|
 |
 | | | You are in: Special Events: 2000: World Darts Championship |
|
| |  Wednesday, 10 January, 2001, 02:29 GMT King toppled as Baxter marches on Walton made a flying start against King Ronnie Baxter is the only seed left in the top half of the Embassy World Championship draw after two of the game's burgeoning stars pulled off shock results tonight. Top seed Mervyn King and world number five Co Stompe were both whitewashed and won only two legs each as they exited the Frimley Green tournament in a fascinating session of second-round matches. Dutchman Stompe was first to fall, never producing anything like his true form as Dagenham extrovert Wayne Mardle established himself as a live title contender by storming to a 3-0 victory. But that was only the appetiser for an even bigger turn-up as King was totally outplayed by John 'Boy' Walton of Sheffield, who repeated his brilliant form of the opening round when he achieved the highest average.
King, from Ipswich, had survived a close shave in his previous match against Chris Mason when he battled back from 2-0 down and saw his opponent fail to convert three match darts. But this time there was no way back as Walton, who beat King in the World Masters final on the same stage last month, made a flying start and maintained the momentum to record another superb average of 32.95. It needed a checkout of 121 from King to stop a run of four successive legs for his 39-year-old opponent at the start of the match, but Walton was soon two sets up. The Sheffield player then hit a brilliant 148 finish to take the advantage in the third set. There was a brief rally from 34-year-old King, but it was merely delaying the inevitable. Walton kept up his blistering performance right to the end and rounded off a famous triumph with a 121 checkout, going the unconventional route of treble 20, treble 11, double 14.
"I'm not bothered about averages as long as there's a 'W' against my name for 'winner'," he said. "It was a re-run of the World Masters final and the same result except that I didn't have to come from two sets down. "But Mervyn will get me one of these days. He's a good friend of mine, and we practise together. "It never entered my head that Mervyn had recovered so well in the last round. I just concentrated on holding the darts when I threw first." While Walton would not talk up his title chances, Mardle - known as the 'Mouth of the South' - expressed confidence about going all the way following his success against Stompe. He became the first quarter-finalist with a fluent display against the Amsterdam tram driver, whose chances had been derailed before the tie when his darts were stolen from his pocket while he was signing autographs. Using an unfamiliar set of arrows, 'The Matchstick' was wayward at times - whereas 27-year-old Mardle was in deadly accurate mood.
His clinical finishing meant the writing was on the wall at an early stage. Stompe, 38, had chances to stay in the match when 2-1 down in the third set, but world number nine Mardle produced a spectacular 'Shanghai' on the 20s to check out from 120 and complete an impressive display. "I'm ecstatic that I played so well," said Dutch Open champion Mardle. "I was almost too confident before the match and feared it might be misplaced, but it turns out I was right to feel like that. "Co is one of the world's best players and although he had his darts stolen he's not using that as an excuse. "If I carry on playing the way I am I can win this tournament." Mardle's next opponent will be Lancastrian fourth seed Baxter, the runner-up for the last two years who disposed of England captain Martin Adams 3-1 in a rip-roaring encounter. Walton takes on the youngest player in the event, Finland's Marko Pusa, who showed he should not be discounted as a potential winner by achieving the highest average of the tournament - 33.77 - in a 3-1 triumph over Jez Porter. | |
Top World Darts Championship stories now:  Links to more World Darts Championship stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|  | | | | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
|  E-mail this story to a friend |
| |
| Links to more World Darts Championship stories |
| | | ||
 | ||||
 | | Back to top
| ||
| ------------------------------------------------------------ BBC News >> | BBC Weather >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII | News Sources | Privacy |
