Michael van Gerwen is beaten by Jeffrey de Zwaan (Picture Chris Dean/PDC)
Michael van Gerwen is beaten by Jeffrey de Zwaan (Picture Chris Dean/PDC)

UK Open Darts: Michael van Gerwen and Peter Wright crash out on day one but John Part storms through on his dream return


World number one Michael van Gerwen and defending UK Open champion Peter Wright have both crashed out on an opening night of shocks in Minehead but John Part is making a memorable return to the TV stage.

(Click here for full tournament results & round-by-round draws)

What day one lacked in atmosphere due to the adverse weather conditions causing the action to be played behind closed doors with no spectators, was certainly made up by the immense drama caused by some incredible underdog displays.

Odds-on tournament favourite Van Gerwen entered the tournament at the third-round stage on Friday night and was 1/50 to see off Dutch youngster Jeffrey De Zwaan.

But the 21-year-old, who could have been backed at 14/1, showed no signs of nerves to pull off one of the biggest shocks in televised darts history by claiming a 10-8 victory.

MVG boasted a slightly higher average of 96.93 (de Zwaan 96.77) and managed three 100+ checkouts including a highest of 143 but his efforts were in vain against the impressive youngster, who hit six 180s.

"I can't believe it, I think I'm still dreaming," De Zwaan told www.pdc.tv. "It's one of the biggest wins of my career but I've played really well for a few months."

The magnitude of this result arguably eclipses MVG's first-round exit at the hands of John Henderson in the first round of last year's World Grand Prix.

Wright, 1/16, was also unanimously expected to see off 8/1 outsider Nathan Rafferty but the unheralded 18-year-old fought back from 9-8 down to sink Snakebite 10-9.

Few will have heard of the Northern Irishman before tonight but now he could have shown the world of darts what a bright future he may have.

Nathan Rafferty (Picture Chris Dean/PDC)
Nathan Rafferty in action during his shock victory over Peter Wright (Picture Chris Dean/PDC)

Raymond van Barneveld had survived an afternoon scare in the second-round against Mike Norton, who missed four match darts for a famous win before losing 6-5, but the Dutch veteran didn't last much longer as an inspired Mervyn King thrashed him 10-4.

Another former world champion bowed out as Adrian Lewis lost 10-5 to Dirk van Duijvenbode, who had earlier knocked out Alan Norris.

Ex-Premier League player Dave Chisnall was another notable casualty as he lost 10-6 to Ryan Meikle.

Interestingly, an accumulator of de Zwaan, Rafferty, King, van Duijvenbode and Meikle would have paid 38,880/1 with Sky Bet!

World champion Rob Cross avoided an upset with a hard-fought 10-8 win over Nathan Aspinall while Gary Anderson is vying for favourtism with Voltage after a 10-3 victory over Robert Rickwood.

There were also win for fellow Premier League players Michael Smith (10-5 Kirk Shepherd), Daryl Gurney (10-9 Jelle Klaasen) and Gerwyn Price (10-6 Alex Roy) but Simon Whitlock lost 10-7 to Ian White.

Price was one of our Chris Hammer's outright picks at 80/1 alongside 28/1 selection Corey Cadby, who won tonight, and they're prices will be a lot shorter now.

Meanwhile former three-time world champion Part, who is the star of the weekly Sporting Life Darts Podcast, hadn't qualified for an individual televised ranking event since the 2015 World Championship but his efforts just to get to Minehead were so nearly in vain due to Storm Emma.

Part was in Toronto on Wednesday before somehow getting to the freezing south west coast in time - no mean feat considering 11 players had to withdraw having failed to travel in the conditions.

Nevertheless the snow and icy conditions had already claimed Thursday night's Premier League fixtures in Exeter and there were doubts until Friday morning whether the 'FA Cup of Darts' would be staged at all.

Although the first proper major of the season at Butlin’s Minehead Resort was eventually given the all clear, the opening day's play was behind closed doors with no spectators allowed while the Main Stage games were moved to the smaller Red's Bar.

This robbed Darth Maple of a popular return in front of a big crowd while it was perhaps an even bigger disappointment to the 32 amateur players who booked their UK Open spots from the Rileys Qualifying events up and down the country over the past month.

The Canadian played two of those players during the afternoon - first defeating John Morris, a stone mason from Wolverhampton, 6-2 before thrashing Paul Whitworth 6-0.

A confident Part came back out for the evening session knowing just one more win would see him reach the weekend and he did so in emphatic fashion by putting Dave Evans to the sword 10-2.

Basingstoke-based delivery driver Paul Hogan was the best-performing Rileys Amateur Qualifier for a second successive year, as he defeated Darren Brown and Paul Nicholson to win through to the last 32.

The other three Rileys Amateur Qualifiers who won through to the third round, Harry Ward, David Airey and Darryl Pilgrim, all saw their runs in Minehead ended with losses to Chris Dobey, Jason Lowe and Steve West respectively.

