Warburton impressive in Prins win on Lakeside debut, O'Brien recovers from poor start to end run of Noijens

Mike Warburton is seen as many as a dark horse in this year's WDF Lakeside World Championship and he delivered on that with a deciding set win over Dave Prins.

It was a quality opening set but Warburton took the lead after Prins missed a set dart and the Welshman hit double six to take the lead.

It was the big finishes that dominated the second as Prins hit the highest checkout in 160, but this was immediately beaten by Warburton with a 164 but it was ‘The Badger’ that closed it out.

It was Warburton who took the lead at 2-1 with a superb double-double 96 checkout helping him en route to a whitewash third set.

But that didn’t prove a catalyst as Prins sent it all the way with a brilliant final leg and it was sent to a deciding set. It went all the way to a deciding leg with Warburton taking out 78 after back-to-back 140’s. 

While Maria O'Brien came back from a stuttering opening set and found her scoring power to complete a turnaround and end the run of Marjolein Noijens.

Noijens after going 1-0 down swept through the opening set 3-1 to potentially bring about an early shock. But the seventh seed hit back sealing the second set 3-1 with a 46 checkout.

Both held to begin the deciding set and this continued with O’Brien kicking into gear with a 140 followed by two 100’s and 103 to leave 32 which she pinned for an 18-darter.

She missed an 82 checkout to seal the win but returned for double 10 with Noijens well back.