TWO top Ayrshire darts stars missed out at the sport's Senior World Championship last week.

Both Jim McEwan and Robert Thornton would have went into the tournament with high hopes of being able to claim the crown and the £30,000 top prize.

Maybole man Jim 'Chucky' McEwan has been in fine form recently with a number of top performances in the MODUS Super Series.

While Stevenston's Robert 'The Thorn' Thornton went into the tournament as the only player to ever win the event - having claimed the title in both of its first two years.

For Chucky, it was first round disappointment as the South Ayrshire darts star was pipped in a thrilling last 32 match against England's Kevin Painter - earning just £750 from his appearance.

McEwan averaged an impressive 98.6 across the first to three sets match - and took the opening two sets of the encounter.

However, resilient Painter came back in impressive fashion and after surviving a match dart won the tie 3-2.

Three Towns man Thornton failed to put up an average quite as high as his Ayrshire counterpart, though did win his opening match with relative ease.

He defeated Martyn Turner 3-1 in his last 32 match, setting up an exciting last 16 clash with England's Andy Hamilton.

In a back and forth match, The Thorn edged into a 2-1 lead, and was 2-0 ahead in the match's fourth set before missing match darts and being pegged back - and going on to lose the match.

Thornton left with £1,000 from the prize fund, and vowed to come back next year to claim a third title after missing out this time around.

He said: "Absolutely gutted to not have been able to defend my title, but congrats to Andy for the win last night.

"A huge thanks to Seniors Darts for all the opportunities over the last couple of years they have given to us over 50’s.

"Take good care of the trophy, I’ll be coming for it again this time next year."

The trophy was eventually taken home by fellow Scot John 'The Highlander' Henderson who defeated Trina Gulliver, Kevin Painter, Andy Hamilton, Jim Long and Colin McGarry en route to victory.