Scroll down for the day's results and fourth-round draw

UK Open : Latest draws & results

Fourth Round (to be played Saturday - click here for UK Open schedule)

  • Paul Hogan v Jeffrey de Zwaan
  • Rob Cross v Kyle Anderson
  • John Part v Ron Meulenkamp
  • Robert Owen v Nathan Rafferty
  • Chris Dobey v Jason Lowe
  • Keegan Brown v Krzysztof Ratajski
  • Dirk van Duijvenbode v Gerwyn Price
  • Steve West v Matthew Edgar
  • Gary Anderson v Ricky Evans
  • Stephen Bunting v Jermaine Wattimena
  • Mervyn King v Jonny Clayton
  • Corey Cadby v Martin Schindler
  • Jamie Hughes v Ian White
  • Daryl Gurney v Kim Huybrechts
  • Ryan Meikle v Michael Smith
  • David Pallett v James Wade

Third Round

  • Jason Lowe 10-3 David Airey
  • John Part 10-2 Dave Evans
  • David Pallett 10-8 Robert Thornton
  • Ricky Evans 10-6 Luke Humphries
  • Jermaine Wattimena 10-8 Steve Beaton
  • Robert Owen 10-2 Jamie Lewis
  • Kim Huybrechts 10-8 Gabriel Clemens
  • Steve West 10-9 Darryl Pilgrim
  • Krzysztof Ratajski 10-7 Darren Webster
  • James Wade 10-6 Simon Stevenson
  • Nathan Rafferty 10-9 Peter Wright
  • Chris Dobey 10-2 Harry Ward
  • Matthew Edgar 10-4 John Henderson
  • Paul Hogan 10-6 Paul Nicholson
  • Jeffrey de Zwaan 10-8 Michael van Gerwen
  • Gary Anderson 10-3 Robert Rickwood
  • Michael Smith 10-5 Kirk Shepherd
  • Ian White 10-7 Simon Whitlock
  • Mervyn King 10-4 Raymond van Barneveld
  • Rob Cross 10-8 Nathan Aspinall
  • Daryl Gurney 10-9 Jelle Klaasen
  • Martin Schindler 10-7 Ryan Harrington
  • Dirk van Duijvenbode 10-5 Adrian Lewis
  • Gerwyn Price 10-6 Alex Roy
  • Stephen Bunting 10-3 Justin Pipe
  • Ryan Meikle 10-6 Dave Chisnall
  • Jonny Clayton 10-6 Michael Barnard
  • Ron Meulenkamp 10-4 Dave Prins
  • Kyle Anderson 10-7 Vincent van der Voort
  • Keegan Brown 10-8 Joe Cullen
  • Corey Cadby 10-5 Michael Rasztovits
  • Jamie Hughes BYE

Second Round

  • Alex Roy 6-4 Toni Alcinas
  • Gerwyn Price 6-2 James Wilson
  • Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-4 Alan Norris
  • Raymond van Barneveld 6-5 Mike Norton
  • Vincent van der Voort 6-3 Martin Biggs
  • Paul Nicholson 6-5 Richard North
  • David Evans 6-4 Benito van de Pas
  • Chris Dobey 6-5 Lee Evans
  • Paul Hogan Bye (John Goldie withdrew)
  • Ryan Harrington 6-3 Danny Noppert
  • David Airey 6-1 Stuart Kellett
  • Dave Chisnall 6-2 Rene Eidams
  • Kirk Shepherd 6-3 Vincent Kamphuis
  • Nathan Rafferty 6-3 Jason Mold
  • Robert Owen 6-4 Michael Burgoine
  • Jermaine Wattimena 6-0 Andy Hamilton
  • Luke Humphries 6-3 Wayne Jones
  • Stephen Bunting 6-2 Bradley Brooks
  • Joe Cullen 6-2 Jose Justicia
  • Keegan Brown 6-3 George Killington
  • Gabriel Clemens 6-0 Andrew Gilding
  • Jason Lowe 6-4 John Scott
  • Nathan Aspinall 6-3 Andrew Pullen
  • Ricky Evans 6-2 Carl Wilkinson
  • Michael Barnard 6-2 Cody Harris
  • Ron Meulenkamp 6-1 Joe Davis
  • John Part 6-0 Paul Whitworth
  • Harry Ward 6-1 Ted Evetts
  • Michael Rasztovits Bye (Maik Langendorf withdrew)
  • Ryan Meikle 6-4 Mark Craddock
  • Robert Rickwood 6-0 James Richardson
  • Darryl Pilgrim 6-4 Geert Nentjes

First Round

  • Paul Nicholson 6-5 Terry Jenkins
  • Ryan Harrington 6-5 Richie Burnett
  • Lee Evans 6-3 Dimitri Van den Bergh
  • John Part 6-2 John Morris
  • Alex Roy 6-2 Mark Walsh
  • Michael Burgoine Bye (Andrew Davidson withdrew)
  • Rene Eidams 6-4 Andrew Johnson
  • Michael Barnard Bye (Scott Robertson withdrew)
  • Bradley Brooks 6-4 Chris Quantock
  • Benito van de Pas 6-5 Cristo Reyes
  • Andrew Pullen Bye (Mark Rice withdrew)
  • Michael Rasztovits 6-3 Simon Tate
  • Luke Humphries 6-0 Liam Kelly
  • Robert Rickwood Bye (Rene Berndt withdrew)
  • Dirk van Duijvenbode Bye (Mick McGowan withdrew)
  • Harry Ward 6-0 Daniel Lee
  • Kirk Shepherd 6-4 Adam Hunt
  • Ryan Meikle 6-5 Mickey Mansell
  • Darryl Pilgrim 6-2 Ian Jopling
  • Joe Davis 6-5 Dan Read
  • David Airey 6-4 Benjamin McClelland
  • Martin Biggs Bye (Chris Lacey withdrew)
  • Ricky Evans 6-1 Andreas Hajiminia
  • Cody Harris 6-1 Tony Mitchell
  • Mark Craddock Bye (Craig Winstanley withdrew)
  • Andy Hamilton Bye (William O'Connor withdrew)
  • Paul Whitworth 6-3 Martin Atkins
  • Paul Hogan 6-5 Darren Brown
  • Ron Meulenkamp 6-4 Andy Hibbert
  • George Killington 6-4 Andy Jenkins
  • Jason Mold 6-5 Prakash Jiwa
  • John Scott 6-4 Darren Johnson

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