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‘Jackpot’ put in a confident enough display to dispatch the former World Champion by 10 legs to 4.

He broke Beaton’s throw in the opening leg and was never put under any pressure. Lewis broke again in the 10th and 12th legs and closed out the match in style, with a classy 116 check-out.

Lewis (seen celebrating afterwards with girlfriend Rebecca) will now take on Andy Hamilton in the 2nd Round for the second consecutive year at the World Matchplay. Hamilton set up the all-Unicorn clash, after beating fellow Unicorn star Mick McGowan, in a match which certainly won’t live long in the memory!

Both players are clearly struggling for confidence and belief and it showed in a scrappy match – with Hamilton averaging 79 and McGowan 73.

Hamilton missed 35 darts at a double!

But from 5-4 down, ‘The Hammer’ found some form to win five consecutive legs, with the help of three maximum’s and a 109 finish. McGowan admitted he has lost all belief in his game and when he gets home to Ireland, he is planning to put the darts in a drawer and take a complete break from the sport for a month or so.

Last year Hamilton and Lewis produced one of the matches of the tournament, with ‘The Hammer’ taking it 15-13 in the tie-break. Hopefully we will get something similar on Wednesday night.

But for Hamilton and McGowan, there is a lot of hard work to do. They both looked a shadow of the players, who have graced the PDC tour with some success over the last 12 months.

Last year’s Matchplay runner-up James Wade made a shaky start but was still too good for Wayne Jones……Wade missed countless doubles – he could have been 6-0 up but was way off target on the finishing!

From 5 legs apiece though, Wade stepped up a gear….three consecutive legs took him to the brink and despite only hitting 10 doubles from 35 attempts, it was the double 10 in the 17th leg that counted the most and clinched the young Unicorn ace a 2nd Round clash on Wednesday afternoon against Dennis Priestley.

Wade though, will surely get better……and if he improves on the finishing, there is no reason why he can’t beat Priestley and book himself a quarter-final place.

Tuesday afternoon 1st Round results:

Andy Hamilton 10-6 Mick McGowan
Adrian Lewis 10-4 James Beaton
James Wade 10-7 Wayne Jones
Andy Jenkins 10-6 Mark Walsh

Tuesday night order of play:

1st Round:

Raymond Van Barneveld v Denis Ovens

2nd Round (best of 25 legs):

Wayne Mardle v Roland Scholten
Terry Jenkins v John Part

The Unicorn website will return with more news on Tuesday night.

BY STUART PYKE

Photo courtesy of Chris Sargeant