Luke

While Littler cruised through, there was no such luck for Van Veen as he beat his idol Anderson in a remarkable match.

It began with the Scot winning the first set against the darts with a 104 average, but any thoughts that Van Veen, 23, might be overawed in his first world semi-final were quickly forgotten as he hit a 10-darter to start the second set.

A stunning average of 113.35 saw him level it at 1-1 with a 117 checkout and was a taster of what was to come in the sets that followed.

Anderson started the next with a 144 checkout but Van Veen hit back once more, hitting six perfect darts to start the deciding leg on his way to an 11-darter.

Somehow, the fifth set took the match to another level again. First, Anderson broke with a 10-darter and hit a 170 checkout to go 2-0 in legs, and a leg from making it 3-2.

Instead, Van Veen made it 4-1 after a 170 checkout of his own forced a deciding leg. He won it and averaged 111.46, while Anderson was left wondering how he had lost a set in which he averaged 117.44.

The 55-year-old’s resilience shone through, though, and with the crowd behind him, he won the next two sets to make it 4-3 and pile the pressure on his younger opponent – who had missed four darts to make it 5-2.

But while both players showed signs that the unrelenting nature of the contest was taking its toll, Van Veen held firm, got himself 5-3 up and then finished strongly with a 13-darter to clinch his place in the final.

“To be in the World Championship final is not even a dream coming true because I wasn’t able to dream about this,” Van Veen, who had not won a match at the World Championship prior to this event, told Sky Sports.

“Now it’s happened and I’m so happy.”

Searle had won 14 consecutive sets without reply to reach his first World Championship quarter-final.

The 38-year-old extended that run to 17 with some clinical finishing in the first three sets against Clayton and a 111 finish in the deciding leg of the fifth, one of his three ton-plus checkouts in the match, helped to secure a spot in the last four.

Clayton scored better for long spells of the quarter-final but too many missed attempts on the outer ring proved costly for the Welsh fifth seed, who landed just 10 of his 40 attempts at doubles (25%).

Searle, in contrast, hit 17 of his 30 attempts (56.7%).

Searle lives with dominant optic atrophy, a genetic eye condition which affects his vision and for which he wears contact lenses.

Speaking to Sky Sports on stage after his win, he said: “I can’t see particularly well.

“Other people who try to play darts, if they can’t see particularly well, try not to let that hold you back.

“I try to be an inspiration to them.”

Nathan Aspinall became the latest seed to fall at the PDC World Championship, but 20-year-old Charlie Manby continued his dream run by reaching the last 16.

Aspinall, who reached the semi-finals in 2019 and 2020, lost 4-3 in a final-set thriller against the Netherlands’ Kevin Doets.

The 15th seed won the first and third sets, but was pegged back on both occasions, only to seize control again with a stunning 170 checkout to claim the fifth set.

However, from there, Doets took over, reeling off sixth consecutive legs to seal a sixth straight win over Aspinall and set up a last-16 tie against world number two Luke Humphries on Tuesday.

Manby, who is playing in the tournament for the first time, overcame Ricky Evans 4-2.

The bricklayer from Huddersfield struggled on his doubles early on, taking out just four of 30 attempts in the first three sets as he went 2-1 down.

Scoring was never an issue though and his accuracy on the checkouts improved, alongside a drop-off from Evans, as he sealed a place in round four and a minimum £60,000 in prize money.

He will face the Netherlands’ Gian van Veen in the next round in what will be his toughest test so far, with the 10th seed having the tournament-high match average of 108.28 in his second-round win.

After the match, Evans posted on Facebook that he had received death threats as well as hate and fat jokes.

Another debutant also progressed with Somerset’s Justin Hood beating Ryan Meikle 4-1.

He raced into a 3-0 lead before Meikle pulled a set back but Hood sealed his place and said afterwards that he would not have to work in 2026 after also confirming at least £60,000 in prize money.

He has climbed to a provisional 63rd in the world rankings already and said post-match he still has aspirations to open a Chinese restaurant one day.

He will face 11th seed Josh Rock in the last 16, after the Northern Irishman overcame Callan Rydz 4-2 in the final third-round tie.

Rydz was emotional throughout following the death of his grandfather since his previous match.

