Aspinall has been excellent over the past week or so reaching his first final since winning the UK Open in March and has continued in that vein by brushing Kim Huybrechts aside. ‘The Asp’ claimed a 6-2 win and the doubling was the difference with 55 percent compared to the Belgian’s 18 percent. Hughes on the other hand struggled against Patrick Tringler only averaging 79 in his win despite him being in good form as of late. This was confounded with 19 missed darts at doubles en route. Van Barneveld claimed a routine victory over Mark Wilson winning 6-1 in the end. He now sets up a second round meeting with Mensur Suljovic in what is bound to be one of the games of the day on Saturday. Friday May 3 First round Afternoon session Conan Whitehead (89.86) 4-6 (96.59) Keegan Brown Boris Koltsov (91.37) 6-5 (80.68) Johan Engstrøm Jamie Bain (79.17) 1-6 (88.53) Steve Lennon Dietmar Burger (83.19) 2-6 (90.41) Tytus Kanik Stephen Bunting (87.20) 6-4 (85.05) Patrick van den Boogaard Ross Smith (73.53) 4-6 (81.56) John Henderson Darius Labanauskas (103.98) 6-1 (86.00) Michael Rasztovits Mark Webster (86.77) 6-1 (80.40) Dirk van Duijvenbode Evening session Mark Barilli (82.65) 3-6 (88.47) Steve Beaton Andrew Gilding (96.56) 5-6 (95.76) Chris Dobey Diogo Portela (77.94) 1-6 (87.16) Ryan Searle Kim Huybrechts (87.27) 2-6 (87.69) Nathan Aspinall Jamie Hughes (79.65) 6-3 (78.69) Patrick Tringler Raymond van Barneveld (87.62) 6-1 (80.77) Mark Wilson Mervyn King v Devon Petersen Jeffrey de Zwaan v Banjamin Fasching