Debutant Waites sees off Campbell in sudden death World Championship epic

Saturday, 19 December 2020 at 15:15

Scott Waites and Matt Campbell have produced the match of the tournament so far at the 2020/21 PDC World Darts Championship with the two time Lakeside champion the victor in a sudden death epic.

Waites who is making his debut at the Alexandra Palace after making the successful switch from the BDO to the PDC this year was facing off against the CDC standout and came from 2-0 down in the deciding set to win through in a match that went all 25 legs.

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It was a high quality start to the tie with the first set going the way of the impressive Canadian who took out 160 in the deciding leg to hit the front. Between them, the scoring was superb with five 180's apiece.

The roles were reversed with Waites pinning double 16 in the decider to make it 1-1 in sets but it was still a very much closely ran affair.

This was the case again with Waites levelling it up with another double 16 to make it 2-2 in legs but he needed to break the throw of Campbell to go ahead.

This wasn't forthcoming with a 56 checkout seeing Campbell 2-1 up in sets. But this didn't prove vital as the next set went the distance once more with Waites holding his nerve on double four to save the match and take it to a fifth set.

Campbell claimed first blood in the set with a fourth 180 and double 16 for a 14-darter. He punished two missed darts at double from Waites and smashed in a 152 checkout to double his lead and head towards the finishing line.

But as this match showed, it wasn't done there with Waites holding throw to make it 2-2 and force sudden death in which Campbell was throwing for the match.

It was Waites though that survived the epic concluding a thrilling tie with an 81 checkout for an 11-darter.

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2021 PDC World Darts Championship schedule

Saturday December 19

Afternoon Session (12:00 GMT)

Steve Lennon (96.95) 3-1 (83.22) Daniel Larsson (R1) (3-1, 3-1, 1-3, 3-0)

Scott Waites (95.98) 3-2 (94.63) Matt Campbell (R1) (2-3, 3-2, 2-3, 3-2, 3-2)

Kim Huybrechts v Di Zhuang (R1)

Mervyn King v Max Hopp (R2)

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𝙒𝘼𝙄𝙏𝙀𝙎 𝙒𝙄𝙉𝙎 ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE FROM SCOTT WAITES!! What a game that was as we see every leg played and Scott Waites clinches it from Campbell by breaking in the last leg. Stunning stuff from both 👏