Nathan Aspinall makes winning return to Euro Tour as Peter Wright survives last leg decider and Van Barneveld sails through to round 2 at Hungarian Darts Trophy

Nathan Aspinall has made a winning return to the Euro Tour in Budapest. With a 6-3 win over Krzysztof Ratajski, 'The Asp' is through to round 2 at the 2024 Hungarian Darts Trophy. Elsewhere, Peter Wright survived a last leg decider with Joe Cullen, before Raymond van Barneveld moved comfortably past Ritchie Edhouse.

Earlier this week, Aspinall made his return to the PDC circuit after a month and a half of injury rehabilitation at the Players Championship tournaments in Wigan. Now, on his return to European Tour action, the former World Matchplay champion looked reasonably strong, averaging 93.72, with a highlight being a stunning 120 checkout. With this win over Ratajski, Aspinall sets up a second round clash with Danny Noppert in Hungary.

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In one of the pick of the opening round ties, two former Premier League Darts finalists went head to head as Peter Wright battled Joe Cullen. Both men have had their struggles in 2024, but Wright especially has picked up form of late. Early in this one though, it was Cullen who fired out of the blocks, holdings throw in the opener before breaking 'Snakebite' in the second to move two clear.

As mentioned though, Wright has been back near his best lately and wasn't going to go down without a fight, reeling off the next two legs without reply to get back to level terms. With the next six legs all going with the darts, the tie was sent to a deciding leg. Cullen had the advantage of throwing first in the 11th leg, but with a 12-darter finished on double 12, it was Wright who got himself over the line and into the second round.

In a somewhat scrappy opening to the next game, both Raymond van Barneveld and Ritchie Edhouse had chances to take an early lead. In the end though, it was the legendary Dutchman who took the opening leg on throw. 'Barney' took leg 2 as well, breaking the Edhouse throw in 16 darts and then, after holding on double 16 in leg 3, the five time champion of the was suddenly 3-0 up.

Missed doubles came to the fore once again in leg 4, with both players missing a hat full on the outer ring. Eventually, it was a relieved Edhouse who took it with his 24th dart of the leg. With the next few legs going on throw, in the 8th, Van Barneveld got himself a shot for the match. After he failed to find double 18, Edhouse was on hand to punish and keep himself alive, albeit 5-3 down. Sadly for Edhouse though, it wasn't the start of an epic comeback as he couldn't put pressure on Barney's throw, leaving the Dutchman to pin double 10 second time of asking for victory.

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