Luke Humphries and Rob Cross are through to the second round at the 2021 European Championship both claiming hard fought wins as the opening night of action continues.
Humphries held his nerve to edge past Callan Rydz in a 6-5 win in a tie between two of the game's best prospects.
'Cool Hand' couldn't keep his cool to start the tie as Rydz edged ahead 3-2 at the first interval after the former fluffed his lines on the finish.
Humphries kept pace though with consecutive break of throws en route to making it 4-4. More costly missed darts at doubles for Humphries saw Rydz lead 5-4 but it was another break with 'Cool Hand' sending it all the way with a 64 checkout.
A 68 checkout with Rydz sat on 114 sealed it for Humphries who now moves through.
While for Cross, it is an important week in the context of his ranking with the potential to drop towards the top 30 in the world.
This is due to him defending winnings from two years ago when he claimed the title but he made a scrappy start against Keane Barry in the quest to stop that.
It was a 6-3 win with an 84 average and a high checkout of 148 for 'Voltage'. He only hit 6/21 on doubles but this was compared to only 3/14 from Barry showing the scrappy nature of the tie as he won through 6-3.
ππ¨π π£ππ₯πππ¦ ππ’ππ¦ π§ππ₯π’π¨ππ! He was almost made to pay for missed doubles, but Luke Humphries comes through a last-leg decider against Callan Rydz. Some power scoring in the last two legs got the former World Youth Champion over the line.
