Battling Norris Topples Winstanley

Alan Norris provided one of the greatest comebacks ever at Lakeside to topple third seed Dean Winstanley 4-3.

Winstanley started strongly and narrowly missed the bull for a 170 checkout in the very first leg. Although this miss didn’t faze him and he went on to win this leg and the next five out of six to open up a 2-0 lead.

Norris started the third set in with some good darts, and lead 2-0 on legs before Winstanley pulled back a leg with back-to-back maximums, followed by winning the next leg to level the set. Norris held his nerve to clinch the set and pull the match back to 2-1.

Each player broke each others throws in the fourth set, but Winstanley was the calmer of the two players and again opened up a two set lead, to go within a set of the match.

Norris came back strongly again in the fifth, with an 86 finish pulling the match back to 3-2.

Norris continued his good form in the sixth, and he won in straight legs including finishing with a 100 checkout to level the match.

A thrilling final set then followed with a 116 finish from Norris, followed by an 86 finish to end the match and allow him to progress through to the last eight.