Carlow’s Steve Lennon is out of the PDC World Darts Championship following a 4-0 defeat to the experienced Mervyn King at the Alexandra Palace on Tuesday afternoon.
The loss sees all three Republic of Ireland players exit the tournament after Willie O’Connor’s defeat to Michael Smith on Monday.
The first three legs went according to throw as King led 2-1 before the number 21 seed took full advantage of Lennon’s narrow D11 miss to take out D12 at the second time of asking and go 1-0 ahead in the race to four sets.
King took control of the second set with a break of throw after an 11-dart leg as the 28-year-old struggled to keep pace with his high-scoring opponent.
Lennon narrowly missed D8 to complete a 136 checkout and break straight back but King cleaned up D8 to go within a leg of a two set lead.
The Irishman held throw as he tried to put the pressure on the favourite but another 3-1 set victory was sealed for King with a solid D6 to move 2-0 ahead and leave Lennon with an uphill task to claw his way back into the game.
The Carlow man got a crucial break in the first leg of the third set as he clinically dispatched of D4 but King cancelled that out with a D2 in the next leg after a string of efforts went abegging for both players.
‘Scuba Steve’ missed three darts to complete a third break of the set as his doubling percentage of 13% (3 from 24) was a constant anchor weighing him down despite some good scoring. King wrapped up the third set with a D4 to make it 3-0, with all sets finishing 3-1 to ‘The King’.
The 2-19 World Cup finalist moved 2-0 ahead with a solid D1. However, King broke straight back and took out 101 to move within a leg of victory.
The 55-year-old once again punished Lennon’s missed darts at doubles (32 missed darts from 37 attempts in total) by hitting D4 and completing a whitewash.
An amazing run comes to an end for Lennon. Despite Tuesday’s disappointment, he can reflect on a successful World Championship where he knocked out the 12th seed Kryztzof Ratajski on his way to a first ever second round victory.
