Tabern survives late comeback from Smith to set up round two clash with Van Gerwen

Alan Tabern is through to Round Two of the PDC World Darts Championship but the Saint has to survive a late comeback from Raymond Smith to do so.

Tabern went two-nil up in sets but missed match darts before the comeback from Smith. Despite that though when it went into a decider he wrestled the contest back to set up a tie with Michael van Gerwen in Round Two. Tabern ended up taking the first set three-one with ‘The Saint’ marking his return to the Alexandra Palace stage in style. He extended his lead to two-nil in sets following this with a brilliant 71 checkout to cap it all off. He went on though to miss multiple match darts in the following set and this allowed a route back into the match for Smith. The Aussie then went on to tie the match up at 2 sets all to force a decider in a similar script to the first game. From there Tabern went 2-0 up in the deciding set and then completed the job to survive a real scare. for more information about the PDC World Darts Championship, including schedules and the prize fund breakdown. Friday December 14 Afternoon Session (1230) Michael Barnard (88.08) 3-2 (87.83) Jose De Sousa (R1) Alan Tabern (91.12) 3 (5) 2 (86.14) Raymond Smith (R1) Paul Nicholson v Kevin Burness (R1) Jamie Lewis v Cody Harris (R2)