After yesterday’s fantastic achievements, we were really hopeful of getting at least two or three players on the Finals stage. As far the women, that proved a little too big an ask.

Of the eleven Americans who reached this morning’s knockout, Tasha Stewart, Robin Curry, Carolyn Mars, Tanja Bencic, Sandy Haas, and Lisa Tyler, were immediate casualties. Some tough second-round draws saw Aaja Jalbert (against Scot Lorraine Hyde), ClayAnna Brandon (against vastly experienced German Irina Armstrong), Liz Tynan (against Norway’s Rachna David), and Tracy Feiertag (against New Zealander Wendy Harper) exit the tournament at the Top 64 stage.

This left the redoubtable Cali West. In her first match of the day, the girl from Syracuse, NY, saw off Scotland’s Lynsey Ward by a score of 5 legs to 2. At Top 32, Cali faced Italian Grand Masters Champion, Priscilla Steenbergen (Netherlands). The World # 19 opened in style with a brace of 18-darters, but West took two of the next three to keep it close. Sadly, that was as close as she was going to get…

On to the men, and Joe Chaney, Jason Brandon, and yesterday’s hero Robbie Phillips were soon gone. Agonisingly, all lost the deciding leg. Even more agonisingly, Joe missed three at 45 for the match, and Robbie missed six at 36 for the match!

As sad as that was, it is no sadder than the fact that not on, but TWO American qualifiers forfeited their opening matches today after missing their board calls…

Maine’s Jim Fitzsimmons went down in his opener also, but he did lose to Kevin Luke! Jim Widmayer and Danny Lauby Jr joined Kevin in the Top 64. All three safely negotiated their next matches, which left them two rounds from the stage.

Missed doubles were to cost Kevin against Austrian Christian Goedl, and without those, he would have been pushing a 100 average. More importantly, he would probably still be in the tournament. It was a similiar story for Jim Widmayer, who was edged out by Dutchman Kay Smeets.

It was now up to Danny Lauby to fly the flag, and he was really flying against Gary Stone.

The Scot was quickly two up, thanks to legs of 15 and 13. Lauby bounced back with a 14, followed by a swift 12 (180, 100, 180, 41). A more pedestrian 19 was backed up with a second 12 – which was quite impressive, seeing as the man from Terre Haute kicked off with 43! Scores of 140, 180, and a 138 checkout made it 4-2. Five turns later, it was “game over”.

To reach the quarter-finals on stage, Danny now faced Dutchman Martijn Dragt. Lauby threw first, and the first four legs all went with darts. That was the last double Dragt was to hit, and Danny Lauby had secured his spot in Sunday’s finals.

Tomorrow brings the men’s and women’s singles in the World Open, with the youth getting their World Masters underway. Live updates are available on DartConnect, and live streams are available from Winmau, WDF Darts, Nederlands Darts Bond, and Tungsten Tales

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