Burnham-On-Sea darts star Gary Anderson’s run at the World Championships has come to an end.
Gary exited the championships on Wednesday afternoon (December 28th) when Chris Dobey denied him his 50th win on the Alexandra Palace stage.
The two-time world champion from Burnham-On-Sea had reached the third round after sinking talented Madars Razma in a close match last week to set up Wednesday’s match against Dobey.
Anderson started the encounter with real intent and blew Dobey away as he played well to take three straight legs, with a brilliant 121 finish securing the break of throw before sealing the set on tops and leaving Dobey no chance to answer.
The second set saw Dobey and Anderson trade breaks before a missed chance by Gary Anderson to take a 2-0 lead allowed Dobey to bring the contest level, taking out 50 with 18 and double 16 to peg Anderson back.
Despite Anderson seeming to be throwing the better darts, hitting six perfect darts in succession, Dobey managed to get himself into a 2-1 lead with some precision on the doubles that Anderson couldn’t muster, then taking advantage of those errors to make it 3-1.
Inaccurate finishing then only made the encounter an even tougher task for Anderson as he missed three chances to hold his throw in the fifth set, allowing Dobey to take out tops on his throw to hold and take a ‘Hollywood’ victory.
Speaking after the contest, Dobey expressed his delight at getting over another “hurdle” at the Alexandra Palace and revealed that some words from Anderson in the break, which he “disagreed with”, had spurred him on.
“It was a big win, Gary is a class lad, one of the big names in darts. It is a massive win. I never gave up. That’s the kind of lad I am, always fighting to the end. I am delighted to get the win,” said Dobey.
“Gary said something to us in the last break and I didn’t like it. It annoyed me and there was no way he was winning the game after that. I came out and tried to forget about it. He is a class lad but I didn’t agree with what he said. I made sure I was winning this game.”
