Wade survives late comeback from Smith, Chisnall ends session with win over Lewis

The duo were level for most of the contest with Wade going 4-3 up with a 130 checkout being the highlight. Smith replies in kind levelling it up before Wade went one away. ‘Smudger’ nearly forced a decider with a 125 checkout. He missed two darts at double eight and ‘The Machine’ made no mistake in making it through with double 6.
Finally Dave Chisnall came through his first round clash with Jamie Lewis. He saw him off 6-4 in a game after being 2-3 down at the first interval. It was a 97 average though for Chizzy with six maximums and 37 percent of his doubles along the way.
The action at the Reds Bar on Stage Two concluded with wins for Stephen Bunting and Madars Razma. Bunting claimed the win over Richard North in an absolute thriller. Despite ‘The Bullet’ having all of it in the opening stages, North roared back to 3-3.
From there it was a clash that wasn’t short on nail biting drama with the first deciding leg of the day occurring. It was the St Helens ace though who came through it in the end with either player having chances to win the clash.
Razma picked up the scalp of Mickey Mansell. The Latvian has played well towards the back end of this year and continued that here.
Like the previous game on this stage it was also very close with ‘Razmatazz’ taking out 147 and 99 along the way to gain a 5-4 lead. Mansell had chances to pull the game back to 5-5 but Razma got over the line to see off the Northern Irishman.
Click here for more information about the Players Championship Finals.
Friday November 23
First Round
Afternoon Session (1245 GMT)
Main Stage
Jeffrey de Zwaan 6-4 Jelle Klaasen
Max Hopp 6-4 Steve West
Keegan Brown 6-3 Benito van de Pas
Adrian Lewis 6-2 Adam Hunt
Simon Whitlock 6-4 Kyle Anderson
Daryl Gurney 6-3 Robert Thornton
James Wade 6-4 Ross Smith
Dave Chisnall 6-4 Jamie Lewis
Stage Two
Brendan Dolan 6-4 Michael Barnard
Ryan Searle 6-2 Josh Payne
Nathan Aspinall 6-1 Martin Schindler
Gabriel Clemens 6-3 Andrew Gilding
Steve Lennon 6-2 Ryan Joyce
Mervyn King 6-4 Simon Stevenson
Stephen Bunting 6-5 Richard North
Madars Razma 6-4 Mickey Mansell
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