Chisnall and Rock progress at World Darts Championships as Rydz crashes out
Dave Chisnall 3 Andrew Gilding 1
The match started with high scores. After nine arrows in the first leg, Chisnall was on just 11, but could not take it out as 'Goldfinger' Gilding checked out 100 with two darts. It was an eleven darter for the Englishman and with it the break of throw.
Gilding continued the good set and ran out a 3-0 winner by also breaking in the third leg.
'Chizzy' hit right back in the second set by taking the opening leg from Gilding. The world number 12 took a bigger lead by checking out 99.
Chisnall then got Ally Pally on the edge of their seats, throwing seven perfect darts but missing the triple 19. Finally, he did finish in 11 darts and levelled the score in sets: 1-1.
After two sets, Chisnall's average was 111.94, compared to Gilding's 106.70.
In the third set, Chizzy had five chances to break, but missed all of his chances at doubles.
But, so did Gilding and Chisnall threw himself into a 2-0 lead in legs via a double one.
Goldfinger did return fire to draw level at 2-2 before Chisnall threw a 12-darter with a 62 checkout to seal the third set.
Gilding still had some fight in him despite losing two sets in a row in a race to three. He won the first leg of set four before capitalising on a missed 121 checkout from Chisnall to break and take the second leg, one away from tieing the game in sets at 2-2. However the world number 12 roared back and won three straight legs to secure his spot in the third round.
Chisnall will play either Stephen Bunting or Leonard Gates after Christmas.
Josh Rock 3 Callan Rydz 0
Northern Ireland star Josh Rock continued to make a name for himself in the darting world with a comprehensive 3-0 win against Callan Rydz.
Rock, who beat Jose Justicia in the first round, was in emphatic form, winning the first set 3-2 - capitalising on Rydz's poor checkout rate of 13%.
The second set saw both players improve their three-dart average but it was Rock who continued to outplay the world number 23. He lost the first leg in that set, but would win three straight legs to put Rydz in a world of trouble.
Set three continued in the same vein and Rock completed a win of surprising ease, setting up an intriguing encounter against Nathan Aspinall (31) in the next round.
Elsewhere at Ally Pally
In the other two games that finished the first round, Labanauskas scraped past Irishman John O'Shea (47) by three sets to two as both players struggled to hit doubles in a scrappy encounter.
Kleermaker had no such issues, comfortably beating China's Xicheng Han (47) 3-0 with Han winning just two legs in the whitewash.
