Darts Last 16 Overview

Raymond van Barneveld and James Wade will meet in the last eight of the Sky Bet Mobile World Matchplay after both registered hard-fought second-round wins on Wednesday.

Van Barneveld battled his way past Paul Nicholson 13-9, putting paid to any hopes of the latter facing Phil Taylor in the tournament.
Nicholson upset 'The Power' with his reactions on stage after defeating him at the UK Open recently and then fanned the flames further with comments after his opening-round win in Blackpool on Sunday.

" I love a tough game, but that just wasn't one of those games."

However, 'The Asset' was unable to get the better of van Barneveld in a match that while full of drama, was not quite of the very highest quality.
There was little to choose between the duo for much of the contest before the Dutchman took five straight legs to move 11-7 ahead. Nicholson, who had earlier managed a 164-checkout, took the next two to stay alive before eventually succumbing in the 22nd.
Asked on Sky Sports if his opponent was ready to play in the Premier League, van Barneveld replied: Yes, without a doubt. He's ready for it. He's a bit of a character."

Worked

Wade also was pushed hard by Mark Walsh before eventually knocking out his fellow Englishman 13-11 in the final game of the night.
'The Machine' lived up to his name in the early going, roaring out to a 6-2 lead. Walsh, however, simply refused to go away and at one staged only trailed 11-10 thanks to checkouts of 121 and 64.
But although Walsh threatened the possibility of taking the match into a tie-breaker with a 13-darter to make it 12-11, a 121-finish from UK Open champion Wade booked him a clash with van Barneveld.
Meanwhile, Adrian Lewis had no such problems, easing through to the next round with a 13-5 victory over Vincent van der Voort.

Having almost come a cropper against Kevin Painter in his opening match, rallying from 9-6 down to win in sudden death, 'Jackpot' simply breezed by the Dutchman.
The reigning world champion raced out to a 5-0 advantage before van der Voort briefly threatened a comeback, winning four out of five legs after the first interval to cut the gap to just two.
Lewis, however, only allowed his opponent to win one more leg in the contest. A 120-finish put him 10-5 ahead and he finished things in style, taking out 170.
"Vincent didn't really get going," he said. "I had a 5-0 lead and then took my foot off the gas a bit. All credit to Vincent, he started to come back at me well.
"Then I stepped back on it again. I love a tough game, but that just wasn't one of those games."
Next up for Lewis will be Mark Webster, who had earlier become the first man to reach the quarter-finals by seeing Steve Beaton 13-7 in the opening game.
The Welshman, who had knocked out John Part in the previous round, won six legs on the spin, including managing stunning checkouts of 158 and 142, after the pair had been deadlocked at 7-7.
In all Webster had four century finishes as he took five legs against the throw. Beaton, for his part, did manage to take out 140 and 133 himself.