Wade and Webster Back, Second Prelim Through

After a pretty bad year, Mark Webster and James Wade looked like they had returned to form with impressive displays. The Machine faced Peter Hudson in the fourth of the night's matches and, after a shaky start, a 102-checkout paved the way for Wade to win to the first set 3-1.

Hudson did take the opening leg in the second set before Wade kicked up a gear and again took it 3-1. With the momentum firmly in his court, Wade returned to the oche to take the third set without conceding to book his place into the next round.

Webster faced a tougher opponent in Ian White and the Welshman opened the match with a 124-checkout. He followed that up with a 107-checkout to lead the set 2-1 before winning it the following leg. That seemed to knock White for six as Webster took the second set without conceding.

White recovered to take a 2-1 lead in the third set. Webster did force a deciding leg and then had eight darts to win the match before White won it to make it 2-1. Many thought this set back would crush Webster and allow White to come back and take the match. But, the Welshman suffered no ill effects as he took the first leg with a 145-checkout before winning it without conceding to progress into the next round.

Peter Wright also looked in form against the young Arron Monk. White began the match with a 140-checkout before winning the opening set 3-1. Monk was able to take the opening leg in the second set but again Wright would take it 3-1 to make it 2-0. A 126-checkout from Snakebite put him 2-0 up in the third set before winning the match with the following leg.

John Bowles became the second preliminary winner to progress through to the next round where he will meet Gary Anderson. Bowles began the night against Spain's Carlos Rodriguez in the qualifier. Despite taking the opening leg, Rodriguez found himself 3-1 down before eventually losing the match 4-2. The game saw an incredible 27 missed darts at the double.

That statistic may have put Jamie Caven in good stead in the final match of the night, but Bowles put up a fantastic fight. Bowles hit a 116-checkout to take a 2-1 lead in the opening set before winning it via a decider. The tide was turned in the second set and Caven produced a 110-checkout to level the match up with a 3-2 second set win.

This looked to give Caven the momentum and he took the third set 3-1 after conceding the opening leg. But Bowles fought back with a 104-checkout to level the fourth set. Caven did go within a leg of winning the match before Bowles recovered to take it 3-2 and force a deciding set.

Caven produced the better of the darts to begin with and again went within a leg of winning the match. Again Bowles fought back to force a sudden death scenario, the second of the tournament so far. But Caven's fight left him as Bowles took the following two legs to book his place in the next round.