Kevin Painter, Colin Osborne and Jamie Caven are all OUT of the Players Championship Finals.
The Team Unicorn stars lost in the 2nd Round at the Doncaster Dome on Saturday afternoon, as they all failed to bring their ‘A’ game to the big stage.
Osborne will be fuming, because he was 4-0 up on Steve Farmer and literally threw it away….Painter gave himself a chance against Gary Anderson but couldn’t get close enough, while Caven will be the first to admit that another poor performance on TV has cost him dear.
Osborne reached the semi-finals of the event at the Circus Tavern 12 months ago and he looked on course for at least a quarter-final place this time round.
He hit brilliant finishes of 150 and 138 to break his opponent’s throw twice and it looked like it was plain sailing…..but inexplicably, the wheels fell off his game.
In the 5th leg, he hit his first 180 but then missed two darts at D16 to make it 5-0, as Farmer pinched the leg….the Unicorn man missed another dart at the same double in the next leg for a 5-1 lead and all of a sudden, the momentum switched.
Farmer got it back to 4-4 and Osborne kept missing doubles…..the crucial moment came in the 13th leg. Osborne missed darts at D8 for a 7-6 lead and Farmer broke throw to go ahead for the first time and he won the match in the next on D12.
After going 4-0 up, Osborne hit only 2 doubles from 13 attempts and an 89 average tells its own story.
To be fair, Painter didn’t do a lot wrong against Gary Anderson, but the Scot hit some big finishes just when it mattered.
Painter actually averaged 97 and pushed the World Championship runner-up all the way, but he had to watch as Anderson took out 142 and 122 on the bull, when ‘The Artist’ was eyeing up a double himself!
But Painter kept hitting back…..a two dart 84 finish took Anderson to 6-4 and he also missed four darts for a 7-4 advantage…..the Unicorn ace with the help of a 4th 180 got it back to 6-5.
Crucially though, in the next leg he just missed the bull for a 121 to level the match….Anderson won it and broke the Painter throw in the next to win it 8-5 with an average of 100.
Unfortunately, Caven endured a nightmare against Andy Smith….he missed countless doubles and was always chasing the game.
‘The Pie Man’ was 3-0 up with two breaks of throw and to be honest, Caven just never recovered and once he missed a dart at ‘tops’ to claw his way back to 4-4, the game turned in Smith’s favour once again.
He won four out of the next five legs to beat Caven, who averaged only 87 in losing by 8 legs to 4.
In the other match, Colin Lloyd beat Dennis Priestley to line up a quarter-final against Farmer, while Anderson will face Smith in the last eight on Sunday afternoon.
2nd Round results:
Jamie Caven 4-8 Andy Smith
Steve Farmer 8-6 Colin Osborne
Gary Anderson 8-5 Kevin Painter
Colin Lloyd 8-3 Dennis Priestley
Saturday night 2nd Round schedule:
Wes Newton v Mark Webster
Simon Whitlock v Mervyn King
Terry Jenkins v Steve Beaton
Phil Taylor v James Wade
By STUART PYKE at the Doncaster Dome
Photos courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC