WDF World Championship Friday Round-Up | Shane McGuirk opens title defence as Nilsson and Muramatsu seal first round success

The opening night of the WDF World Championship at Lakeside saw Shane McGuirk open his account, while there were wins for Dennis Nilsson and debut success for Haruki Muramatsu, comeback kid Alex Williams and Clint Clarkson.

McGuirk would've been expected to make light work of Petri Rasmus as the imperious defending champion at the Lakeside and it looked like he would. But he was dragged into a sudden battle as the Finn found his game when McGuirk started to approach the finishing line and it could've easily have gone to a final set before 'The Arrow' finally pulled it out of the bag.

McGuirk opened up with a clean sweep in the opening set. Averaging around 85, he took his best leg in the opener with a 16-darter. He averaged 93 hitting double five in opening up. Rasmus opened up the second set hitting double nine to break the throw of McGuirk. He held throw to go 2-0 up but McGuirk hit back with a 115 checkout and 70 to make it 2-2 as he sent it to a decider.

He hit 180, 140 and 89 to leave 32. He missed darts to take the set but with Rasmus way back, he returned for 2-0. In the third set, Rasmus opened the lead after a miss dart from McGuirk albeit McGuirk eased to a 2-0 lead including a 74 checkout.

But as McGuirk attempted to seal the deal, he was dragged into an almighty battle as Rasmus took the set to go 2-1 down forcing 'The Arrow' into more action when it looked for all the will in the world he would speed through.

He opened the next set with a 60 checkout. McGuirk missed the chance to break and Rasmus took out 110 to make it 1-1. Rasmus broke with a 60 checkout to go one away from making it 2-2 in sets.

McGuirk hit multiple maximums and double eight to break back and it was another decider. He finally fell over the line with a 64 checkout.

Perhaps the leading talking point going into game one between Dennis Nilsson and Shane Sakchekapo was in fact the camera work on the WDF stream which was shaky at best. But it was Nilsson who remained rock steady in his start to his title tilt.

The Swedish strongman a comment always brought up when describing him weathered a superb opening set by the Canadian who had his chance early on. Sakchekapo went 2-0 up with a superb 13-darter. But Nilsson after a markably poor leg back got his foot in the door. A 15-darter featuring a 180 and double 20 which he had on the end of his darts like a string saw him level before he survived set darts in the decider.

But it was very much the Nilsson show from there as he hit 140, 128 and double 20 to go 1-0 up and then broke Sakchekapo's throw with a 120 checkout. An incredible 149 saw him scoop the set and he won the final set 3-1 to claim the win. Next up is 'Beets' James Beeton for a spot in the third round. But the experienced Swede is up and running.

Then it was the turn of the superb Welshman Alex Williams who took down Croat Romeo Grbavac. The latter has played World Cup and at Ally Pally so he knows the big stage perhaps more so than his opponent who has started to take the WDF circuit more seriously and made his debut.

But it was Grbavac who started the brighter. They shared four maximums though and hit two ton-plus finishes but it was Grbavac who took the opening set with an average of over 108. Grbavac doubled his lead in the race to three taking out a 120 finish to seal the second set 3-1.

But Williams came back like a train. He halved the deficit taking the third set 3-0. Williams continued that superb comeback as he won six out of seven legs in a row to come from 2-0 down to level up.

In the final set, he took out double 16 to lead 1-0. Williams was afforded a chance to break but Grbavac took a hold. It went all the way to a decider in which Grbavac had a match dart but in the end, Williams who missed one himself from 144 finally finished on double five and now faces Jimmy van Schie, the top seed.

Onto the ladies draw and it was the unique situation of Nina Lech-Musialka winning on her Lakeside debut but she isn't yet into the second round having had to play a play-off due to a screw up in the draw. Both the Pole and Mayumi Ouchi both receive first round money anyway so it didn't matter in that way.

But still it was a huge talking point going into the draw and after. But Lech-Musialka took down the experienced Japanese ace losing just a single leg in a straight sets win over the qualifier. The Pole now faces off against Priscilla Steenbergen tomorrow.

Clint Clarkson impressed at times in his victory too over Cliff Prior who despite winning the World Open just recently at the World Masters and is one of the best players away from the cameras in the WDF has not yet figured out the big stage.

Clarkson on the otherhand on debut did when it also looked like he was going to perhaps be embroiled in a bit of a battle late on when Prior hit an incredible 170 checkout to level up but Clarkson held his nerve and now faces Raymond Smith.

As Sybren Gijbels found a way past Kevin Luke in a 3-2 win. He came from a set down to defeat the American. They faced off last year and Gijbels repeated the feat again this year. He was a late replacement for Boris Krcmar who couldn't play and will hope to go one step further this time around.

Luke started well hitting two 180's and two breaks to take the first set 3-1. But Gijbels hit back with legs of 17, 18 and 18 darts to win the second 3-1 and level the scores at 1-1.

He was on a bit of a roll taking the third set to nil to take his winning run to six legs on the spin. But Luke hit back to produce finishes of 97, 102 and 120 to move into the decider. Gijbels though swept it to nil to render the previous set irrelevant. He now faces David Pallett.

Before as mentioned Shane McGuirk took to the oche, Haruki Muramatsu who has competed at the Ally Pally multiple times and could be one to watch this week saw off Vince Tipple. It is the first win also for the Japanese contingent after Mayumi Ouchi's exit earlier in what was a 3-1 success for Muramatsu.

It was a strong start for Muramatsu who produced a slew of 15 darters en route to opening the first 3-2. Tipple levelled up producing a pair of 17-darters to claim the second set 3-1 but Muramatsu soon moved back in front winning the third 3-0 and this saw him take control towards the finishing line. Next up 'Superman' Matt Clark.