And then he declared: “A lot of seeds have fallen in the first round here, it really is the round of death. I’m just glad to be through.

“It was terrible match with neither of us playing to our ability. However I am a great believer in omens. We played a terrible first round game a couple of years ago in the World Darts Trophy. That year I went on to win it and hopefully this is going to happen again this week.

“I was 2-0 in front and the darts were going well but then they just started to fall inside the doubles. The harder I tried the worse it became.”

Big Robbo steamed into the match storming to the opening set unchallenged as the former world champ struggled to settle.

And it was a similar story in the next leg with the strapping Northumberland hot shot cruising to another 3-0 success.

Twice the former world champ led in the third set, Robbo missing three doubles to level, the Aussie pouncing to snatch the leg and keep his championship alive.

The eighth seed twice led the fourth set despite missing further doubles. David missed double 18 to save the match in the fourth leg and Robson nipped in to hit double 10 and book his place in the second round.