Gary Anderson through to round three at World Darts Championship
Written by News on 15/12/2018
Gary Anderson kicked off his bid for a hat-trick of World Championship crowns by seeing off Northern Ireland’s Kevin Burness in four sets to reach the third round at Alexandra Palace on Friday.
‘The Flying Scotsman’ has enjoyed a wonderful 2018; securing maiden titles at the UK Open, World Matchplay and the Champions League of Darts, with his Blackpool triumph saw him complete the much-coveted ‘triple crown’.
But Anderson, who was beaten in the quarter-finals by Phil Taylor in 2018, was made to work hard against an inspired Burness to make it through.
Gary Anderson 3-1 Kevin Burness, Second Round
Anderson will be quietly confident of reaching his fourth World Championship final in five years, despite making a slow start to his campaign against County Down man Burness.
Burness had earlier ended Paul Nicholson’s hopes of a winning return to the World Championship. Three ton-plus finishes from ‘Ironman’ was enough to account for an out-of-sorts Nicholson during an afternoon session that saw the lights go out.
The 47-year-old darting thoroughbred Anderson was an altogether different prospect after winning a tight opening set with an assured 13-darter. But despite a wonderful 130 checkout from the Borders thrower it was Burness who surprisingly levelled up the match with a 16-dart break in the fourth leg of the next.
Despite failing to hit the heights, a visibly frustrated Anderson reeled off the next six legs, hitting seven 180s to complete victory. He will next meet the winner of the match between Michael Barnard or Jermaine Wattimena.
Chris Dobey 3-0 Boris Koltsov, First Round
Dobey headed into this event having reached his second major PDC quarter-final at the recent Players Championship Finals; beating Dave Chisnall and James Wade en route. And he continued his fine form by routing Russia’s World Cup captain Koltsov.
‘Hollywood’ converted a classy two-dart 65 finish on D16 to seal a clash against the legendary Steve Beaton in the next round.
Simon Stevenson 0-3 Ted Evetts, First Round
Evetts overcame a nervy finish against Stevenson to make it through to a meeting with two-time world champion Adrian Lewis in round-two.
‘Super Ted’ qualified via the Development Tour and the 21-year-old successfully registered his first World Championship victory with his ninth match dart after impressive checkouts of 108 and 120.
Danny Noppert 3-0 Royden Lam, First Round
Lakeside finalist Danny Noppert slaughtered Hong Kong’s World Cup star Lam to secure his place in the next round. The Dutchman has enjoyed a fine debut year on the PDC circuit; following up a Pro Tour victory in Dublin by reaching the semi-finals of last month’s Players Championship Finals.
And ‘Noppie’ sealed a date with former World Youth champion Max Hopp after winning nine straight legs, hitting 19 tons and finishing with a three-dart average of 96.19.
Tabern squeezes through to MVG showdown
2007 World Championship quarter-finalist Alan Tabern marked his return to the tournament for the first time since 2012 with an edgy 3-2 win over Australia’s Raymond Smith, and his reward is a showdown with world No 1 Michael van Gerwen on Saturday night. Also, debutant Kevin Burness produced an impressive display to see off Paul Nicholson 3-0 and set up a clash against Gary Anderson later in the evening.
In the afternoon’s only second-round match, last year’s semi-finalist Jamie Lewis put a disappointing year behind him to battle into the third round as the Welshman fought off a comeback from Cody Harris to win 3-2, hitting nine 180s in the process.
Michael Barnard survived six match darts to make it through to the next round on his debut. The 42-year-old from Sidcup known as ‘Dinosaur’ was world youth champion in 1991 but he was indebted to a whole host of missed doubles from fellow debutant Jose de Sousa.
The Portuguese qualifier rallied from 2-0 down to force the match into a deciding set and ultimately a deciding fifth leg.
De Sousa, who threw seven perfect darts to miss out on what would have been a fairy-tale nine-darter in the second set, was punished as Barnard eventually ran out a 3-2 winner, pinning his double for a second-round date with Jermaine Wattimena.
You can follow every dart from every session of the World Darts Championships on Sky Sports Darts, check out the full schedule here. You can also stay up to date with all the action behind the scenes by following us @SkySportsDarts and get all the latest news, previews and interviews by heading to www.skysports.com/darts
(c) Sky News 2018: Gary Anderson through to round three at World Darts Championship
