It was another dramatic night at the Alexandra Palace, as Raymond van Barneveld and Jamie Caven were forced to dig deep to reach the 2nd Round!
Team Unicorn stablemate Colin Osborne was the most impressive performer of day seven of the labrokes.com World Championship, but Barrie Bates was way off the pace, as he became the seventh seed to lose in the 1st Round.
And Osborne will now face his great friend Caven in an all Unicorn 2nd Round showdown after Christmas! ‘The Wizard’ saw off the challenge of Chris Thompson.
But Welshman Bates missed a stack of doubles as he crashed out of the tournament – beaten by Kevin McDine, who Barney will now play in the 2nd Round.
And the spotlight was firmly fixed on Barneveld at the Ally Pally…..The Barney Army were out in force and it took the Dutch ace some time to get going!
He made a scratchy start against Steve Hine and after missing one dart at D18, found himself a set down against ‘The Muffin Man’.
It was just the spark the Dutchman needed and he stormed back to win the next three sets!
“He put me under a bit of pressure,” Barney said. “It was tough going up there and I felt the weight of expectation from the crowd. It certainly wasn’t easy but hopefully I will feel the benefit of that match as the tournament progresses.”
After levelling the match, two 76 finishes took him to a 2-1 lead in sets. Barneveld then produced a brilliant 10 darter and won the match on D10…..job done! By the way, Barney averaged a respectable 95.
Caven was put under real pressure by South African qualifier Devon Petersen.
The Team Unicorn ace lost the first set and could have found himself in further trouble, as Petersen missed two darts to go two sets to one in front!
But he kept his cool and then won it in style with a brilliant 161 finish! Caven though, knows he will have to improve, because an 84 average won’t beat Osborne in the next round!
‘The Wizard’ put a poor year behind him with an impressive performance against Yorkshireman Chris Thompson.
Since reaching the World Championship quarter-finals in 2007, Osborne has struggled at the biggest tournament of all, but he put that right!
He looked pretty good in winning by three sets to one…..the only worry was the finishing, because Osborne hit 10 from 37 attempts and he recognises that won’t be good enough in the next round against Caven.
Two 180s helped him to the opening set and he kept pressurising Thompson, who was making his World Championship debut…..although Osborne went off the boil in the third set, two more 180s did the trick in set four.
He hit 36 scores of 100+ and averaged 93.
And to celebrate the Osborne clan will now head to great friend and Unicorn stablemate Andy Hamilton’s for Christmas Dinner!
“It’s a big relief for me,” he said. “I knew I had to perform and although my finishing wasn’t the best, my scoring was excellent. I will have to work at those doubles!”
But what happened to Barrie Bates?
He just didn’t get going and missed so many doubles….it is a big blow to his hopes of staying in the top 32 in the world.
To be fair, Bates and McDine were as bad as each other….both averaged only 77. The Unicorn man will be cursing himself for all the missed doubles though, and McDine’s 120 check-out to win the match was the highlight of a disappointing game.
Results – day seven:
Preliminary Round (best of 7 legs):
Devon Petersen (South Africa) 4-3 Norman Madhoo (Guyana)
1st Round (best of 5 sets):
Colin Osborne 3-1 Chris Thompson
Barrie Bates 1-3 Kevin McDine
Raymond van Barneveld 3-1 Steve Hine
Jamie Caven 3-1 Devon Petersen
Thursday 1st Round schedule:
Andy Smith v Shane Tichowitsch (Australia)
Mark Walsh v Justin Pipe
Dennis Priestley v Bernd Roith (Germany)
Mervyn King v Magnus Caris (Sweden) or Dietmar Burger (Austria)
By STUART PYKE
Photos courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC