PDC World Darts Championship day 5 report: Robert Thornton crashes out at hands of Alan Norris
The 2014 BDO World Championship runner-up shocked the sixth-seed with a striaght sets win
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Your support makes all the difference.World number six Robert Thornton was unexpectedly eliminated from the World Darts Championship at the first-round stage in a 3-0 defeat by Alan Norris at Alexandra Palace.
Thornton was broken in the first leg and struggled to recover as the consistent Norris secured the opening set 3-0.
Norris took the first game in the second before Thornton finally got on the board, but in the deciding leg it was the world number 49 who prevailed.
Thornton - who defeated Michael van Gerwen to win the World Grand Prix in Dublin earlier this year - produced a brilliant 121 checkout on the bull in the third but that was as good as it got, Norris hitting double top to secure a shock victory and set up a meeting with Joe Murnan in the second round.
World number eight Michael Smith defeated Holland's Jeffrey de Zwaan after a tie-break to progress to the next round, where he will meet Steve Beaton.
At 5-5 in the fifth set, Smith was closest to the bull to throw first and eventually found double four to progress past his 19-year-old opponent.
James Wade also progressed to the second round, with a routine 3-0 defeat of John Michael, who had earlier overcome Warrick Scheffer 2-0 in the preliminary round.
He won a competitive first set to break Scheffer's throw, and though he missed three darts at double 20 to checkout in the second, he recovered to secure a sixth consecutive leg, and with it, progress to the competition's first round.
But he was not able to challenge the world number seven Wade.
PA
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