Dart news - Glen Durrant kicks off title defence in style as Mitchell and De Graaf ease into last 16

ByEurosport

Updated 09/01/2019 at 06:58 GMT

There were a couple of upsets in the latest first round matches at the BDO World Darts Championships at the Lakeside Country Club on Tuesday.

Three Major BDO tournaments will be available on Eurosport each year in the UK (pictured: Glen Durrant)

Image credit: Getty Images

The first came in the opening match of the day when qualifier Krzysztof Kciuk upset the 11th seed Dave Parletti 3-1.

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Kciuk, who beat Brian Lokken in qualifying, showed little signs of nerves against his more experienced opponent, despite only registering one 180 compared to Parletti’s two.

He will face Scott Mitchell in the next round after the 2015 world champion breezed past qualifier Oliver Ferenc 3-0.

‘Scotty Dog’ was in imperious form to open up as he didn’t drop a leg in the opening two sets.

Ferenc finally got on the board but he already had a mountain too big to climb and Mitchell comfortably closed out for the win.

In the only women’s match in the afternoon session, history repeated itself as former semi-finalist Aileen de Graaf once again knocked out Paula Jacklin in the opening round.

Jacklin was out of sorts to begin with and De Graaf comfortably took advantage to take a 2-0 lead and although her opponent fought back the Dutchwoman kept her nerve to take the opening set.

Following that, De Graaf visibly relaxed and she comfortably won the second to seal victory and set up a clash with fourth seed Anastasia Dobromyslova in the next round.

And in the final match Scott Baker built on his victory in the International open by once again defeating Ross Montgomery.

The 15th seed was totally out of form and could hardly string a good run together and Baker set the tone early with two 180s in the opening legs.

Montgomery started to improve as Baker stumbled a little in the final set, but in the end the man from Wolverhampton made it through in a whitewash.

The star of the evening session was two-time defending champion Glen Durrant, who kicked off his campaign with a 3-0 victory over Mark McGrath. 'Duzza' looked up for the challenge right from the first arrow and cruised through to underline his status as the man to beat.

Top women's seed Lorraine Winstanley also progressed on Tuesday despite a tough challenge against Casey Gallagher.