Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis see England past Spain at World Cup of Darts
Saturday 4 June 2016 14:11, UK
Defending champions England survived a final leg shoot-out with Spain to book their place in the second round of the World Cup of Darts.
After Thursday's opening night victories for Netherlands and Scotland, it was the turn of Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis to take centre stage and with 18 world titles between them they were expected to make short work of their Spanish opponents.
However, England fell behind early on when Antonio Alcinas, who played in Spain's 2010 victory over England, pinned an early double to break the favourites' throw at the first time of asking.
Inspired by Taylor, England came back to break straight back and when Taylor nailed 128 they looked well set for victory but Spain were not to be outdone and matched their more illustrious opponents dart-for-dart to take the match to a deciding leg.
And it was to be Lewis who clinched victory but with three darts for double top he missed with the first two before sinking with his final chance.
"They put us under pressure from the start and they were brilliant," said Taylor. "We were hitting doubles with our last darts and it was giving us a heart attack!
"They've beaten us before and I knew they were confident of beating us again. I think it was a cracking game and it's livened the tournament up a little bit - if Adrian had missed at the end there I think we'd have gone out.
"It's a different format now with the Singles and Doubles games, and it's a leveller. Sometimes I've done well in the Singles and Adrian's had a bad game or Adrian's played well and I've had a bad game, so we'll see what happens tomorrow."
Up next for England will be China who beat Czech Republic 5-3 with an impressive display of finishing clinching a place in the second round for the first time in their history.
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Fourth seeds Northern Ireland are tipped to do well and came through their first round meeting with Japan.
Brendan Dolan and Daryl Gurney were kept in check by the Japanese early on but with the scores level at 2-2 it was the experience of the Northern Ireland that won out as they won each of the next three legs in 18 legs, wrapping up the match with a bullseye finish from Dolan.
They face an intriguing all-Ireland clash after Mick McGowan crashed in a bull finish to pinch the deciding leg for the Republic of Ireland in their 5-4 win over Hong Kong having trailed 4-3.
Wales also chalked up a win and arguably the performance of the night in Frankfurt, Gerwyn Price with a 150 check-out on his debut to wrap up a 5-1 win over Finland.
Price is playing in his first World Cup alongside Welsh stalwart Mark Webster, who is playing with his fourth different partner in the event, and the duo were never in trouble.
Their second round match promises to be a cracker against Canada who proved far too strong for Greece, veteran John Part was at his best alongside partner Ken McNeil as they rode out a mini-revival from their opponents who rallied to 3-2 having lost the opening three legs. In the end Canada came through for a 5-2 opening round victory.
In the night's other two matches, two-time quarter-finalists South Africa, including dancing Devon Petersen, whose trademark moves after his walk-on got the crowd on their feet, crashed out at the first hurdle.
However South Africa's doubling let them down badly and a ruthless Singapore took full advantage to record a 5-1 win a second round showdown with Austria who recorded the only whitewash of the opening round - eighth seeds Mensur Suljovic and Rowby-John Rodriquez beat Italy 5-0 in the final match of the night.
Second-round matches: England v China, Austria v Singapore, Wales v Canada, Northern Ireland v Ireland, Scotland v Norway, Belgium v Hungary, Australia v Denmark, Netherlands v Philippines.
You can follow both second round sessions on Saturday live on Sky Sports 1 from 1pm and 7pm.
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