Three former Lakeside World Champions secured progress to the 2023 CT1 WDF Lakeside World Championship quarter-finals on Thursday evening as Danny Lauby completed the last eight lineup.
Duff comes through entertaining scrap with Turner
Martyn Turner made a real fight of it but in the end Neil Duff’s winning run on the Lakeside stage continued to seven matches as he won their all-British clash 3-2.
The first 10 legs of the match all went with throw, meaning that Turner won the first set 3-2 before Duff levelled it up going into the break by taking the second with finishes of 71, 82 and 52.
Duff claimed the match’s first break of throw at the start of the third and went 2-0 up in the set but couldn’t see it off, missing six set darts before Turner won the next three legs, the last with a 116 finish, to move 2-1 up.
Another big break went Duff’s way in the fourth set and this time he made it count to seal the set, level the match once again and force a decider.
There, it was Duff’s big stage experience that proved the difference maker as legs in 16, 14 and 18 darts helped book his spot in the quarter-finals with an 87.98 average.
Next up for the Northern Irishman will be the quick Dutchman Chris Landman.
Klaasen wins a classic against fellow Dutchman Olde Kalter
An all-Dutch affair kicked off Thursday evening’s proceedings and it proved to be a Lakeside classic that saw Jelle Klaasen dig deep and survive match darts to reach the quarter-finals.
‘The Cobra’ threw five 180s and averaged nine points higher than his compatriot Dennie Olde Kalter but he had to rally from 1-0 and 2-1 down before sealing victory in a last-leg decider.
After dropping the first set 3-1, Klaasen’s scoring came to the fore in the second set, a pair of 15-darters and an 11-darter helping him to level it up going into the break.
The third set was a finishing clinic, with Klaasen taking out 81 but ultimately losing out as 82 and 101 finishes helped to move Olde Kalter move ahead again.
Klaasen breezed through the fourth set 3-0, averaging 102.5 in the process, but he found himself 2-0 down in the decider as Olde Kalter pinned 65 and 106 to move to the verge of a massive win.
The 2006 World Champion levelled it up though, producing a 17-dart hold before taking out 134 against the darts to force a final leg where he had the darts. Both men were on 56 after 15 darts and both would squander two darts at tops but Klaasen wouldn’t miss a third time, finding the middle of the bed to win it 3-2.
Ashton survives a scare to beat Steenbergen
In her first Lakeside appearance since 2019, Lisa Ashton had to come from a set down to defeat Priscilla Steenbergen.
Steenbergen came flying out of the traps, producing finishes of 118 and 126 as she took the first set 3-0. ‘The Smurf’ took the opening leg of the second set as well but began to run out of steam after that and Ashton duly capitalised.
Ashton won the second set 3-1 and then captured the third set 3-0, the highlight being a 96 finish as she ran out a 2-1 winner with a 75.36 average.
‘The Lancashire Rose’ will return to the Lakeside stage on Friday evening to face off with Kirsty Hutchinson.
Lauby breezes through all-American clash with Gates
It was a tie that promised to go all the way but in the end it was fairly one-way traffic as Danny Lauby defeated compatriot Leonard Gates in straight sets.
Gates, who’d beaten Brian Corbett and John Scott in the earlier rounds, won the opening leg of the match but his finishing was very poor and he was punished as Lauby won three legs on the spin to take the first set.
That run of legs for Lauby extended to six as the former drum teacher pinned 68 to take the second set and establish an impressive 2-0 lead at the break.
Gates stopped the rot at the start of the third set, taking out 95, but he made no further inroads as Lauby, who finished with four maximums, took out 44, 121 and then tops to seal a 3-0 win with an 87.20 average.
Thursday 7th December Evening Session Results
Jelle Klaasen 3-2 Dennie Olde Kalter
Lisa Ashton 2-1 Priscilla Steenbergen
Neil Duff 2-1 Martyn Turner
Danny Lauby 3-0 Leonard Gates
All photo credit goes to Chris Sargeant / Tip Top Pics
