John Part will kick off the defence of his Las Vegas crown against qualifier Steve Maish at the Mandalay Bay Hotel on Wednesday night.
The Unicorn former World Champion will round off the opening night, which features some terrific matches, when anything could happen with the 1st Round short format! It’s only the best of 11 legs.
Phil Taylor has been handed a testing tie against Mark Dudbridge, while a tasty all-Unicorn clash between James Wade and Colin Osborne will start the proceedings….both would have hoped for something a little easier to start the Desert Classic.
The same can be said for Colin Lloyd and Wes Newton who will also face each other on Wednesday night, as Team Unicorn bids for another ‘Major’ title this week in Vegas. Newton of course, has reached the semi-finals in the last two years.
Andy Hamilton will meet Steve Beaton, with ‘The Hammer’ bidding to rediscover his best form. Hamilton has suffered a lull over the last few weeks and needs a good result in Vegas.
American Ray Carver must play the in-form Terry Jenkins, Peter Manley takes on Dutchman Vincent van der Voort, who only last month reached the final of the UK Open in Bolton, while Kevin Painter has been drawn against World Champion Raymond Van Barneveld and Adrian Lewis plays Steve Smith.
It was a disappointing second night of qualifying for Team Unicorn stars at the Mandalay Bay….Robbie Green suffered an early exit at the hands of John Murray…..Barrie Bates was beaten at the last 32 stage. The Welshman losing 2-4 to Steve Bentley and Mick McGowan suffered the same fate. He lost be the same score to Andy Callaby.
John Ferrell and Stuart Holden were the surprise qualifiers, while Michael Van Gerwen again lost at the last 32 stage, in another last leg decider – this time to Alan Tabern.
Qualifying results:
John Ferrell 4-1 Tom Wilson
Steve Smith 4-2 Alan Warriner-Little
Tony Eccles 4-3 Adrian Gray
Mark Dudbridge 4-3 Joseph Swick
Stuart Holden 4-1 Steve Hine
Andy Smith 4-0 Andy Callaby
Alan Tabern 4-0 Alan Caves
Vincent van der Voort 4-2 Steve Bentley
1st Round draw/schedule of play – Wednesday night:
James Wade v Colin Osborne
Gary Mawson v Stuart Holden
Andy Hamilton v Steve Beaton
Phil Taylor v Mark Dudbridge
Colin Lloyd v Wes Newton
Terry Jenkins v Ray Carver
Wayne Mardle v John Ferrell
John Part v Steve Maish
1st Round Thursday night:
Gerry Convery v Mervyn King
Dennis Priestley v Dennis Smith
Darin Young v Tony Eccles
Peter Manley v Vincent van der Voort
Raymond Van Barneveld v Kevin Painter
John Kuczynski v Alan Tabern
Adrian Lewis v Steve Smith
Roland Scholten v Andy Smith
And there will be regular reports and updates from the Las Vegas Desert Classic, here on the Unicorn Website.
BY STUART PYKE