Barnard rides his luck

ENGLISHMAN Michael Barnard survived six match darts against Jose De Sousa to move into the second round of the William Hill PDC World Championship. The 42-year-old battled through to the last 64, beating his Portuguese opponent 3-2 in their first-round meeting at Alexandra Palace yesterday. Barnard now takes on 13th seed Darren Webster for a place in the last 32 in London. Also in the first round, Alan Tabern beat debutant Raymond Smith 3-2 to set up a daunting second-round encounter with world No 1 Michael Van Gerwen. In the afternoon session’s only second-round match, last year’s semi-finalist Jamie Lewis fought off a comeback from Cody Harris to win 3-2. The Welshman hit nine 180s in the process as he staved off a stern challenge from the New Zealander. He is likely to play Northern Ireland’s Daryl Gurney, winner of last month’s Players’ Championship finals in Minehead, in the third round. Dutchman Danny Noppert later eased into the second round with a comfortable victory over Hong Kong thrower Royden Lam, who is 155 places below him in the world rankings. Noppert was a 3-0 winner.