Dusseldorf Darts

Germany became darts central last night as the European Darts Championships got under way at the Maritim Hotel, Dusselfdorf. Thirty-two of the top darts players will take part and yesterday, sixteen of them played their first round matches. There were no dramas as Taylor and Whitlock both made it through along with Terry Jenkins and Mervyn King.

The night kicked off with Mervyn King up against Co Stompe. King was looking to forget his first round exit of last week's World Matchplay at the hands of Justin Pipe with a win over the Dutchman. Despite having suffered tennis elbow recently, King was able to the business in fine form and won the match 6-1, in a very quick first round format.

Alan Tabern faced Colin Lloyd in the second match of the night. Lloyd was the initial favourite but soon found himself 3-1 down and looking poor on his doubles. But Lloyd regained his doubles and turned it around to win 6-4.

John Part hit a nine-darter in Blackpool last week, but still lost in the first round to Mark Webster. This time he faced Peter Wright in the closest match of the night. The match see-sawed but Wright was able to win the final two legs to come from 5-4 down to win 6-5, kicking the Canadian to the kerb yet again.

Paul Nicholson faced Justin Pipe in the next match. Both players made it to the second round before exiting Blackpool. After initially taking a 2-0 lead, Pipe fought back to equalise at 2-2. But Nicholson was too strong and cruised to a 6-3 victory. After his outburst last week, he was asked whether or not he'd put Taylor to bed because they could meet in the quarter-finals. He responded that if he's playing at his best and Taylor is not, then he could well beat him but he has a huge amount of respect for The Power.

Simon Whitlock was on the receiving end of one of the biggest comebacks ever in Blackpool. He was 15-8 ahead of Andy Hamilton in the quarter-finals and ended up losing 17-15. This time he was up against Mensur Suljovic and quickly took a 4-0 lead. But his demons looked to be coming back when Suljovic took two legs on the spin before Whitlock was able to see the game through 6-2.

There was a worry that the World Matchplay champion, Phil Taylor wouldn't make this tournament due to a bout of tendinitis in his left shoulder. But Taylor did make it and faced the first Greek to ever appear in a TV major. John Michael qualified to participate in this tournament and faced 200/1 odds of beating Taylor. But the debutant fired a 180 in the opening leg and broke the throw with a 102 check-out. Taylor quickly battled back to lead 4-1 before Michael kept the score respectable although eventually losing 6-3, Taylor will now face King in the second round.

The penultimate match of the night saw Terry Jenkins take on Mark Webster in a first round match that neither of them wanted. Jenkins needed a decent run after losing in the first round on the Matchplay whereas Webster made it to the quarter-finals before losing to Adrian Lewis. Webster started the quickest, taking a 2-0 then a 3-1 lead. But Jenkins fought back and Webster had to level the match at 4-4 before Jenkins went onto win the match 6-4.

The final match of the night saw Gary Anderson up against Jamie Caven. Caven suffered a 10-0 defeat to James Wade in the first round of the Matchplay but Anderson also surprisingly lost in the first round to Andy Hamilton. Caven suffered many bounce outs due his darts not being properly sharpened but did manage to equalise at 2-2 when the Scot initially took a 2-0 lead. It then went to 3-3 before Anderson regained his form and won 6-3 to fall into the second round.