Delightful Dimitri but Dobey defeated

Dimitri van den Bergh lit up the Alexandra Palace on Friday night as he brushed aside Stephen Bunting to reach the 2nd Round at the World Championship. 

Chris Dobey though missed out as he lost to Phil Taylor in a nail-biting clash. 

But Van den Bergh was brilliant. A 104.17 average which turns out to be the highest ever average hit by a Belgian in a World Championship! 

The 23-year-old was in sparkling form to set up a 2nd Round clash with either Jelle Klaasen or Jan Dekker next Friday. 

"It is up there for the best performance of my career with it being here on this stage. That makes it extra special," the young Unicorn star said. 

Dimitri dazzled as he saw off Bunting in style by three sets to one. He will possibly believe he should have won 3-0, but this was another example of why Van den Bergh is going to be a big darts star. 

He actually started the match with five perfect darts and then superbly came from two legs to one down to take the opening set. Bunting missed one dart at 'tops' to win the set before Dimitri took it.

The second set was a cracker. Dimitri nailed 127 on the bull and a 72 finish before Bunting replied with a 170 out! But the Unicorn man started the next leg with a 177 and took out 88 to take the set with an 11 darter. 

Bunting came back to win set three after the Belgian missed key doubles and the fourth set brought the best out of Van den Bergh. 

Bunting started with a superb 148 finish. Then it went 70 Dimitri, 96 Bunting and 76 Van den Bergh. It went to another deciding leg and the Unicorn man brilliantly hit his 4th and 5th 180s to bring up match point. It took five darts but he eventually got there on D3.

Dobey will feel he missed a great chance of an upset. Taylor was clearly on edge as he started his last World Championship, but Dobey couldn't capitalise.

The first key moment in the match came in the fourth leg of the opening set. Dobey hit a second 180 to leave him on D18 to take the set. But Taylor managed to squeeze his last dart into D20 and the chance was gone. 

Dobey kept battling. From two sets down, he took the third courtesy of a superb 11 darter and should have taken the fourth set too. Then came the second key moment.  After taking out 104 to break, he blew two darts at D16 to win it and Taylor punished Dobey to squeeze through. 

Remember on Saturday night, Team Unicorn ace Gary Anderson starts his World Title bid against either Jeff Smith or Luke Humphries, while Unicorn stablemate Joe Cullen opens up against Jermaine Wattimena. 

Story from STUART PYKE in London

Photo courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC