World Cup favourites England are off and running, but only after being pushed hard by a Spanish duo who impressed more than a Balearic matador on roller-skates safely avoiding being gored by a dozen bulls.

The duo of Littler and Humphries – otherwise unimaginatively dubbed ‘The Two Lukes’ – were far from their best but managed to come through a severe test from the España pairing of Reyes and Justicia, who did more than enough to put the frighteners on the top two players on the planet.

There was also a strange entrance choice by England, who opted to walk out to an Irish band’s number, arriving on stage to a famous Thin Lizzy anthem. Yes, the boys were indeed back in town, but come on PDC – give them a home-grown song! ‘Vindaloo’ by Fat Les would have been perfect – pretty sure James Richardson wouldn’t have minded lending it to the lads.

As for Spain, theirs was the kind of tune you’d expect to hear while shopping in a Spanish supermarket – perhaps El Tesco. They might as well have gone fully stereotypical, had them wearing sombreros and blasted out La Bamba.

Anyway, it was quite the battle for the Lukes, but they came through it in the end. And in fairness, the German crowd wasn’t that bad. Either they were a little conflicted because they didn’t want to appear to be booing Humphries, or because the match wasn’t against the host nation, so they simply weren’t that arsed.

Kicking off the night, reigning champions Northern Ireland survived a thrilling last-leg decider to edge past Belgium, racing back from an early 5-2 deficit to get over the line.

For the Flemish to stand a chance, Dimi had to be a lot more on it than he had been during the group phase. In fairness, he was. He tailed off a tad in the middle, but Mike De Decker was solid and the Belgian boys, decked out in that famous synonymous maroon kit – which, if you mix all three colours of their flag together, probably comes close – gave the holders a real fright.

Hosts Germany looked like they were cruising against Czechia but had to withstand a fightback from the Eastern Europeans. Had Sedláček and Gawlas not dicked about with doubles so much, it may well have been them prevailing. But they did. And subsequently, it isn’t.

Then finally, to round off the night’s action, a new-look Dutch duo of Gian van Veen and Michael van Gerwen, decked out in a brighter shade of orange than Donald Trump’s face, took on the Swedish pairing containing an original Netherlander in Jeffrey de Graaf.

However, he is Swedish through and through now, emphasising that by shacking up with one of their very attractive natives. Together with Lukasiak, the Swedes gave a very good account of themselves but ultimately fell a little short as the Dutch lads marched into the quarter-finals and a meeting with Germany.

That should be interesting because the locals seem to love MVG. He may well escape their whistling. Stranger things have happened.

Saturday (Evening Session)

(3) Northern Ireland 8-7 Belgium
Germany 8-6 Czechia
(1) England 8-5 Spain
(2) Netherlands 8-6 Sweden

Quarter-Finals

(4) Scotland v Republic of Ireland
(1) England v Wales
(3) Northern Ireland v Latvia
(2) Netherlands v Germany