TheOche.com

Coming off his victory in May at the inaugural North American Darts Championship “Big Daddy” Darin Young, for years one of the most popular players on the US circuit, showed today why he is also one of the most feared.

His battle this afternoon and ultimate 6-4 defeat of England’s Martin Burchell woke up the home crowd and assured the Pennsylvanian of a minimum $6,000 payday for his effort.

After a bit of a slump midway into the match Young brought his fans to their feat with a spectacular 158 checkout on the testy double nineteen to move ahead 5-3 but then brought moans with a missed bull shot for the match, letting his opponent stay alive by tagging the double sixteen. In the tenth leg though Big Daddy left no prisoners, closing the deal with tops – and moved into the final sixteen for the second year running.

Young missed advancing to the quarter finals last year when he fell by a whisker to Dennis Smith 8-7. Few will doubt that in two days time Young plans to flirt with any whiskers other than those two or three that still wander about on the top of his head. “That was very hard work,” he said afterwards, acknowledging the trouble he had finding his range in the middle legs. “Luckily I came out on top in the end… and hopefully I can get myself together and get past the second round on Friday.”

The day began with another crowd favorite – and favorite of darts fans everywhere – two times world champion Dennis “the Menace” Priestly ousting the most recent (and very wise) British Darts Organization (BDO) defector, Dutchman Co Stompe, 6-2. Even Stompe’s fans had to appreciate Priestley’s return after major surgery – and certainly Stompe was a class act in defeat, hugging the Menace and wishing him well going forward.

Read the entire article on Dartoid’s World.