MICHAEL Flynn and Shane McGuirk are the two highest ranked Irish players on the PDC Challenge Tour and they showed why today as they both enjoyed the best runs across two events in Leicester today.
Limerick man Flynn has received a number of call-ups to the PDC Players Championship thanks to his high ranking on the Challenge Tour and he did that no harm today with a run to the last 32 in Event 18.
That run saw Flynn take down three English players on the trot, starting with an impressive opening win over veteran Steve West as Flynn averaged 90.78.
He followed that up with a 5-2 win over Jimmy Bristow and repeated that scoreline against Tommy Morris in his next match to advance to the last 32.
However, Flynn's run was ended at that stage by Dutchman, Jeffrey De Zwaan, who recorded a 5-2 victory in a high class contest in which both players averaged just over 94.
Flynn was one of three Irish players to make it to the final 32 in Event 18, with Waterford's Paddy Quinn and Mayo's Ultan McDyer doing likewise.
Quinn got there with victories over England's Callum Francis and Germany's Daniel Klose, while McDyer continued his good run of form with three wins over Holland's Stevie Moreira and the Scottish pair of Colin Gibson and Stuart Wares.
Meanwhile, Monaghan's Shane McGurik was averaging in the 90s for most the day, too, as he made a run to the last 32 in Challenge Tour 19.
McGuirk arrived in Leicester having just agonisingly missed out on a spot in the Modus Super Series Champions Week finals night on Friday evening, and got to work at putting that setback behind him.
The reigning WDF world champion was in fine form in the early stages of Event 19, averaging 94.29 as he beat Pal Szekely of Hungary 5-2 in his opening match.
He showed true grit in his next match against Keegan Brown as he rattled off the final three legs in a row to come from 4-2 down to advance to the last 64 with a 5-4 victory.
McGuirk also needed to win a last leg decider to get past Germany's Kevin Troppmann in his next match, as he averaged 93.78 in that match.
His run was ended in the last 32 by the eventual event winner, Jamai van den Herik, of the Netherlands, who defeated McGuirk 5-3.
Other notable Irish victories on the day included a win for Galway's Dylan Dowling over former world champion, Richie Burnett, while Dublin's Sean McKeon recorded impressive wins over Jeffrey De Zwaan and the current number 2 ranked player, Stefan Bellmont.
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