The last 16 at the Grand Slam of Darts got underway in Wolverhampton, and Luke Humphries defied injury to take a power-packed 10-3 second round win against Jurjen van der Velde at WV Active but Luke Woodhouse’s impressive run came to a dramatic close.
Humphries woke with a suspected back spasm, and was close to pulling out of the event, but defied the pain to turn in a superb display, averaging 108.55 in a thrashing of the young Dutchman. The World number one blitzed his way into a 7-0 lead, and although van der Velde found a riposte late on, finishing 164 in defiance, Cool Hand ended the contest with ten successes at the double from 13 attempts, and he emphatically secured a quarter final place.
Michael Smith will be next up for ‘Cool Hand’, as the St Helens native edged a thriller against Chris Dobey, prevailing 10-9. Dobey held a 5-2 lead, but Smith rallied admirably, finishes of 164, 94 and 86 seeing ‘Bully Boy’ into a 7-6 advantage.
Five darts for a 9-7 lead went by the wayside though for Smith, allowing Dobey to level, but a 76 finish put Smith a leg away from glory, only for Dobey to defy two missed Smith match darts to force a decider. There, the two combined to miss 18 match darts before Smith fell over the line by finding double four for a memorable win.
Gerwyn Price was involved in a match of three stages in a 10-6 win against Martin Schindler, finding a solid start and end amongst a patch middle of his win against ‘The Wall’.
Price was pegged back after holding an early 6-2 lead, but a sublime 170 finish clicked the Welshman back into gear to lead 7-5. Consecutive checkouts of 86 and 95 put Price 9-6 up, and he completed the job to keep on course for a fourth Eric Bristow Trophy.
Ricky Evans was the first player into the quarter finals on the night, producing a stirring and trademark quickfire comeback to take a 10-9 win against Luke Woodhouse that saw him book a Price rematch in the last eight.
It was a nervy opening few legs from both, and Evans paid the price for missing darts for a 5-3 lead, eventually slipping 8-5 down to the man from Bewdley. ‘Rapid’ leapt into action, a superb comeback ignited by his fast throw gaining even more speed in the closing stages, and he found tops in the deciding leg to break more ground at the Grand Slam, making the last eight for the first time.
The remaining quarter finalists will be known on Thursday evening, with the last 16 coming to a close.
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Images: PDC
