Grand Slam of Darts: 'Real Yozza' Jamie Hughes at his best to slam Dave Chisnall

The Black Country thrower remains in with a shout of making the knockout stages after an imperious performance at the Civic Hall yesterday afternoon, writes Craig Birch.

'Yozza' raced to a staggering 106.23 average in his Group G vanquishing of Chisnall, who will be wondering how he managed to lose so widely after racking up 102.51.

Hughes recorded his highest average in competitive darts and redressed the balance, after squandering a 3-0 lead to lose 5-3 to James Wade in his first group clash yesterday.

He returns to the Civic stage tomorrow night for his final group game against James Wilson. Wade beat Wilson 5-3 during the afternoon session to top the standings.

He said: "I'm chuffed to bits, you've seen the real Yozza and it was easily my highest recorded average. I came here to do a job and I've got it done. I was banging the treble 20s in where I was struggling to find them after going 3-0 up yesterday, that was the difference.

"Even when you are in a lull, you need to be finding a treble with each visit and I was getting two most of the time against Dave. "I've got a lot of time for James Wilson and, if I play like that again, it's going to be another fantastic game. I'm looking forward to it, I'm on a high now."

He set his stall out from the very first throw against the darts, two 140s and a 127 in consecutive visits leaving 16, with double eight achieved with the third and last throw for 1-0.

Two 180s in the second leg showed how Hughes was getting into top gear, with Chisnall firing back with a maximum of his own. Double eight, at the second attempt, made it 2-0.

'Chizzy' replied by pulling one back in the fourth leg, taking double 16 with one dart to halve the deficit. 180s followed from both in leg five, which Hughes took on double 14 to erase 124.

High checkouts from both looked on the agenda in the sixth leg, with Chisnall missing the bull for 167 while Hughes fluffed double five for 130. He returned to go 4-1 up in the mad house. This time there was no looking back from the 30-year-old, who secured success on his maiden Grand Slam journey after 122 left him double 19, with 38 achieved with six and double 16.

Meanwhile, James Wade and Peter Wright became the first players to book their places in the knockout stage, as Raymond van Barneveld's impressive start continued.

Former Grand Slam of Darts finalist Wade again followed a slow start with a strong fightback as he followed up Saturday's victory over Hughes with a 5-3 defeat of James Wilson.

Wilson took an early 2-0 lead, but left-hander Wade hit back strongly to win five of the next six legs, including a brilliant 157 checkout to seal the win. Number five seed Wright has also secured progression to the second round following his clinical 5-0 demolition of Simon Whitlock in their second Group C game, as the Scot averaged 107.36 in a fine display.

Whitlock now faces a shoot-out with Canada's Jeff Smith, who bounced back from his opening-day loss to Wright with a 5-4 win over Ted Evetts, with the Lakeside Championship finalist edging a deciding leg.

2012 Grand Slam champion Raymond van Barneveld claimed a second impressive win of Group F, following up his 110 average in Saturday's defeat of Nathan Aspinall with an average of nearly 105 as he overcame fellow Dutchman Danny Noppert 5-2.

Aspinall still has an outside chance of qualifying tomorrow against Noppert, despite his 5-3 loss to Mensur Suljovic.