Per Laursen produced a huge upset at the Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship as he put out three-time world champion John Part 3-0 in the first round at Alexandra Palace.
Denmark's Laursen has been a regular at the World Championship but his biggest result to date sets up his biggest match yet as he now faces Phil Taylor in the second round.
After winning his preliminary match against Boris Krcmar, Danish thrower Laursen walked on to face Canadian Part, with seemingly little chance against a former world champion.
However, Part has slipped down the rankings to number 32 after his recent struggles, and his darts summed up his problems as he could hardly find a double and Laursen capitalised by taking the first two sets.
Laursen was merely plodding along, with Part hit five 180s in two and a bit sets, and when he did level it up at 1-1 in the third set it was only after he had taken his tally of missed doubles on to 21 from 24 attempts.
Darth Maple showed great resilience to level the set up again, but his Achilles heel struck again when he missed two darts at tops to stay in the match and Laursen nailed double eight to complete the shock.
Jones through
Wayne Jones came from a set down to beat former finalist Kirk Shepherd in the first round of the Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship, while Wes Newton and Robert Thornton made winning starts to their campaigns.
2008 runner-up Shepherd was a late replacement for the tournament, and he was looking to make it another dream run at Alexandra Palace as he took the opening set which included a superb 158 outshot.
Wolverhampton thrower Jones upped his game though and took six legs on the spin to move ahead in the contest, before Shepherd eventually stopped the rot at the start of the fourth set.
Jones had just two much though and he moved into the second round after Christmas with a fine 92.63 average.
Scotsman Thornton was involved in a real scrap against debutant Nigel Heydon, who showed no nerves and was unlucky in the end to lose on his World Championship bow with a 91 average.
Comfortable
Thornton looked comfortable when taking a 2-0 lead in sets, but he stuttered in the third set when missing vital doubles an Heydon stepped in to claim his first set in World Championship competition.
Heydon then went 2-0 up in the fourth set but nerves struck and Thornton was able to take it 3-1 to win the match after grabbing just two more legs than his opponent, and he now faces Andy Hamilton in round two.
Number 15 seed Newton was not at his best but still had too much in his locker to beat American Darin Young in straight sets as he booked a tie against either Kevin Painter or Brendan Dolan.
Newton failed to hit a 180 during the match and averaged just below 88, but the Fleetwood ace did hit a brilliant 122 checkout to take the first set.
"It wasn't a great game by any means but my job was to win and that's what I did," said Newton. "I can relax and have a good Christmas now and come back ready for the second round against Kevin or Brendan.
"I've always dreamed of being world champion, and sometimes you want it too much and I think I've tried too hard in this tournament in the past."
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