Friday 6 June 2014 23:29, UK
Defending champions England breezed through to the second round of the World Cup of Darts with a 5-0 win over Thailand.
World champions Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis were completely untroubled as they whitewashed opposing duo Thanawat Gaweenuntawong and Watanyu Charoonroj in Hamburg.
Leiws landed double 16 to win the opening leg before Taylor stretched the lead with double eight and although Thanawat hit a 180 in the third leg, the top seeds still came through to win it.
Both Taylor and Lewis missed doubles to win the fourth leg but they still had enough time to take out double four and move 4-0 in front.
Thailand failed to avoid being blanked in the next leg as Lewis hit a 180 and Taylor hit two scores of 135 before finishing on double one.
No 2 seeds the Netherlands also comfortably won their first-round contest, although Michael van Gerwen and Raymond van Barneveld did drops two legs in a 5-2 win over Italy.
The Dutch stars looked good for a whitewash when they eased into a 3-0 lead, but Marco Brentegani and Daniele Petri fought back to add some respectability to the scoreline.
The highlight of the contest came in the sixth leg, when current world champion van Gerwen and newly-crowned Premier League winner van Barneveld combined for an 11-darter.
Third seeds Scotland were also untroubled as they reached the last 16 with a 5-1 win over Russia, Peter Wright and Robert Thornton proving to have far too much quality for Evgenii Zhukov and Evgenii Izotov.
Only one other team managed to clinch a whitewash, Belgium’s Kim and Ronny Huybrechts seeing off India duo Amit Gilitwala and Nitan Kumar 5-0.
Other high seeds Australia, Wales and Northern Ireland progressed to the second round with victories over Denmark, France and Malaysia respectively.
However, last year’s semi-finalists Finland were dumped out after Jarkko Komula and Jani Haavisto suffered a 5-4 defeat to Poland’s Krzysztof Chmielewski and Krzysztof Strozyk.
There was also first round woe for host nation Germany, who were eliminated after a 5-3 defeat to Devon Petersen and Graham Filby of South Africa.
