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Wayne Jones makes up ground in PDC

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Wolverhampton's Wayne Jones made up some much-needed ground on him and qualifying for the PDC World Championship.

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A last 16 run in Sunday's Players Championship event netted Jones £1,500 and came at the end of a difficult weekend on the floor,

writes Craig Birch.

It lifted him six places to 51st on the Pro Tour Order of Merit, with the top 50 qualifying for the worlds. He's rose two spots to 36th overall.

'The Wanderer' saved his best for last in the fourth tournament he took part in, all taking place under the lights at Wigan's Robin Park Centre.

The Wednesfield thrower first saw off Ben Ward 6-3 on the Pro Tour's day two, before ousting the formidable Brendan Dolan 6-5 in the last leg.

An impressive 6-2 win over BDO defector James Wilson set up a meeting with Rowby-John Rodriguez, for a place in the quarter-finals.

They jostled for position with Jones eventually going down 6-4, but taking heart from a marked improvement on his previous efforts.

He had tumbled out in the first round of Saturday's Players Championship and missed the money stages, losing 6-4 to Jamie Robinson.

Stourbridge's Nick Fullwell was invited to compete in both events as an associate PDPA member, with the numbers short at the start.

He enjoyed his sole success in the second tournament, vanquishing Jan Dekker 6-5 before Peter Wright turned on the style to beat him 6-1.

He took home £250 for his efforts, after a 6-3 setback to Jamie Caven in the first event. Both he, Jones and Rugeley's Mark Hylton also tried to qualify for the next two European Tour qualifiers.

Second round winners sealed their passage through to those September dates in Germany and Austria, but the trio failed to make the cut.

Jones lost 6-5 to Shaun Griffiths in his opener of the first competition, before he was downed 6-2 by Ryan Harrington in the preliminary round of the second.

Fullwell nudged out Prakash Jiwa in the preliminary round of the first, but Johnny Haines defeated him 6-2 next up. A 6-0 whitewash to Payne then followed.

'Mile High' - a former airline cabin crew manager and 2011 PDC World Championship entrant - was shut-out by Ian Walters 6-0, preceding a 6-5 disappointment to Jamie Bain.

Meanwhile, Tipton's Jamie Hughes reached the last 16 of the men's singles in the BDO Gold Cup at Lakeside, the home of the World Championship.

'Yozza' first competed at Frimley Green in this year's worlds and reached the same stage here, going out 4-1 to finalist Paul Barham. He had rolled over Lloyd Pennel 4-3, after a bye past the final 64.