2-0 up but Voltage electrocuted him, winning 9 legs straight as Ratajski couldn't get close. Cross only conceded a further 3 legs to finally progress to the quarter-finals after two last 16 eliminations in a row in Blackpool.
Peter Wright extended his winning streak to 20 matches with an 11-2 annihilation of an appalling Simon Whitlock. Snakebite only allowed the Wizard a single attempt at a double in the first mini-session and won it 5-0 with a 170 finish hit in leg 3. Whitlock finally got on the board in leg 6 but he only won one further leg as Wright completed the rout with a 103.01 average and 55% on the doubles, an amazing SIXTEEN POINTS higher than his Australian opponent.
