Waites faces Belgian next

Both notched 4-2 wins in the second round yesterday, Waites against Dean Reynolds last night and Baetens against England’s Scott Mitchell earlier in the day.

Waites, who works for Pennine Housing 2000 in Calderdale, is a 4-6 shot to beat Baetens in their best of nine sets contest on Friday afternoon and his odds for winning the event for a third time have been slashed to 8-1.

Welshman Reynolds won the first set against the darts but Waites, 40, stormed into a 3-1 lead, winning the third set with a 116 checkout.

Reynolds stayed in the hunt by winning the fifth set from 2-0 down and the sixth went to a last leg decider.

As in his first match, against Ross Montgomery, Waites was ruthless to finish matters. Reynolds was only 54 points away from levelling the match at 3-3 when Waites took out 112 with 20, treble 20 and double 16.

Lakeside debutant Andy Baetens, 28, stunned 2015 BDO world champion Mitchell, who missed five chances to send the match into a deciding set.

Glen Durrant, the reigning champion, remains a hot favourite to retain the title after beating Darryl Fitton 4-1. He could meet the winner of the Waites v Baetens contest in the semi-final.

The quarter-finalists are already guaranteed a £6,500 pay cheque and the eventual winner will bank £100,000.