Wolfie let off the hook

Adams: Scraped through

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Former winner Martin Adams scraped into the second round of the Lakeside World Darts Championships after being given an almighty scare by qualifier Dave Chisnall.

Martin Atkins was also a narrow winner as he edged out Joey Ten Berge 3-2, while 14th seed Garry Thompson was knocked out by Daryl Gurney and Ross Montgomery defeated Martin Phillips.

'Wolfie' Adams was taken all the way by the St Helens qualifier before emerging with a slender 3-2 victory thanks to a 5-3 success in the final-set decider.

Number three seed Adams won the tournament in 2007, but he looked anything but a champion as he edged a nervy opening set in the decider after struggling on his doubles.

Chisnall hit back in the second set to level up the match with some scintillating arrows, but Adams took charge in the third with a 10-darter helping him into a 2-1 lead.

Fightback

Once more though Chisnall hit back and three legs on the spin levelled and took the match into a deciding set, which then went all the way to the tiebreaker at 2-2.

After swapping legs for 3-3, Adams nosed his way into the lead after Chisnall fluffed his lines, and nerves again got the better of the challenger as he missed five efforts at double to draw level once again.

After being let off the hook, Adams took advantage to grab the two-leg advantage needed to claim a tight 3-2 and move into the second round breathing a huge sigh of relief.

"That was a hard game but will give me confidence for the next round," said

Adams. "Tops was awful to me - I could not have bought the double tonight.

"Dave is a good player who took the Isle of Man Open in the spring and has had a good inter-counties season. I got what I expected - a hard game."

Seed out

22-year-old Northern Irishman Gurney took out 14th seed Thompson 3-1 to set-up a second round clash with Adams.

Gurney overcame the nerves of making his Lakeside debut to make the Yorkshireman the third seed to fall at the first hurdle this year.

'The Boss' Montgomery nailed the highest checkout of the tournament so far with his 156 helping him to a 3-1 victory over Welshman Phillips.

Next up will be former champion Ted 'The Count' Hankey in the second round for Montgomery, who was joined by Atkins after the 11th seed overcame a tough challenge from Dutchman Ten Berge to go through 3-2.