Michael van Gerwen will not resume his
European Tour dominance this weekend at least with
Stephen Bunting dumping out the Green Machine in a 6-4 win at the
Baltic Sea Darts Open in Kiel.
Bunting pounced on 12 missed darts at doubles from Van Gerwen to seal a 6-4 win in a tie in which one of those missed doubles was double 12 for a nine-dart finish from MVG.
This was in the opening exchanges which featured a 132 checkout from Bunting as Van Gerwen went 4-3 up but did not win another leg from there as the St Helens ace levelled up and after two missed darts from 80, Bunting had left double 20 after missing 114 himself but took the lead at 5-4.
Before following up a missed dart at double 20 from MVG by pinning double 10 for a first win in seven years.
Peter Wright though is into the final day with 'Snakebite' without his usual colourful hair still performing despite not doing so on the Premier League stage as of late.
He saw off James Wade in a 6-3 victory reeling off three legs on the spin from parity and hitting a 12-darter to claim it averaging 96.6 with a high checkout of 123 en route and is into the Last 16.
As is
Martin Schindler who also impressed in an all-German affair with Lukas Wenig with only 'The Wall' remaining in the reckoning tomorrow.
He won 6-4 with a 98 average and a high checkout of 130 in an entertaining clash to end the evening.