De Sousa continues impressive form with victory over Labanauskas, Thornton and Hughes dumped out as first round concludes in Gibraltar

The first round has concluded at the Gibraltar Darts Trophy with Jose de Sousa, David Francis and Ritchie Edhouse moving through to Day Two.

De Sousa put in the performance of the day so far continuing his impressive form as of late who averaged 103.65 in a 6-2 win over Darius Labanauskas. His brilliance was shown; by him becoming yet another player to miss the nine-dart finish and he went similarly close to Ryan Joyce earlier.

On the other hand David Francis against Robert Thornton can be a match that many will want to forget in a hurry. The Gibraltar qualifier had not won a leg even before today on the European Tour; but gained four in quick succession against Thornton.

'The Thorn' returned with some impressive darts but the crowd were firmly disliked by the multiple major champion; it put both him and his opponent off when the finishing line was firmly in sight.

This meant the final leg was a 31 darter from Francis; with Thornton firmly showing his disdain towards the crowd afterwards. 'The Ronin' though gets another crack at Gerwyn Price who he faced last time he was in Gibraltar which saw him lose 6-0.

Finally Ritchie Edhouse showed one again that he is a force to be reckoned with dumping out Jamie Hughes, a champion this year on the European Tour.

It wasn't the best from either player but he capitalised on poor doubling from Hughes (3/18) to claim the victory with 6/18. Hughes scored better but that let him down and as a result 'Madhouse' keeps his slim hopes of European Championship qualification alive.

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Evening Session (1915 local time, 1815 BST)
Jeffrey de Zwaan (96.35) 6-3 (86.12) Steve West
William O’Connor (85.8) 4-6 (85.19) Chris Dobey
Keegan Brown (93.46) 5-6 (93.19) Danny Noppert
Anthony Lopez (71.82) 4-6 (76.84) Michael Rosenauer
Dimitri Van den Bergh (93.09) 6-3 (93.26) Scott Taylor
Darius Labanauskas (94.45) 2-6 (103.65) Jose De Sousa
Robert Thornton (72.32) 4-6 (72.64) David Francis
Ritchie Edhouse (87.99) 6-3 (84.3) Jamie Hughes