Nick Kenny won six legs in a row to make a stunning William Hill World Darts Championship debut at London’s Alexandra Palace.
The 27-year-old from Cwmbran came from 2-1 down in sets to win 3-2 against Dutch darterΒ Derk Telnekes.
Kenny will now meet another Dutchman, Jermaine Wattimena, in the second round.
“I’ve never won a game at a World Championship before so I’m really happy,” said Kenny.
My practice darts were unreal. I was hitting 180s for fun, I thought I was going to hit a couple of nine darters.
“Then when we went up on stage I was shaking like a leaf. I thought where has this come from.
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Welshman Nick Kenny is into the Second Round of the 2020/21 William Hill World Darts Championship, beating Derk Telnekes 3-2
A tense opening game here on Day Six pic.twitter.com/a2BGuIvysT
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 20, 2020
“But once I won the second set, I thought ‘yeah, come on then.’
“Now I can enjoy my debut.
“My dream was to play here, at Ally Pally against all the big guns.
“I know I’m quite good and I’ve beaten a few good players on the tour.
“When I win one game I seem to win a few – that is the plan.”
Civil servant Kenny kept his cool on his first appearance on the biggest stage in darts.
Despite trailing 1-0 and then 2-1, he saw off Telnekes winning six successive legs.
Jonny Clayton gets his campaign underway on Sunday evening with a second round match against John Henderson.
The Pontyberem thrower had a first round bye as did World Cup winning team-mate Gerwyn Price.
World No 3 Price faces Jamie Lewis in an all-Wales tie on Monday.