Beaton, who enjoyed a superb run to the semi-finals last year, was 3-2 down to King but managed to string together three legs on the spin to come away with the points.
"I thought I'd blown it when I missed all those chances to go 2-0 ahead," admitted Beaton.
"Mervyn went off the boil slightly after the opening four legs and I stepped in and took my chance."
Beaton hit a 174 score with his first visit to the oche and the first leg in 13 darts but was guilty of missing six opportunities to double his lead, which allowed King to level.
King then took the lead for the first time by winning the third leg with an accomplished 13-dart finish.
The fourth saw King miss double 12 for a 141 checkout and Beaton took out a pressure 66 finish to level the match at two-all.
King converted a 90 finish to lead again, but Beaton won the sixth leg on double 14 to complete a 14-darter and keep matters finely balanced.
Beaton managed to win the seventh leg against the darts with an excellent 84 finish on the bullseye and then closed out the game in the next leg by hitting double 14 for a second time.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.