Crowd favourite Wayne Mardle again failed to match his showmanship with consistent top-quality darts as he crashed out of the Ladbrokes.com World Championship in Purfleet.
Mardle, a semi-finalist for the last three years, lost 3-2 in the first round to Alan Caves, a journeyman who had previously never shown anything like his best form in televised matches.
Apart from his usual audience-pleasing antics and trademark garish shirt, Mardle, from nearby Romford, was for most of the match unrecognisable from the player who took 13-time champion Phil Taylor to the brink on the same stage 12 months ago.
It has been a disappointing year for the 33-year-old, but even so he cannot have expected such a performance from Caves, who wore a claret and blue shirt in honour of West Ham, the football team he supports.
Caves raced into a 2-0 lead, producing deadly accuracy on the treble 20 and the doubles as Mardle's tendency to drift into the five bed surfaced again.
But as he sensed a famous victory, the 40-year-old from Middlesex clearly became edgy and lost his form as Mardle got on a roll and drew level at 2-2 with one of the comebacks for which he has become renowned.
Mardle had chances to wrap it up in the deciding set, but 'The Caveman' hung in there and as the eighth seed began to run out of steam he made the decisive break of throw by hitting double eight.
In the preceding match, third seed Dennis Priestley maintained his good recent run of results with a 3-0 victory over Josephus Schenk of Holland.
Priestley, a two-time former world champion, will next face Denmark's Per Laursen, 3-0 conqueror of Colin Monk.
Steve Beaton, the 1996 Embassy world champion, looked in tremendous form as he disposed of experienced Canadian player Gerry Convery with a 3-0 win.
The popular 42-year-old was red hot on the doubles and won every leg to book a clash with sixth seed Terry Jenkins.
