Bradford-born Scott Waites is involved in first-session afternoon action when the Lakeside World Professional Darts Championships starts on Saturday at Frimley Green.

The defending champion meets England’s Alan Norris, who reached the last eight in 2012, in a tough first-round tie.

Silsden’s Garry Thompson, who won the 2011 BDO Gold Cup Pairs with Waites and has twice been a Lakeside quarter-finalist, plays American Jim Widmayer in the evening session on Sunday.

Thompson has a new nickname – The Recliner, because of his laid-back attitude to the sport.

Bradford’s John ‘Boy’ Walton, who was world champion in 2001, has failed to qualify for the event for the first time since 2000.