"Nothing wrong with that – We want the banter": Jonny Clayton brushes off Basel boos with 106+ average in awesome Aspinall win

Jonny Clayton produced a superb display to move into the last 16 of the Swiss Darts Trophy, averaging 106.74 in a 6-4 victory over Nathan Aspinall.

The Ferret was at his clinical best in the early stages, taking out a 124 checkout and regularly sitting around the 110 mark. Yet despite Clayton’s heavy scoring, Aspinall refused to let him pull away, staying on his shoulder throughout the contest.

It was the Stockport man who nearly forced a last-leg decider, narrowly missing the bull for a 90 checkout. By then Clayton had already missed six match darts, and tension grew inside the Basel arena. Finally, double two sealed it for the Welshman, although his average dipped a touch after the prolonged finish.

“I put some good averages in, but I missed too many darts before that,” Clayton admitted post-match. “Still, I got over the line in the end and I enjoyed that game. Obviously, I’m here to win a tournament, so that was just the start.”

Aspinall’s resistance was no surprise to Clayton, who knows how dangerous the former UK Open champion can be.

“Yeah, 100%,” he said. “That just shows the calibre of Nathan and the players today. I’m chuffed to bits to get over that line, and hopefully I can get over a few more this weekend.”

Clayton also laughed off questions about his unusual preparation on Friday, when he and Luke Humphries went for high-altitude training in the Swiss mountains. Both went on to post ton-plus averages in Basel.

“It’s the same weather we get back in Wales, so I didn’t find it cold at all,” Clayton joked. “But all jokes aside, it was nice. It was one hell of an experience yesterday to do that, and now it’s down to business. It’s a good start.”

The Basel crowd played its part in the contest, though some boos rang out as Clayton lined up his winning dart. The Ferret was quick to stress that he took no offence.

“Yeah, I think so,” he smiled. “There was nothing wrong with that. The crowd were fantastic. They were behind me and they were behind him, and that’s what we want as players. You want the banter, you want the chants. Thank you very much guys – keep it up.”

Clayton now moves forward with momentum and confidence, his mixture of heavy scoring and good humour ensuring the Basel crowd saw one of the matches of the day.