Peter Wright showed his class by winning a dramatic sudden-death shoot-out at the World Darts Championship on Friday night as Nathan Aspinall impressed.
Seventh-ranked Wright wore a meticulous Elf outfit as he made his first appearance at the tournament, taking on Noel Malicdem. Both players had a match dart, but in the end Wright used all his experience to pull off a thrilling sudden-death 3-2 win against Philippines ace Malicdem.
Wright, a World Cup winner alongside Gary Anderson for Scotland, took the opener in straight legs before Malicdem edged the second set in a deciding leg with an unorthodox 68 finish. The Filipino continued to give Wright some bother with a cool 106 finish, but Wright soon trumped that with a 110 before cleaning up the set with an 11-darter.
Tinkerman Wright missed one match dart in the fourth leg of the fourth set and that cost him dearly as Malicdem pinned tops to send the clash into a deciding set. Malicdem moved to within one leg of causing a huge shock, but Wright produced a classy comeback with a match-saving 140 to send the match into a tie-break.
At 5-5, they headed into a sudden-death leg and after Wright won the all-important throw at the bull, he soon closed out a thrilling contest by successfully landing double 16.
The Asp impresses
Aspinall had an incredible run here 12 months ago, reaching the semi-finals, and there are hopes that he can potentially go one better this year following an opening win against Danny Baggish.
Aspinall has already claimed a televised major at the UK Open this year but North American champion Baggish made a dream start by winning the opening set 3-1 as he punished Aspinall for missing seven darts at doubles.
You have no idea how hard that was. My career kick-started here last year, no one expected me to reach the semi-finals but there’s a lot of expectation this year. There was a lot of screaming on stage, I play better when I give it a bit.
Nathan Aspinall
Stockport thrower Aspinall averaged 116 in the second set as he whitewashed Baggish in 39 darts to level things up. Former goalkeeper Aspinall then nailed tops in the deciding leg of the third set to move ahead.
And the world No 12 wrapped up a comeback 3-1 victory over Baggish to set up a third-round meeting with Poland’s Krzysztof Ratajski on Sunday afternoon.
- 2020 World Darts Championships: Results, schedule, draw
PDC World Championship: Friday’s results
Germany Maximise their chances
Nico Kurz had already seen off James Wilson in the first round and Bradford’s Joe Cullen was next on his hit list with a superb 3-1 win.
The 22-year-old appeared on course to win the opening set at 2-0 up but ‘The Rockstar’ staged a comeback. A two-dart 88 combination finish enabled him to snatch it from the jaws of defeat. The roles were reversed in the second set as the German debutant recovered from 2-0 down to snatch it in the deciding leg before he clinched the third set 3-1 to leave Cullen in serious bother.
Joe’s woes
Joe Cullen has now lost his first match in 10 out of 12 appearances at Alexandra Palace.
The 15 seeds have lost their first matches at the WC in two straight years (Clayton last year). Prior to that, the 15 seed had won 14 straight, from 2005 to 2018, after Jamie Harvey lost in 2004.
Cullen became the fifth seed to depart this year’s Worlds
And Kurz continued his run at Alexandra Palace by sinking tops to eliminate 15th seeded Cullen and set up a clash against Luke Humphries.
Another German in action was their No 1 Max Hopp as he beat Benito van de Pas in five sets.
‘The Maximiser’ produced a magnificent 11-dart leg to win the first set but the Dutchman, helped by a stunning 158 checkout along the way, quickly levelled. Back came Hopp with a 104 finish in the next as he moved one set away from victory.
Despite a magical 148 from Hopp, Van de Pas applied the squeeze to send the contest into a deciding set where his form deserted him. The German won three-straight legs to close out the contest and set up a match with Darius Labanauskas.
The King and Rapid Ricky rise to the pressure
Mervyn King used his years of experience to crush the hopes of 20-year-old Irishman Ciaran Teehan in a tie-break.
The Cork thrower conjured up some magic to battle back from 2-0 down to force a deciding set tie-break before ‘The King’ crushed his hopes, winning 4-2 in a dramatic conclusion.
Darren Webster lost the opening leg but then won the next nine in a row, adding finishes of 106 and 100, to demolish Japan’s Yuki Yamada 3-0. He easily progressed to the third round where he will meet the winner of the match between Adrian Lewis or Cristo Reyes.
Jonny Clayton dropped just three legs on his way to a clinical whitewash victory over Jan Dekker. ‘The Ferret’ made it through to the third round for the first time in his career.
In the final match of the afternoon session ‘Rapid’ Ricky Evans breezed through the first two sets before taking his foot off the gas allowing Coventry’s Mark McGeeney back in the game, but he reeled in a rapid 170 finish in the third leg of the fourth set to seal victory 3-1.
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