Hughes and West come through deciding leg thrillers to begin marathon opening session at European Championship

The opening session of the European Championship which sees 16 First Round ties has began with both of the ties so far going the maximum number of legs with Jamie Hughes and Steve West through.

Hughes to start proceedings snatched his tie against Dave Chisnall hitting back-to-back 180's and an 81 checkout which was an 11-darter to defeat the St Helens ace who many predicted could go on a run this weekend due to his current form. But it is the Tipton ace who is through.

Another player to dispel one of the potential favourites was West who saw off Krzysztof Ratajski in an impressive display which once again went all the way. He hit five 180's and 60% on the doubles.

It was a tie though that could have gone either way with it going 11 legs and 11 holds with 'Simply' squeezing through to the second round.

European Championship 2020 schedule

First round

Thursday October 29

Jamie Hughes (94.22) 6-5 (92.66) Dave Chisnall

Krzysztof Ratajski (99.76) 5-6 (95.19) Steve West

Mervyn King v Ian White

Jose de Sousa v Jeffrey de Zwaan

James Wade v Steve Lennon

Devon Petersen v Andy Hamilton

Michael Smith v Ross Smith

Danny Noppert v Dirk van Duijvenbode

Nathan Aspinall v Maik Kuivenhoven

Joe Cullen v William O'Connor

Rob Cross v Martijn Kleermaker

Jonny Clayton v Max Hopp

Michael van Gerwen v Darius Labanauskas

Gerwyn Price v Kim Huybrechts

Peter Wright v Gabriel Clemens

Mensur Suljovic v Daryl Gurney