The evening session saw the eight seeded nations enter the fray as the second round matches took place. John Part and Ken MacNeil were representing seventh seeds Canada as they played Belgium in the first match of the session. Belgium did themselves proud as they forced Canada into a deciding leg but the Canadians pulled through to win 6-5 and advance into the group stage.
USA were seeded eighth and represented by Darin Young and Bill Davis. They took on Sweden but the seeded Americans were too strong as Young hit five 180s to help USA to win 6-4. Russia were no match for Scotland as Gary Anderson and Robert Thornton beat the Russians 6-2. The same scoreline was reproduced in the match between the Netherlands and bitter rivals Germany. Raymond Van Barneveld and Co Stompe brushed Jyhan Artut and Andree Welge aside.
Mark Webster and Barrie Bates were representing Wales and had to come from 3-1 behind to beat New Zealand. The Kiwis forced the match to 4-4 before Wales won the following two legs. Austria provided the first shock of the night after beating Northern Ireland. The sixth seeds were represented by Brendan Dolan and John MaGowan and were soon 3-1 behind. Austria then lead 5-3 before winning the following leg to send Northern Ireland home.
The Republic of Ireland soon followed as they lost 6-5 to Australia, Simon Whitlock and Paul Nicholson were just too strong for the Irish. However the biggest shock of the night and undoubtedly the whole tournament was Phil Taylor and James Wade losing to the Spanish pair. England took a 4-2 lead before Spain went 5-4 ahead, England forced a decider which Alcinas won to put Spain through to the group stage.
The eight remaining teams were drawn into two groups where each team will play two singles matches and a doubles match. Group A consists of Netherlands, Canada, Austria and Australia, Group B consists of Spain, USA, Wales and Scotland. The top two from each group will progress into tomorrow's semi-finals.
No comments:
Post a Comment