Dave Chisnall secured his place in the semi-final of the PDC World Grand Prix after an emphatic 3-1 victory over Nathan Aspinall.

It was relatively straight-forward for ‘Chizzy’, who is in fine form. The 39-year-old managed to capitalise on the unusually poor performance of Aspinall to continue his excellent week in Dublin.

The last meeting between the pair was merely 2 weeks ago in the PDC Gibraltar Darts Trophy, with that particular contest also falling in Chisnall’s favour. This match, however, was much more straightforward.

Chisnall flew out of the blocks in the first leg, checking out at 40 after playing it safe; opting against the bull for a 158 finish. He then quickly took the second leg, cementing the foundations for a good performance.

A missed opportunity for a 20-checkout meant that Aspinall stole the third leg to get off the mark, putting the pressure back on the St Helens man. Chisnall then did himself no favours, failing to hit a double in six darts to begin his leg. Aspinall eventually took advantage after a long-winded affair, bringing himself even in the set.

Having given up his two-leg lead, Chisnall rallied and managed to secure the first set.

Keen not to let the match escape him, Aspinall secured a 13-dart-leg to put the pressure back on. ‘Chizzy’ had other ideas, and quickly bit back to bring the score level.

He then went on to shoot the first 180 of the match, before quickly finishing off his 61-checkout to take the third leg. To lengthen his lead, Chisnall pounced on a series of Aspinall errors to win the second set and take the score to 2-0.

Aspinall’s head seemed to have dropped come the third set, allowing Chisnall to checkout a 121 in the first leg. In a last-ditch attempt to salvage his chances, Aspinall took the second leg with a 40 checkout.

It seemed that ‘Chizzy’ had the rub of the green as he was handed three attempts to checkout a 20, which he rapidly took. Aspinall managed to claw it back to 2-2 and had to win the next leg to stay in the game. After a leg filled with errors from both players, Aspinall eventually secured the set and hoped to get any kind of momentum on his side going forward.

This was something that, unfortunately for Aspinall, didn’t happen as Chisnall was flying through the gears and quickly managed to win the first leg. To make things worse for Stockport-born Aspinall, he failed to land any of the three darts available to secure a 32 checkout, and Chisnall capitalised to make it 2-1 for the set.

Despite clawing back the forth leg, Aspinall had let the occasion get to him and handed Chisnall three darts to hit a double 16 for the win. Despite jeers from the crowd, ‘Chizzy’ kept his cool and hit it second time, securing the match at 3-1.

A semi-final clash against either Jermaine Wattimena or Glen Durrant awaits Chisnall, who will hope to make only his second ever final for this competition.

 

Photo credit – Sven Mandel – Creative Commons License