With Christmas just around the corner, it could only mean one thing: the return of the World Darts Championships. The first match in the Alexandra Palace this campaign saw Jamie Caven take on veteran Roland Scholten. It was nervy start to the match by both players, Scholten took the first set 3-1 before Caven equalised with a whitewash. Scholten then won the crucial deciding leg in the third set which then motivated the Dutchman to take the final set 3-1 and progress..
The second match of the night was a preliminary match between Paul Barham and Hong Kong's Scott MacKenzie with the winner playing Wayne Jones in the final match of the night. Barham finished second on the youth tour and held MacKenzie to 2-2 before the Hong Kong man found the crucial break to win the game 4-2.
The third match was a battle of Wales between Mark Webster and Richie Burnett. The biggest match of the night deserved to go all the way and it did. The first leg went to the decider and Burnett took it. Webster levelled the match by taking the second set 3-1 before Burnett again took the lead with a 3-1 set of his own. Burnett then had two darts to win the match but Webster managed to win the set 3-2 to set up a deciding set. The final set also went to 2-2 which left the players needing to win by two clear legs to progress. Webster ran out of doubles and the 1995 Lakeside Champion secured the shock result against last year's semi-finalist.
Defending World Champion Adrian Lewis stepped up in the penultimate match of the night against Nigel Heydon. All five legs went against the throw to give Nigel Heydon a surprise 1-0 lead over Lewis. The fairytale continued for Heydon as he held his throw and managed to break Lewis again to take the second set 3-1. But the clock was beginning to close to midnight and Lewis fought back to level the score at 2-2. Heydon wasn't beaten just yet however, the final set then went to tie-break in which Lewis stumbled through with a 5-3 victory in the extra period.
Scott MacKenzie returned to the oche to take on the World Number 13 Wayne Jones. The first set went to a decider but Jones took it to take an early lead. Jones continued his momentum forward to take the second set before MacKenzie fought back to 2-1 by winning the third set 3-1. But Jones didn't let it faze him the Wolverhampton Wanderer battled to take the fourth set to progress into the second round.
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