GLEN Durrant’s World Darts Championship has come to an end with a second round defeat to William O’Connor.

The 51-year-old was comprehensively beaten three sets to nil as the Teesside dartsman’s tough year in the sport comes to it’s conclusion with a bad defeat to the Irishman.

The tie started with neither player wanting to keep hold of their throw. O’Connor showed he was far from the underdog in the first leg with a stunning 170 checkout to deny Duzza. The Teessider clawed back as O’Connor went 2-1 up in the opening stages but Durrant’s accuracy began to wane, the Irishman took full advantage checking out on double ten to take the first leg.

In the second set, Duzza had a glaring opportunity to break the throw to kick things off but missed a succession of checkouts to allow O’Connor back into the tie to take the leg. He went on to punish the Teessider with Duzza’s averages plummeting and his mental game looking clearly rocked. He went two sets down and had a big mountain to climb.

It just looked like it wasn’t going to be his day right from the off and it transpired to be the case. Durrant’s game was summed up when he had three darts to checkout on double 18 to keep him in the tie and couldn’t successfully hit the board with O’Connor taking full advantage to win the third set and set up a third round tie with Michael Smith.

Prior to today’s match at Ally Pally, Duzza had spoken of his torrid year in the sport having lost the defence of his Premier League title and his form taking a serious knock. He told the Guardian that he had been ‘overthinking’ during his games and that he may have suffered from the ‘yips’, much like a golfer.

Even with his full focus on the World Championships, it wasn’t enough to make a full recovery as Duzza’s turbulent year in the sport reached it’s conclusion with defeat to O’Connor.