REIGNING champions Wales return to action tomorrow after making a strong start to their defence of the World Cup of Darts title.

Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton won the World Cup for Wales for the first time last year and renewed their partnership in impressive style with a 5-2 defeat of Finland.

They won the opening four legs against Finland’s Veijo Viinkka and Marko Kantele, who took out 95 on the bull and tops as the 2013 semi-finalists halved the gap at 4-2.

Wales, though, closed out victory as Premier League champion Clayton pinned double ten in the next leg as they moved through to a second round-tie with Lithuania on Saturday evening.

“It was pretty decent early on,” said world champion Price, from Markham.

“We both need to up our scoring game but it’s hard to get through the first game, it’s difficult to find a rhythm but we came through it.

“Off the board we’re the best of friends and it certainly helps, That showed last year - we had a slow start today but hopefully we’ll pick our game up on Saturday.”

The annual 32-nation World Cup tournament is in its eleventh edition with the format including singles and doubles matches.

Lithuanian duo Darius Labanauskas and Mindaugas Barauskas await the second seeds in the next round following their 5-3 win over Hungary.

Scotland eased through their opener, with Peter Wright and John Henderson whitewashing China 5-0 to set up a meeting with Poland, who defeated Czech Republic 5-2.

Three-time PDC world champion Michael Van Gerwen and his partner Dirk Van Duijvenbode secured comfortable progression for Holland, winning 5-1 against Denmark.

Singapore are up next for the Dutch third seeds following their 5-4 success against Gibraltar, while elsewhere on the opening night United States beat Sweden 5-1 and Australia overcame Italy 5-0.

The second-round ties are split between the afternoon and evening sessions tomorrow with the winners qualifying for the quarter-finals on Sunday afternoon. The semi-finals and final are on Sunday evening (7pm start).