World Matchplay Darts: Day 5

Day five saw the first games of the second round and just like the previous four days, we were given lots of entertainment and a shock along the line. Although Blackpool's Winter Gardens had very much been invaded by Dutch fever, with all four of the Dutch participants making it through to the second round and all but Jelle Klaasen playing their second round matches on day five. First up however was the only match not to feature a Dutch contingent and it also brought the night's shock result. Wayne Jones played Ronnie Baxter and the home boy seemed to be a little nervous and soon found himself 3-0 behind against the under-dog. With the second round matches extended to first to thirteen legs everyone knew it would be the longest night so far so we had blankets at the ready just in case any went into extra time! Jones' 3-0 lead ended up to be unassailable as Baxter couldn't level the score at any point but did battle to 13-9 defeat, this sees Jones progress to his first ever major quarter finals.

Then the Dutch invasion began as Co Stompe took on the Welshman Mark Webster. The result looked inevitable when Stompe cruised to a 10-3 lead and Webster was looking lacklustre and very forlorn. But when returning from a quick break, Webster suddenly found his throwing arm as Stompe couldn't find the prowess to finish the former Lakeside champion off. Stompe still made it to the finish line but only after Webster made the result look more respectable at 13-9.

Unfortunately for the Dutch it wasn't going to be all good news as Vincent Van Der Voort perished in a tight match to the world number two James Wade in a result that could have looked quite different. Wade played better than his first round performance but only for half of the match. Both players broke their opponent's throw and Wade was let off a few times Van Der Voort failed to secure some easy doubles which Wade will never leave unpunished. Therefore the result finished 13-10 to 'The Machine' to make sure the first of the 'Fantastic Four' (Taylor, Wade, Van Barneveld and Whitlock) was into the quarter finals.

After his majestic comeback to darts in the first round with a nine darter the crown waited in earnest for Van Barneveld who played against Tabern in the final match of the night. It was already 10:45 and the blankets were getting closer to hand knowing that we still had at least thirteen legs of darts left. Although on paper the result seemed inevitable, Tabern pulled off some early ton plus finishes with 121 and 156, letting Barney know it wasn't going to be a walkover. But Barney soon went through the gears and let everyone get to go to bed a little earlier than what it could have been as he powered to a 13-5 victory and is looking increasingly likely to win the Matchplay if he carries on in this vain of form.