Wade survives Smith scare

Former champion survives big scare to get through first round in Blackpool

Last updated: 20th July 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Wade survives Smith scare

Wade: Scraped through

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Big guns Adrian Lewis and Andy Hamilton both came unstuck in the first round of the StanJames.com World Matchplay with sudden-death defeats against Mark Webster and Co Stompe, while James Wade survived a scare to beat Andy Smith.

2007 champion and three-time finalist Wade almost fell at the first hurdle as he was pushed all the way before securing a tense 10-8 win over Andy Smith in his first round match in Blackpool.

Smith took an early lead on an out-of-sorts Wade with a brilliant 151 checkout, and he kept that advantage all the way to 8-7, but then missed nine shots at double to make it 9-7 and Wade responded to level.

There were 51 missed doubles in all in the match, but despite Wade missing 26 of those he did manage to hit one to go ahead for the first time in the match at 9-8, and a 90 finish in the next saw him scrape through.

"I'll take the win but I'm not happy with my performance everything I did didn't seem to work - I was throwing low of the treble and high of the treble - and Andy probably should have beaten me."

Webster wins

Former Lakeside world champion Webster enjoyed a fine debut at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, as he accounted for world number seven Lewis in a thrilling 11-9 victory.

Welshman Webster had held 6-2 and 8-5 leads, but 'Jackpot' Lewis hit back in style to level with a ten-darter, after seven perfect throws, before going ahead at 9-8 for the first time since the opening leg.

Left-handed Webster survived the setback though to win the next to send the game into sudden death - where he promptly took the next two to claim an 11-9 victory.

"It was a really tough game but I think I made it hard on myself, I couldn't believe how Adrian was giving me chances and I was missing them," said Webster.

"I think I deserved to win in the end and I'm dead chuffed to be in the second round on my first time here."

Stompe goes through

Webster faces likeable Dutchman Co Stompe in round two after he prevailed in a ding-dong tussle with Hamilton, which eventually went all the way to 12-10.

Stompe won five legs on the bounce to turn a 4-2 deficit into a 7-4 lead, but Hamilton muscled his way back into the match to send it beyond the first-to-10 format.

After answering a 130 outshot from Stompe to level, Hamilton saw the Dutchman miss six darts for the match before then missing half a dozen of his own to win the leg, and eventually Stompe went through when hitting double one.

"Double one wasn't the way I wanted to win but all that matters was that I won," said Stompe. "It's the tightest game I've had on TV and the only one I've won when it was tight and I'm happy to have come through."

In the final match of the night, Alan Tabern held off a brave fightback from local favourite Wes Newton to go through and set-up a second round clash with Raymond van Barneveld.

Tabern led 6-1 but Newton roared back to level at 9-9 and force the match into extra legs, but the Saint came through and won out 12-10 in the end.