He now moves through to an intriguing second round tie against Ritchie Edhouse. Smith conjured up a magical spell of finishing midway through the contest, taking out successive 104, 148 and 161 checkouts to breeze through his all-St Helens affair against Chisnall. Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson will renew their rivalry in the second round after celebrating dominant victories as the event began in Dortmund on Thursday.
Day One of the £600,000 event saw eight first round ties take place at the Westfalenhalle, as top seed Martin Schindler was beaten on home soil by a resurgent Dirk van Duijvenbode. Schindler’s World Cup partner Gabriel Clemens had earlier been sent packing by Van Gerwen, who kicked off his bid for a fifth European Championship crown with a crushing 6-1 victory. The Dutch superstar silenced the partisan home crowd with 116 and 122 outshots to establish a 5-1 cushion, before sealing his progress with a superb 12-darter to end the tie with a 100 average.
“You always need to be sharp in this short format,” insisted Van Gerwen, one of five former champions in the 32-player field. “I am enjoying my darts again and I think you need to have that if you want to perform well. “You want to keep performing well, because there’s still a lot to fight for, and I think this is a really important tournament for me.
” Van Gerwen’s reward is a last 16 showdown against his great rival Anderson, who also posted a ton-topping average to account for Masters champ.
