LEONARD STANLEY-BASED thrower Henry O'Neill was involved in the match of the first round at the Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championships - but ultimately bowed out of the competition.

Up against the experienced and heavily backed Robbie Widdows, O'Neill battled hard to take the match into an extended fifth set on his televised debut.

While both men failed to produce the kind of darts likely to threaten the likes of ten-time champion Phil Taylor or defending champion John Part, the match did produce titanic drama.

Christened the Canon from Dungannon - due to his Northern Irish roots - by Sky Sports' iconic commentator Sid Waddell, O'Neill took advantage of some uncharacteristically slack darts by Widdows to take the opening set 3-2. But no sooner had O'Neill got his nose in front then his game began to deteriorate.

Although his general scoring remained fairly consistent, O'Neill started to miss his doubles with alarming regularity. Widdows on the other hand picked up his game to take the second set 3-0 and level the match at one set all.

Worse was to follow for O'Neill as his all round scoring fell apart, allowing Widdows to cruise to a 3-0 win in the third set. However, just when it looked like O'Neill was sliding out of the tournament without a fight he won the first two legs of the fourth set.

But he failed to check-out 56 in the third leg, allowing Widdows to capitalise and take the next two legs. O'Neill kept his cool though, checking-out 116 in the fifth leg to level at two sets apiece.

In the deciding fifth set O'Neill took the first leg against the darts, but Widdows hit back to level at 1-1. O'Neill then picked an ideal time to throw his first 180 of the match on his way to the third leg and an opportunity to throw for the match.

Once again though, Widdows fought back, checking-out 100 to make it 2-2 in legs as well as sets.

Unlike the previous sets, this one now had to be won by two clear legs - rather than first to three - as it was the decider.

Widdows took the upper hand, breaking the run of legs against the darts to go 3-2 up, but this time it was O'Neill who kept his head cool to level the match once again.

Despite both players only having a three dart average of around 80, the match had the audience gripped.

Widdows nosed 4-3 in front in the next leg and then just failed to check-out 146 in the eighth leg to take the match. Given his reprieve, O'Neill held his nerve once more to check-out 60 to make the score 4-4.

Yet again though, Widdows pressurised O'Neill's throw by moving 5-4 ahead with just one leg between them and a sudden-death, winner takes all leg. O'Neill and Widdows matched each others scoring in the tenth leg, but with Widdows waiting on 56, O'Neill missed double 12 while attempting to check-out 104.

Widdows then threw 16 for double top and checked-out at the first time of asking to win the match and go on to play Simon Whatley in round two.