With Blackpool awaiting their Premiership debut in August the tungsten theatre arrived in the Winter Gardens to wet their appetites for the season ahead. The World Matchplay is arguably the second biggest tournament to win in darts and the 2010 tournament started in earnest last night. The nine day tournament has been anticipated to have drama and boy it didn't disappoint as the first round matches kicked off. First to the stage was birthday boy Dennis 'The Menace' Priestly who was celebrating his 60th birthday, he was up against Holland's Vincent Van Der Voort and he proved to be the party pooper. Winning 10-6, Van Der Voort showed a touch of finishing class as he checked out numerous three digit scores, the best being a 157. Priestly couldn't match the Dutchman's finishing and became the first casualty of the World Matchplay.
Next was a match between two players who aren't expected to go far in these top tournaments; Gary Jones and Colin Osbourne, Jones has never got past the first round and the match showed why. It was a very tight affair with no-one going two legs ahead and Jones made it 7-7 to make the best of 19 into a best of five. Jones was to take three of next four to make into the second round for the first time with a Shanghai finish (120).
The penultimate match was probably the most eagerly anticipated between Raymond 'Barney' Van Barneveld and Denis 'The Heat' Ovens. Van Barneveld struggled with personal problems during the Premier League and decided to rehabilitate and missed the UK Open, incidentally Ovens made it to the semi-finals of the UK Open and came into the game on top form. The first three legs went with throw but as soon as Barneveld broke Ovens' throw in the fourth there was no looking back. Ovens missed some good chances at doubles and against Barney you can't afford to do that and the three-time World Champion made sure he took advantage. He wasn't completely back to his best but was still lethal in his finishing as he bagged a 112 and a 142 finish. With the match well and truly over at 8-1 Barney treated his fans to a fantastic nine darter, with two 180s before checking out on 141 with a treble 20, treble 19 and double 12. This was the first in the Winter Gardens since Phil Taylor made one in 2002 and the roof was lifted off as celebrations began. Van Barneveld then won the following leg to finish Ovens off with a 10-1 darting demolition.
The fourth and final match saw the hometown darting hero Ronnie 'The Rocket' Baxter sporting the Blackpool tangerine colours take on Jamie 'Jabba' Caven. With Baxter the clear odds on favourite the result was inevitable but Caven put on a good show and made Baxter work hard for the victory. The first four legs all went against throw until Baxter managed to find a two leg lead which became unassailable as Caven started to miss doubles and Baxter eventually won 10-7 for the home crowd.
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