The World Grand Prix Darts kicked off on Sunday night from the Morningside Arena in Leicester and featured a shock.
The format which requires players to start with a double saw fifth seed and one of the front runners Dimitri Van den Bergh fall at the first hurdle to debutant Ryan Searle.
Defending champion Gerwyn Price was handed a tough encounter in the form of Michael Smith, but managed to get over the line with a 2-0 win.
Mervyn King keeps his crown
The action kicked off with debutant Dutchman Martijn Kleermaker taking on the experienced Mervyn King.
A closely-fought opening set saw King edge it out 3-2, before a much more comfortable second to book his place in round two.
The eccentric Dirk Van Duijvenbode was to face off against another debutant in the form of Luke Humphries.
Humphries did not play like a man making his first Grand Prix appearance has he swept aside the Dutchman in straight sets.
Another of the top 16 was to fall, and it was once again the debutants showing the experienced men how it was done.
The 2017 Grand Prix winner was to face Stephen Bunting next but there would be no title this year for the Northern Irishman as Bunting showed no signs of losing in another straight sets victory.
Joe Cullen who was a bullseye away from knocking Michael Van Gerwen out of the World Championships in December looked a shadow of that form as Ross Smith showed no signs of nerves to dispatch The Rockstar while only dropping one leg.
Dave Chisnall wins in three sets
The first game that would enforce a deciding third set was between Dave Chisnall and the Austrian Mensur Suljovic.
Chisnall stormed into a 1-0 lead by taking the first set 3-0, before Suljovic narrowly took the second to enforce a deciding set.
Chisnall’s class shone through in the end and a brilliant penultimate leg set him up to get the job done after a tie that swung both ways.
Two-time champion Wade also edges through
The two-time Grand Prix champion James Wade was next on stage against another debutant in Damon Heta from Australia.
Heta’s nerves looked to have shown in the opening set as he surrendered a two-leg lead while also missing four darts to take the opening set.
Wade made sure he was punished and seemingly dodged a bullet to take what at one point was an unlikely 1-0 lead.
Heta came out after the break firing however and put the misses from the previous set behind him to level the game up and send the match into the second deciding set of the evening.
A superb 121 checkout saw Wade strike first in the decider, before Heta struck back immediately.
A crucial moment then came as Heta missed double 16 for a break and to throw for the match, allowing Wade to step in and have to chance to do so instead.
Wade it was that edged into round two in style pinning the perfect bullseye, overcoming a thrilling encounter with the Aussie.
Defending champion Gerwyn Price through
One of the tastiest ties of the round saw defending champion Price face The Bully Boy Michael Smith.
The match sprung into life with the opening two legs which saw back-to-back ton-plus finishes, before Price stepped up his game to take the first set 3-1 whilst averaging an impressive 104.42.
Price eventually would prove too much for Smith and proved why he is the world champion as his average rarely dropped below 100 in beating the Bully Boy in straight sets.
Dimitri Van den Bergh stunned by Ryan Searle
The evening’s play concluded with one of the favourites for the title Van den Bergh against debutant Searle.
From the get-go the Belgian knew how tough it would be as Searle sensationally took the opening set with back-to-back checkouts of 80 and 150.
Van den Bergh took a comfortable second set three legs to one to send the match into another deciding set.
The drama was yet to come as Searle missed two match darts allowing Van den Bergh to sweep in and take it to a one leg shootout, crucially also having the throw.
Searle was to miss another match dart in the decider, but this would not matter as Van den Bergh missed three of his own which Searle made no mistake with on this occasion, securing arguably the biggest win of his career.
The action continues on Monday with Nathan Aspinall, Van Gerwen and Gary Anderson all kicking their tournaments off, with the action beginning from 6PM on Sky Sports Arena.
By Josh Mann
