The 2011 Grand Slam of Darts has reached the second round after all the groups were finalised yesterday. But the drama intensified as the matches were extended to best of nineteen. The night started with a final leg shoot-out between Mark Walsh and Dean Winstanley in a PDC vs BDO match. Winstanley has probably been the unknown star of the tournament so far and looked set to continue that name by taking a 3-1 lead. 'Special Brew' Walsh fought back however and turned the tables, taking a 6-3 lead. Walsh took the match to 8-5 before Winstanley found a fight back of his own and was first to hill, leading 9-8. Walsh then forced the decider after Winstanley missed two match-winning darts and it would ultimately cost him as Walsh then won the decider to progress to the quarter-finals.
The drama continued into the second match as there was another deciding leg between PDC's Michael Van Gerwen and BDO's Ted Hankey. The game see-sawed as Van Gerwen struggled to adapt to Hankey's obtrusive playing style. The Dutchman did take a 2-0 lead and then lead 7-5 later on in the game. But Hankey continued to fight back and eventually took the lead at 9-8 before the Van Gerwen forced the decider. It was a close final leg but Hankey managed to take it to make it into the quarter finals.
The third game of the night was billed as the biggest but it had a lot to live up to after the previous two games. James Wade took on Gary Anderson and immediately started firing with a 122 check-out in the opening leg on his way to taking a 2-0 lead. But Anderson regained his composure and broke back straight away before taking the lead himself at 3-2 going into the break. After the interval, Anderson continued his rampage making it seven legs on the trot before Wade made it 7-3 going into the second intermission. But the break may have come at the wrong time for him as Anderson came back fully refreshed. The Scot won the next three legs in comfortable fashion to dump last year's runner-up out of the tournament 10-3.
The final match of the night saw Terry Jenkins take on the home town hero Wayne Jones. Jones was looking set to please the crowd by storming into a 3-0 lead which included a 122 check-out. But Jenkins managed to make it 3-2 before the break. Jenkins continued his form after the adverts and it went to 4-4 before Jones regained his form and took a 6-4 lead before the second interval. Jenkins tried to push Jones but every time Jenkins pulled a leg back, Jones instantly got away again. That was until Jenkins finally managed to restore parity at 8-8. From there Jones couldn't find his way and Jenkins was able to complete the comeback and win the match 10-8 to face Anderson in the quarter-finals.
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