Tabern too hot for Ovens

Alan Tabern won a sudden-death leg against Denis Ovens as the second round of the Ladbrokes.com World Championship produced another epic encounter in Purfleet tonight.

After the three-day Christmas break there was no let-up in the level of excitement or quality of play, with the opener on St Stephen's evening proving just as thrilling as the three matches on Friday that went to a deciding set.

St Helens left-hander Tabern eventually went through 4-3 in a two-hour classic, with Ovens also enduring the disappointment of missing double 12 for a perfect nine-dart leg in the third set.

Incredibly, 11 of the first 13 legs went against the throw, the only exceptions being when each player closed out a set as ninth seed Ovens, nicknamed ‘The Heat’, edged into a 2-1 lead.

Neither man could eke out a significant advantage at any point and sudden death began to look inevitable during the final set as the breaks of throw continued.

Ovens, from Stevenage, threw first in the decider after his attempt at the bullseye was closer, but the 49-year-old could not find any big scores when it mattered most.

In contrast, the man known as ‘The Saint’ maintained his consistency on the treble 20 and polished it off with a 61 checkout as he hit 25 and double 18.

Tabern, a 40-year-old qualifier ranked number 48 in the world, will meet Alan Caves or Dave Askew in the third round.