• PDC World Championship

Two nine-darters in an hour as Jenkins bows out

Terry Jenkins hit a nine-dart finish and a 170 checkout yet still does not know how he lost to Per Laursen © Getty Images

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Terry Jenkins had the Alexandra Palace crowd on their feet with the first nine-dart finish of the 2014 PDC World Championship but suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 defeat to the hands of qualifier Per Laursen, before Kyle Anderson hit the second perfect leg in the space of an hour in North London.

Jenkins completed the feat - which would have earned him £30,000 had Anderson or no other player achieved the same in the duration of the tournament - in the deciding fifth set of his first round match with the Dane, who went on to win the contest by two clear legs.

Not only did Jenkins complete a nine-dart finish on the stage at Ally Pally, the seven-time major finalist also landed the first 170 checkout of this year's event earlier in the match - before stating he does not know what he has to do to win a match.

The perfect leg

• Minutes after losing to Per Laursen, a devastated Terry Jenkins jokingly quipped that, knowing his luck, there would be another seven nine-darters in this year's event and he'd end up having to share the £30,000 pot.
• Barely an hour later, Kyle Anderson broke Jenkins' heart again as he flicked in a 141 finish for the perfect leg. It was a sixty minute spell which turned the crowd into a sea of flailing limbs, the press room into a frenzy of re-writing and, ultimately, tore one man's heart from two pieces into four.
• While impressive and entertaining on television, the pros are reluctant to admit nine-darters happen more often in practice. Twice in ten minutes for Adrian Lewis, when trying out new darts.
• Rob Bartlett, ESPN

Laursen had already competed on Saturday, seeing off Colin McGarry in the qualifying match, and Jenkins admitted he was at a loss as to why his opponent played so well.

"I was surprised at the way he played after his first match," Jenkins said. "I was practicing in the practice room and I could see the weakness in his game - I didn't expect to see him play as well as he did. He hit the big finishes at the right time, and that's all that won him the game really.

"I always have it tough wherever I go, whoever I'm playing. If I played someone who has never played before in their life, they'd have over 100 average against me."

Anderson became the second player of the tournament to hit a perfect nine-dart leg and lose the match as he bowed out to Ian White.

The Australian showed no sign of nerves on the big stage, opening with a brilliant 110 finish to break throw, before taking the set. White squared the game with a tops finish to make it one set apiece and whitewashed his opponent in the third to move clear, taking six legs on the spin.

However, Anderson stepped up and responded in the most perfect fashion, hitting two 180's and finishing 141 to take a share of the spoils with Jenkins. It did not faze White, who went on to checkout a marvellous 112 to break throw before claiming victory by holding the fourth leg.

Kevin McDine set up a potential tie with Michael van Gerwen after coming back from 2-1 down to defeat Wayne Jones.

World No. 70 McDine won the opening set, but Jones rallied to move in front. However, missed doubles from the Wolverhampton man allowed McDine to level, finally finishing double two after seeing his opponent waste 11 chances to win the match.

'I nearly gave up when I lost my brother'

Justin Pipe is darts' Mr Nice © Getty Images

• Ahead of the PDC World Darts Championship, Justin Pipe talked to ESPN about why he almost quit the game, how he had to teach himself to throw a dart again and how he still feels the effects of his paralysing injury today
• Read more of Justin Pipe's story here

It clearly affected Jones as McDine capitalised in the decider, sealing the win in style with a 12-dart leg to advance to the next round - where he could face the dangerous Dutchman.

"There's a chance - he might not get through yet!" McDine told ESPN. "I'm just enjoying myself. I'll take each game as it comes and see what happens on that day. I've got a week to my next game, I'm going to chill out a bit and obviously hit the practice board. I'll take the next game as it comes, as I do all the time.

"Nerves are a dodgy thing, sometimes I don't get nervous at all. But in that pivotal leg where it was for two sets each, I think both our bottle went to be fair - and I held it the best. I think both of us were a bit nervous in patches, but I felt comfortable. I tried to laugh it [so many missed doubles] off and, as it happens, it went in next dart."

Earlier on Saturday, Jarkko Komula reached the second round at Ally Pally for the first time in his career with a 3-1 win over Mark Walsh. The Finn edged a tight first set thanks to a clinical 126 checkout, before sealing the second set with a run of 13, 14 and 15 dart legs.

Walsh responded with a 118, before back-to-back 121 finishes put him back in the match. The fourth set went to a deciding leg, which saw 'Special Brew' miss five darts to send the match into a decider. Komula wasted six chances for the match, but landed double 14 on his seventh attempt to seal the win and earn his first ever appearance in the second round on the big stage.

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