Phil Taylor and his protege Adrian Lewis embarked on their journeys towards a possible showdown in the final of the Ladbrokes.com World Championship with straightforward victories today.
The two practice partners both won 3-0 against qualifiers at Purfleet's Circus Tavern, Taylor beginning his quest for a 13th world title by beating Walsall's David Platt while 20-year-old Lewis eased through at the expense of Droitwich taxi driver Dave Honey.
This time last year Lewis was known merely for being a promising youngster who Taylor had taken under his wing, but suddenly he finds himself third favourite for the sport's biggest tournament having broken through by triumphing in back-to-back Scottish events on the PDC circuit recently.
On the opening day of the tournament, which has been brought forward to start before Christmas for the first time having been extended to 64 players, three seeds crashed out.
The biggest surprise was 1996 Embassy world champion Steve Beaton's 3-0 defeat to Jan van der Rassel of the Netherlands, who wept tears of joy after his success.
Steve Maish, the 28th seed, was beaten 3-2 by the 'Cockney Jock', Jason Clark, while Alan Caves failed to improve his dismal record in televised events as he suffered a 3-1 loss against Steve 'Snakeman' Alker, who keeps three pythons at his home near Llanelli.
But 2003 champion John Part had no such problems in ousting China's Liu Cheng'an and Wes Newton did not drop a leg against Japanese invitee Yasuhiko Matsunaga.
