Paddy Power World Championship – Days 7-9

The last three days before the Christmas break provided some fantastic darts – and more than a few shock results!

Thursday night’s session saw back-to-back defeats for two seeds, with Danny Noppert (#7) and Andrew Gilding (#20) taking an early bath. Gilding was first on – and first out – as 16-year-old Luke Littler continued his impressive run of form to take down the Suffolk man in four sets. Dutchman Noppert followed a short while later, slumping to a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Scott Williams. The remaining five seeds in action all emerged unscathed.

Three more seeded players fell on Friday. Jose de Sousa (#25), Dimitri Van den Bergh (#15), and twelfth-seeded Dirk van Duijvenbode were the unlucky men. These three lost to Jeffrey de Graaf, Boris Krcmar, and Florian Hempel respectively. However, #17 Chris Dobey squeezed past William O’Connor, while #29 (and five-time World champ) Raymond van Barneveld saw off Pole Radek Szaganski. Krzysztof Ratajski went one better than his compatriot Szaganski, beating Jamie Hughes, and Martin Schindler (#26) got the better of Jermaine Wattimena.

There was some spectacular stuff on Saturday, led by former BDO World Champion Stephen Bunting (#18). Bunting posted the best average of the tournament so far with a 107.28 in his 3-0 defeat of Ryan Joyce. If you think that 107 is good, he actually won the first set with a staggering 115.62! 27th seed Daryl Gurney also recorded a three-figure average (100.79) against Steve Beaton.

Three others narrowly missed a ton-plus average, recording something in excess of 99. Germany’s Ricardo Pietreczko (99.27) beat #30 seed Callan Rydz in a tense five-setter, Ricky Evans (who dropped just two legs against #6 Nathan Aspinall), and Richard Veenstra – who didn’t drop a single leg to Kim Huybrechts (#31). Ryan Searle and Jonny Clayton were two other seeds who did manage a win.

With Christmas Day AND Boxing Day (December 26) being holidays in the UK, the tournament resumes on Wednesday.

Full details from the PDC website here

You must be logged in to post a comment Login