Connor Scutt sends Grand Slam finalist Martin Lukeman out at first hurdle in Minehead

The first round continues at the 2024 Players Championship Finals with Connor Scutt who showed good early form at the Grand Slam of Darts taking down the finalist in Wolverhampton in Martin Lukeman.

'Smash' lost out heavily in the final to a certain Luke Littler and seemed to suffer a bit of a hangover from a long week heading straight to Minehead with an impressive 6-4 win for Scutt. 'Sniper' who will return to the PDC Tour in full during 2025 excelled on the Challenge Tour and did enough in his appearances as a reserve to book his spot.

He averaged almost 99 in his 6-4 success to put himself into the second round hitting three 180's and this scoring power held the key despite missing 13 darts at the outer ring.

Prior to that, 2021 runner-up Ryan Searle who hails from just down the road and was one of the top seeds after his exploits on the ProTour this season was beaten in a comeback win by Jeffrey de Graaf.

It was impressive from the Swede who originally was born and represented the Netherlands. He came from 5-3 down against 'Heavy Metal' to register a 6-5 win with six 180's and 60% on the outer ring.

For Searle, he will back home in no time at all but still being from just down the road is both a blessing and a curse it seems as he suffers a swift exit this year against the dangerous De Graaf.

On stage two, it was the comeback train also as Ryan Joyce came from 4-2 down to secure a 6-4 win over Karel Sedlacek. While a ProTour victor this year and double World Master, Wesley Plaisier will also finally make his step up to the pro ranks in 2025 like Scutt and he saw off Mensur Suljovic on Stage Two.

In reality, it wasn't pretty from either but didn't matter a jot for the Dutchman who will be a danger to the top names now he is into the second round.