International Darts Open Friday Evening Round-up | Cross and Cullen win last-leg deciders, Chisnall scrapes through as Manby excels on debut

The action continued at the International Darts Open with another eight first round ties fiercely competed. Former world champion Rob Cross was one of those headlining, and he played his part in a thriller against Dirk van Duijvenbode in the standout first round tie. He won 6-5 in a match which stayed on throw throughout the duration.

Cross only got into the tournament due to world number two Luke Humphries withdrawing. He was desperate for money to add to his ranking as the World Matchplay loomed perilously. After two very comfortable holds, van Duijvenbode had a brace of efforts to secure a first break but was not able to take out 92. Cross was then looming on 60 before ‘The Aubergenius’ took out 76 on double 18 to prolong the holds. Both players missed a double for a ton+ checkout – van Duijvenbode on double 16 for a 108 and Cross double 18 for a 121.

The score was deadlock at 4-4 after van Duijvenbode’s dart just stayed in the bull segment for a 127 finish. Van Duijvenbode’s frustrations started to boil over. He was gesturing to someone who whistled in the crowd after a fifth dart to break in the ninth leg was missed as Cross was let off the hook. However, these frustrations turned into fuel with some big scoring that led to a 104 checkout. The trend continued in the final leg as van Duijvenbode was unable to mount any challenge on the Cross throw, leaving the stage seething as Cross kept himself with his competitors fighting for Blackpool.

The Matchplay conundrum was the same for others. It was not a convincing performance by Dave Chisnall, ‘rubbish’ in his words. Nevertheless, he was fortunate to come up against an under-performing Liam Maendl-Lawrance. Chisnall won six of the last seven legs to secure safe passageway into the second round with a 6-3 win.

After the first three legs, both players were averaging under 80. Maendl-Lawrance had broken the throw, but a 14-dart hold got ‘Chizzy’ on the board. The German got himself back ahead with a 16-dart break on double two once more. Two breaks occurred following this before Chisnall took out a brilliant 138 outshot. More missed doubles saw both players sat in the madhouse. Chisnall pinned it to go one away and out of nowhere took out 110 on double 18 for a fine ending. He stays in 20th in the PDC Order of Merit in the race to Blackpool but there is a fine chance of building on that in Riesa.

Kevin Doets very much enjoyed his first visit to the International Darts Open. He had a tricky customer in the form of Tom Bissell who was bypassed with an eye-catching 6-0 win with ‘Hawkeye’ boasting a 102.48 average while missing one double.

Doets hit a 180 in all of the first three legs, missing one double and punishing missed opportunities by Bissell to sail 3-0 clear. Two breaks of throw were mixed in there, giving Bissell a mountain to climb. ‘The Bizzness’ job was made tougher after missing a dart for a 61 checkout. Seemingly inevitably, 70 went in two and Doets powered even further clear.

While maybe not as comfortable for Charlie Manby on paper, a 6-3 win flattered a hugely underwhelming Niko Spriner. The 20-year-old had previously played Springer twice and lost both 4-0. On his Euro Tour debut, he continued to live up to the hype with a very convincing performance.

Springer started poorly. Manby quickly settled into the environment, not bothered by the German crowd who were witnessing their player fall to a 3-0 lead. Springer needed a spark and felt like he got it at with a 92 checkout utilising the double 18 segment twice. After Manby restored his three-leg cushion with an 11-darter, Springer wired the bull for a 170 outshot. He did not need to go for it, but it would not bite him back as he nailed double four. Manby moved one away from the win before missing a first match dart. The German’s 112 checkout was the final noticeable thing he did before ‘Champagne’ got the job done and dusted, passionately celebrating a maiden success on the Euro Tour.

2020 champion Joe Cullen was tested in a tight clash against Chris Landman. It went the distance but was played at a very fast pace as decisive breaks and doubles went the way of Cullen as he won 6-5.

After three very comfortable holds, Cullen had the first dart to break. Not only did he miss double 16 for a 64 checkout, but Landman came back in the next leg and took that out on tops for a break of his own. ‘The Rockstar’ pinned double four and was level instantly. Missed doubles by Cullen followed and were subsequently punished by ‘The Countryman’ who went 5-3 to the good. Landman’s thoughts of a last-leg decider were premature when he mistakenly fist pumped Cullen after the former Masters champion held. An 11th leg would come after Cullen took out a clutch 112 checkout. He almost backed it with a 125 checkout before returning for tops to culminate an entertaining match.

William O’Connor has never got past the last-32 stage in Riesa. He has the chance to break new ground tomorrow against Wessel Nijman after averaging over 95 in a very good 6-2 win over Paul Krohne.

O’Connor found himself around 200 points behind in the first leg when Krohne was on double six but somehow won the leg for a break. He then teased the nine-darter with seven perfect darts but could only finish in 13. A 110 checkout followed and ‘The Magpie’ had a break lead. Krohne prevented the whitewash but could not make it back-to-back as O’Connor moved one away. He missed a match dart for a 120 checkout, but did not make the same mistake on the bull for a 121 to seal a very commendable victory.

Krzysztof Ratajski and Cristo Reyes did not produce their best performances, but it was ‘The Polish Eagle’ who was the slightly more clinical on the outer ring, taking his chances to prevail 6-4.

The match began with four breaks of throw, which was followed by four holds. Ratajski started in style with a 126 outshot before Reyes got back level. The Spaniard took a 3-2 lead after holding for the first time and possibly should have moved 5-3 ahead after missing a number of doubles. This came to brutally bite him back with Ratajski taking out 84 for an 11-dart break. He then sewed the tie up on double 16 for a hard-fought win.

The final first round contest was hyped up to be a thriller, but in the end was a very tame end to the evening. Kim Huybrechts would not mind as he thrashed a very poor Daryl Gurney 6-2.

Huybrechts flew out of the blocks or at least compared to a sluggish Gurney. ‘The Hurricane’ broke to commence proceedings before doubling his lead. Gurney looked likely to get on the board but made a hash of things. Going for the bull when not needing to and missing big numbers saw him go a double-break behind. Huybrechts almost made a mess of it himself on the outer ring but was able to edge two away from glory. Gurney could not muster up a response with a handful of doubles missed at double 16. That segment was also not found by the Belgian who allowed Gurney to get a leg on the board.