World Matchplay Darts: Michael Smith and James Wade out

Darts

Sun July 23, 2017 · 7y ago

Micheal Smith and James Wade made early exits at the PDC World Matchplay as Peter Wright scraped into round two.

There was an immediate shock at the World Matchplay as Steve West knocked out Michael Smith with a 10-5 success.

Big things had been expected of the number 11 seed but he was on the backfoot for much of the contest as West opened up a handy advantage.

The latter gave his rival a sniff by losing the 14th leg but he closed out the game in emphatic fashion to move on to the next round.

"I'm over the moon to get the win, especially because I was worried I might not even get here earlier in the week," said West.

"My car was hit when someone crossed onto my side of the road and part of the wing mirror caught my eye. I'm lucky the damage wasn't worse and in a way my glasses helped because they saved my eye."

"I'm very, very happy with that and it's a brilliant win.

"After four legs I must admit that I was a bit worried, but the 121 gave me a lot of confidence.

"It's a pretty big win but I've struggled a bit for the last three months, I know I'm good enough and I've never doubted my ability but I wasn't getting the results.

"Tonight the darts went for me, and this is going to fill me with confidence."

There was an even bigger turn up in match two as Darren Webster got the better of number six seed James Wade 13-11.

The match took an age to reach a conclusion as Webster failed to put his opponent away on a number of occasions having trailed 6-2 at one point

An under-the-weather Wade was forced to leave the stage for five minutes after a coughing fit and Webster finally got two legs clear as sudden death loomed when he hit double top with tension mounting.

"I'm the happiest man in Blackpool - over the moon!" said Webster.

"When I was 6-2 down I had to dig in and I told myself I could do it and I got back into the game. He missed three darts and I took out the 102, and that was a big shot.

"James is THE man for winning tight games and I've managed to beat him so it means a lot. I've played well recently and I'll be relaxed now in the next game."

Some order was restored as second seed Gary Anderson moved through thanks to a battling 10-7 victory over Christian Kist.

Kist proved a nuisance in the middle part of the match and would not lie down but the Flying Scotsman found the big shots when required.

The winning leg saw Anderson nail 174 before taking out 88 (double 14) and finally extinguish the hopes of the persistent Dutchman.

"It was a good game and you're always going to get that against Christian," said Anderson.

"He's a steady player and once he starts finding his range and his speed he sticks in but I pinched it. It's been hard, we've been on the road a bit and I was lucky at the end."

Peter Wright put up a laboured performance but finally managed to get the better of James Wilson 10-8 in Saturday night's finale.

'Snakebite' looked weary having played recently in Shanghai and Las Vegas and even resorted to a change of darts mid-match in a bid to kickstart his challenge.

The third seed dug in though as Wilson missed a handful of shots to go 9-7 up and Wright finally got his head in front when it mattered.

He galvanised himself for one last effort in the 18th leg and a classy checkout of 147 sealed the deal in a game where Wilson will rue missing a golden opportunity.

"I'd have been distraught if I'd lost but I got through it," said Wright.

"James was very nervous and I was too, coming here as the number three seed.

"I played rubbish in Shanghai and Las Vegas, I brought 10 sets of darts with me and I didn't know what darts to use - it feels like I've never thrown a dart in my life before and it's really weird.

"I won't be using these darts again and I can go back and prepare for my next match now. I got away with it."

West and Webster are both 150/1 chances for glory at Sky Bet with Anderson a 4/1 chance while hot favourite is Michael van Gerwen at 8/13.

Wilson breathed a huge sigh of relief and can now be backed at 7/2.

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