Both Ronnie Baxter and Darren Webster suffered defeat in the coastal resort of Blackpool at the World Matchplay on Sunday night.
Webster played 16 times World Champion Phil Taylor and although he was beaten 10-4 never gave up. Darren started brightly taking the first leg against the throw but Taylor returned the compliment taking the next 3 legs.
Webster tried valiantly to stay in touch withTaylor but missed a couple of crucial doubles that could have changed the pattern of the game. With the scores at 7-3 Darren missed double 15 to take the leg. Taylor promptly cleaned up by finishing on double 3 to take the game out of Darren’s reach.
Both players were averaging over a hundred for the first 8 legs. Webster finished just shy of 97 and Taylor finished at 101.
Darren although disappointed in defeat should take the positives out of his performance. He played well and is starting to look comfortable in front of the TV cameras. More importantly he has moved to a career high of number 36 in the PDC Order of Merit.
 
Blackpool’s Ronnie Baxter had what can only be described as a melt down in his defeat against Wes Newton.  Baxter marched into an early 8-4 lead only to let Newton back into the match. With the score deadlocked at 9-9 Newton moved ahead for the first time and finally wrapped up his win when Ronnie missed 3 darts at tops to let Newton check out on 144. It was a notable highlight in what can only be described as a low quality game.