This Saturday night in Minehead, the last 16 at the
UK Open is taking place. Among the early results on the main stage and Stage 2,
Dimitri van den Bergh and
Ricky Evans have progressed to the quarter-finals.
In the opening match of the main stage,
Jonny Clayton took on Dimitri van den Bergh. The Welshman has been struggling for form of late so with this run to the last 16 there were some positive signs. Sadly, the positives were few and far between early in this one as van den Bergh raced into a 6-1 lead. Although Clayton had a moment of magic with a 155 finish, the Belgian went off for the second break, 7-3 ahead.
After the break though, Clayton pulled another leg back before firing in a brilliant 122 to get back to within two legs at 5-7. Van den Bergh held firm on his throw in the next leg, taking out 225 in five darts to restore the three-leg advantage. Clayton though, refused to give up and reeled off the next two to get back to 8-7. When he couldn't pin 106 to level though, van den Bergh punished and moments later finished off the Welshman with a 10-7 victory.
On Stage 2, Ricky Evans raced through to just the second Major TV quarter-final of his career with a 10-6 victory over
Luke Woodhouse, who had earlier defeated Michael Smith.