• BDO World Championship

Waites too hot for De Vos en route to quarters

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Tournament favourite Scott Waites advanced to the quarter-finals of the BDO World Championship on Wednesday, but there were holes in his performance as he beat Geert de Vos 4-1.

Waites, the tournament's third seed, has never been past the last-eight stage of the competition, but he will get another crack at it after he edged past the Belgian. Scotty 2 Hotty won the first leg of the night against the throw, but will know he needs to improve other areas of his game if he is to go further in the competition.

The 2011 World Masters winner whitewashed his rival to take the first set, but then suffered the same fate in the second as De Vos came to the party for 1-1.

Four missed darts at the double cost De Vos in the opening leg of the third, and six further missed arrows cost him in the second. A 121 checkout - Waites' biggest of the week at that stage - then re-established his advantage at 2-1.

It was the turn of Waites to struggle with the doubles in set four, falling behind 2-1 on legs as De Vos punished his profligacy. However, Waites turned on the style at a crucial moment in the match, checking out a 148 to steal into a 3-1 lead.

By and large it was De Vos' lack of accuracy that aided Waites' progression, with more doubles missed in the first leg of the fifth, and Waites closed things out with double-threes.

He will now face Paul Jennings, who laid down a marker by thrashing Jason Cullen 4-0 to reach the quarters for the second year in succession. Jennings checked out a 128 en route to a two-set lead, and he landed seven straight darts at a double to cement his advantage.

The 35-year-old claimed sets two and three in the space of 14 minutes as he strung together nine legs on the bounce, a run Cullen finally ended when he nailed his first double in 20 attempts. Jennings closed out an impressive performance with double-16s and will be feared in the last-eight.

The opening match of the night saw seventh seed Jan Dekker edge out Garry Thompson 4-3. In a tense encounter, Dekker's emotion poured out of him as he hit the final double to secure victory.

Dekker will meet Richie George in the quarter-finals after the Englishman beat Jimmy Hendriks 4-2 in a superb encounter. Hendriks started well, sweeping through the first set, but the high-scoring George began to find the treble-20s, sealing a 128 checkout to level the match at 1-1.

George's heavy scoring continued as he powered into the lead at 2-1, and a sixth 180 promptly arrived midway through set four. However, he missed three darts for the set to allow Hendriks back at 2-2. In a match that grew ever tighter George snatched the deciding leg of the fifth set to move within one of victory, and he held his nerve to see it out for a popular win.

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