• BDO World Championship

Double trouble for Stone as Wolfie powers on

ESPN staff
January 10, 2012
Martin Adams did not need to be at his best © Getty Images
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Defending BDO world champion Martin Adams remains the standard bearer in the 2012 Championship after powering to a 4-0 victory over Gary Stone to reach the quarter-finals.

Adams, who has won both the BDO World Championship and the World Masters on three occasions, was not at his imperious best on Tuesday, but he punished almost every error made by Stone. Operating with a checkout success rate in the region of 50 per cent, Wolfie was able to smile his way through a match that, in truth, should have been much tighter.

Stone was first on the board when taking the first leg at Lakeside, but Adams simply smiled confidently and responded with a 180 en route to levelling the scores. Uncharacteristically he afforded Stone a chance in each leg of the first set, but nevertheless walked away with the advantage after a series of missed doubles from the underdog.

The second went with the darts, which suited the champion because he threw first, and a 2-0 scoreline duly followed. After two sets both men had created an identical amount of attempts at the double, but Adams boasted double the success rate of Stone.

A century checkout further cemented Wolfie's authority at the start of third, and after three consecutive breaks of the throw Adams had a 3-0 lead. Stone's profligacy continued to the last, missing a simple double-10 checkout, and even in the last leg he wired out when finishing on 78 to hand Adams the victory.

Next up in the last eight for Adams will be eighth seed Tony O'Shea, who made surprisingly light work of Ross Montgomery. The 2009 finalist stormed into a 3-0 advantage against the No. 9 seed, who briefly rallied to stay in the contest, but when a desperation 130 checkout failed, O'Shea was left with a simple ticket to the quarter-finals.

Perhaps the result of the night was produced by Wesley Harms, who won 12 of the last 15 legs to knock out fourth seed Robbie Green. Harms had limped over the line after a flying start in the previous round, but this time the opposite was true as he came from behind to win 4-1.

With both players operating with averages below 100 in the opening two sets, it was Green who roared through the opener to love, only to then fail to win a leg in the second as Harms restored parity. The third set was also won to love by Harms, who then stepped on the accelerator to wrap up a surprisingly one-sided contest.

The night's opening match saw 12th seed Paul Jennings defeat Steve Douglas 4-2 to become the first man into the quarter-finals. Douglas had beaten fifth seed Gary Robson in the previous round, but his tournament was ended when he missed an 82 checkout, which was symptomatic of a night when he choked on a batch of shots at the double.

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