The player from England saw off his fellow countryman Dennis Harbour at the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey, in today’s last game, which also completed the first round.

Waites, who beat Jeff Smith 7-1 in last year’s final to claim his second world title, won the first two sets with a checkout of 142 at the end of the opening set a particular highlight.

Harbour did battle back though to claim the third set, but Waites wrapped proceedings up in the fourth as he won all three games which were played.

On his way to victory, the 39-year-old hit two 180s, two less than Harbour, but he also got 35 other scores of 100 or more, seven higher than his opponent.

The win also meant Waites bettered his performance the previous time he tried to defend his crown when he lost 3-0 in 2014's first round to Alan Norris.

He will now face England’s Mark McGeeney, who defeated his fellow countryman James Hurrell 3-1 today, in the second round on Thursday (January 12).

The biggest surprise of the day came in the women’s championship as world number one and top seed Deta Hedman was knocked out in the first round by fellow England thrower Casey Gallagher.

Hedman, a three-time runner up, looked to be on course for victory after winning the first set 3-2 and the 57-year-old was 2-0 up in the second.

However, Gallagher fought back to win three games in a row, despite Hedman failing twice to take advantage of having darts to win the match.

From there, the 20-year-old stormed into the quarter-finals, winning the third set 3-0 and will now play the winner of tomorrow’s clash between New Zealand’s Corrine Hammond and Patricia Farrell of Canada.

The day’s other match in the women’s section of the event saw Russia’s Anastasia Dobromyslova, who has won the trophy three times, defeat Rhian Griffiths of Wales 2-1.

In the men’s championship, two of three Dutch players progressed in the afternoon session.

Third seed Danny Noppert saw off Canada’s David Cameron 3-1 before Richard Veenstra, a semi-finalist last year, beat Ross Montgomery of Scotland by the same score to set up a second round clash with his fellow countryman.

However, the last of the Dutchmen on the oche, Wesley Harms, could not make it a hat-trick of success for his country as the ninth seed was thrashed 3-0 by Poland’s Krzysztof Ratajski.

Darius Labanauskas of Lithuania also made it through with a 3-1 score against England’s Conan Whitehead.

The tournament is scheduled to continue until January 15.