SCOTT WAITES stormed into the second round of the BDO World Professional Darts Championship at the Lakeside Country Club, Frimley Green with a whitewash of Dutch ace Willy van de Wiel.
The Huddersfield star, who plays his local darts for the Forresters at Crosland Moor, had to wait until Monday evening to play his opening round in this year’s Championship, being drawn out as the last match in the bottom half of the draw.
But having to watch his main rivals begin their battles over the weekend didn’t affect the 35-year-old Waites who rattled off a lightning 3-0 win over the ‘Flying’ Dutchman.
“I’ve just been relaxing down at a local pub in Frimley Green with Garry Thompson (Waites’ Yorkshire county teammate from Silsden) playing against some of the locals,” said Waites, who had his father and a host of supporters from Huddersfield down at the world-famous Lakeside club.
“It’s a pity we couldn’t film the darts down there and then televise it, because the standard of some of the local lads is absolutely fantastic!”
Waites’ own standard wasn’t bad against Van de Wiel either. Although he missed a couple of doubles early on, his scoring was decent enough, averaging over 90 a throw, helped by five 180 maximums.
The Huddersfield-based player and No3 seed started with a 180 and a 13-dart leg and he then pushed on to an early lead before the fast-throwing Dutchman fought back with double five to level the set at 2-2.
But when Van de Wiel missed double three for the set, Waites stepped in to hit double top to clinch the opener and never really looked back.
Both players missed doubles at the start of the second, but despite Van de Wiel starting the final leg of the set with 180, it was Waites who took the set for a 2-0 lead.
Waites hit another 180 at the begining of the third set and hit more high scores to get down to a three dart finish for the set and eventually took out double four to record only the second 3-0 result of the first round.
Waites now tackles Belgium’s No14 seed Geert de Vos tonight at 5.30pm bidding for a place in the quarter-finals.
De Vos defeated England’s Tony Eccles 3-2 in his first round tie.
Huddersfield’s other representative at the Championships, James Wilson from Linthwaite, who throws for the Royal at Milnsbsridge, put up a good fight on his Lakeside debut before losing 3-2 to No1 seed Stephen Bunting.
