Brown edges past Whitlock, Koch claims victory over Kuivenhoven including roof raising 170 checkout

The next three ties of the evening session at the European Darts Matchplay with two 170 checkouts the feature of the session so far with victories for Keegan Brown, Karsten Koch and Kim Huybrechts.

Brown saw off Simon Whitlock in a 6-3 win including two ton plus checkouts en route with the highest being a 147 checkout. The difference came for him on the doubles with 42 per cent hitting 6/14 as he moved through against his former mentor.

Koch on the other hand impressed in a sensational win over Maik Kuivenhoven also by the same scoreline. This was capped off with a roof raising 170 checkout in front of his home crowd in Mannheim.

Robert Thornton also hit the big fish but ended up losing out in a last leg decider 6-5 to Kim Huybrechts.

'The Thorn' should have claimed the victory missing tops for a 134 checkout and Huybrechts sent it all the way and claimed the victory in a frenetic tie which saw the former World Grand Prix champion denied.

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European Darts Matchplay 2019 schedule

Day one, evening session

Florian Hempel (77.92) 3-6 (82.22) Simon Stevenson
Jamie Hughes (91.49) 6-5 (90.93) Wesley Plaisier
Keegan Brown (85.46) 6-3 (90.23) Simon Whitlock
Maik Kuivenhoven (89.76) 3-6 (86.64) Karsten Koch
Robert Thornton (92.35) 5-6 (97.35) Kim Huybrechts
Michael Smith v Steve Lennon
Max Hopp v William O'Connor
Jeffrey de Zwaan v Wayne Jones