Mark Walsh exited the William Hill Grand Slam of Darts at the group stage despite winning two out of his three matches.

Ultimately the Watford player bowed out of the competition because of a 5-0 opening game whitewash against Raymond van Barneveld.

‘Special Brew’ Walsh had hit a 180 in the opening leg only for the Dutchman to storm back and record a superb 141 checkout to go ahead.

Van Barneveld then quickly took control of the game and breezed through the next four legs to take victory.

In his second match of the group stage, Walsh came back from 3-4 down against Wayne Jones to win 5-4.

The deciding leg saw both players hit maximums before Jones missed two chances to win the match and Walsh landed a double 20 to claim victory.

In his final game against Christian Kist, Walsh needed a comfortable win to progress into the next stage.

However, both traded legs throughout the contest with the Abbots Langley player coming out 5-4.

Walsh, a semi-finalist last year, ultimately paid the price for his whitewash to van Barneveld earlier in the event as he missed out on a place in the next stage on leg difference.