Darts: Whitlock's wizardry puts spell on Fordham

Andy Fordham crashed out of the Lakeside World Championship in Frimley Green with a comprehensive 3-0 defeat to the Australian fourth seed Simon Whitlock yesterday.

"The Viking", a highly popular winner of this title in 2004, soon found himself with an uphill task despite taking the first two legs against the "Wizard of Oz".

Apart from a brief revival in the third set Fordham was nowhere near his best and Whitlock hit double four at the second attempt to move into the second round. "I'm gutted, but Simon was brilliant considering he had the crowd against him." said Fordham. "If I could have won that set against the throw it might have been different."

Whitlock said: "The start Andy made did concern me and I had to pick my game up because I did nothing in the first two legs. But I'm very happy with how I played after that."

The second seed, Martin Adams, the runner-up last year, came through a tough encounter against Darryl Fitton with a 3-1 victory.