Steve Beaton marches through to the 2nd Round of the 2024 Paddy Power World Darts Championship after beating youngster Wessel Nijman 3-1 at the Alexandra Palace.
The Bronzed Adonis after the game announced his retirement plans, bringing an end to his darting career at the end of next year’s PDC darting calendar.
“I think that was one of my best World Championship performances for a while. It was a really tough game, Wessel came out firing and I thought ‘I’m in trouble here’, but thankfully I found some good shots at the right times.”
The former Lakeside World Champion fell at the first hurdle on the world stage against another Dutchman in Danny van Trijp 12 months ago and was again tested in his contest with the Development Tour Number 3, hitting 6 perfect darts but not even getting a dart to win the leg due to the brilliance of his opponent.
The Winmau player came through a real battle in the opening set, finding a break of throw in the 3rd leg after hitting a 123 finish on the bullseye. The Englishman found double ten with his second dart to lead 1-0 at the first interval against Nijman who was making his debut on the Ally Pally stage.
The second set went with the darts and as Beaton threw first, he ran out a 3-2 winner and moved within a set of the 2nd Round, with the Bronzed Adonis not winning at a PDC World Championship since his victory over Fallon Sherrock in 2021.
Wessel was impressive in the third set having only afforded his experienced opponent a dart at double, finishing at a rate of 60% to reduce the arrears to just a set.
The 59-year-old included 5 180s and a 92.01 average in his opening round at the Alexandra Palace, breaking throw in the fourth leg of the fourth set before wrapping up victory on Double 6.
Beaton will face former Semi Finalist Daryl Gurney in an all Winmau clash in the Last 64 just before Christmas. He added:
“I think playing a tough game first sets me up nicely for my next game. I still get the same buzz after all these years, playing in front of that crowd is unbelievable with the support I get.”
Elsewhere, 3 Time Winner Michael van Gerwen averaged 98.17 in his opening 3-0 victory over Keane Barry, including the second 167 finish of the tournament in the 2nd set. James Wade became the first seed to fall at the Last 64 after Matt Campbell recovered from 2-1 down, to beat the former Semi Finalist 3-2 at the Alexandra Palace.
Day 6 sees Peter Wright start his 2024 World Championship campaign, the two-time winner stars in the evening session against Jim Williams, whilst Irish duo William O’Connor and Steve Lennon play in the First Round in the afternoon session.
2024 Paddy Power World Darts Championship:
Day 6 Results
Round 1:
Tomoya Goto 3-1 Ian White
Jeffrey de Graaf 3-2 Ritchie Edhouse
Boris Krcmar 3-1 Keegan Brown
Steve Beaton 3-1 Wessel Nijman
Mike de Decker 3-0 Dragutin Horvat
Ricardo Pietreczko 3-0 Mikuru Suzuki
Round 2:
Matt Campbell 3-2 James Wade (13)
Michael van Gerwen (2) 3-0 Keane Barry
2024 Paddy Power World Darts Championship:
Day 7 Order of Play
Afternoon Session
Round 1:
Radek Szaganski v Marko Kantele
Steve Lennon v Owen Bates
William O’Connor v Bhav Patel
Round 2:
Ross Smith (16) v Niels Zonneveld
Evening Session
Round 1:
Ryan Joyce v Alex Spellman
Richard Veenstra v Ben Robb
Christian Kist v Luke Littler
Round 2:
Peter Wright (4) v Jim Williams
—–Ends—–
Image: Taylor Lanning /PDC
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