Former winner Rob Cross cruised through at the PDC World Championship and set up a last-16 tie against defending champion Luke Littler.

Cross, who won the event in 2018, brushed aside Australian and 16th seed Damon Heta in a comfortable 4-0 win.

The 17th seed was joined in round four by two-time winner Gary Anderson, who edged a final-set thriller against Dutchman Gary Wattimena.

Scot Anderson went 3-1 up in a game played at a ferocious pace, and was impressive in averaging 121 in set three.

He missed three match darts in the fourth set, hitting double eight with his first dart with 32 required, before missing the same target twice.

Wattimena powered back and forced a final set, despite Anderson missing more match darts at tops in set four.

Anderson went eight darts into the nine-darter in the final set, before going high on the double 12, and eventually claimed the set 5-3 to continue his quest to be the tournament’s oldest winner at 55.

He averaged 102.24 – the eighth-highest average in this year’s tournament – and was at 37.5% on the checkouts.

“It’s no good for my age. It’s hard, especially with Jermaine on you. What a game,” Anderson told Sky Sports.

“The last two games, 4-0, 4-0. I hope that’s made up for it. I’m going to lie down now.

“I bottled the nine-darter, like I bottled a lot of doubles. I was getting excited, I don’t often do that up there. But I got it done.”

Sunday’s action began with 20th seed Ryan Searle reaching the fourth round for the first time since 2021 with a 4-0 demolition of Germany’s Martin Schindler.

The fact quarterback Luke Fahey of Mission Viejo High signed with Ohio State is impressive enough. Then look at his 2025 statistics and you begin to realize he’s going to be next in line to continue Southern California’s success in developing top quarterbacks.

Over 11 games, he only had three passes intercepted while completing 71% of his passes. He threw for 3,199 yards and 25 touchdowns. He ran for six touchdowns. He had a school-record 569 yards passing against Los Alamitos. He made a clutch touchdown pass in the second half to beat eventual Southern Section Division 1 champion Santa Margarita 7-6 in the season opener.

He clearly performed at his best when the pressure was on and Mission Viejo needed him to lift up his teammates.

“He’s the best leader I’ve had in 25 years of coaching. He’s the total package,” coach Chad Johnson said.

Fahey has been selected The Times’ back of the year.

Before this season, he was sharing time at quarterback, showing incredible unselfishness while putting his trust in the process that everything would work out when it was his time to be the full-time starter. And it did.

“He’s always been real good,” Johnson said. “He was sharing reps and didn’t allow everyone to see his greatness and what he could be. Ohio State saw it. It’s going to be crazy what he can do at the next level.”

There’s one memory Johnson won’t soon forget. It was in the visiting locker room after a game at St. Paul. Fahey stayed behind as the last person to pick up trash to leave the locker room clean. Then he headed to the bus. Only the head coach saw it. The best player on the team doing work others ignored.

“Remarkable,” Johnson said.

Lim met Englishman Humphries in the first round of the 2021 World Championship and, on that occasion, Lim was a 3-2 winner.

The odds of a repeat are unlikely, given Humphries – who is 41 years younger than Lim – has gone on to have a spell of nearly two years as world number one and won multiple major titles, including the world crown in January 2024.

“If anything, I’m thankful for Paul winning that game because it changed me as a player and it changed me as a person,” Humphries said after beating Ted Evetts in round one.

“Three months later, I’d lost about four stones and I was in a major final [at the 2021 UK Open]. It helped my career.”

On those comments, Lim said: “To come across a champion who is as humble as him – when he said that, it was really a compliment to me. I’ve got nothing ever bad to say about Luke.

“With every defeat or every win, there is a spark somewhere – you’ve got to find it to spark you in the right direction. I can’t say that loss made him a world champion, but maybe it created that spark within himself to look at something differently and it turned out well for him.

“He is definitely a different Luke Humphries. He was good then, now he is great. It’s an honour to hear him calling me a legend.”

Joe Cullen says opponent Mensur Suljovic’s slow style of play is akin to cheating after the 32nd seed was knocked out.

Austrian Suljovic denied using any specific tactics in his second-round success.

“I never ever do this as a provocation,” said the 53-year-old. “I do it only for my game. Sorry Joe, I never do this – love you man.”

England’s Cullen won the first set, but became the 11th seed to crash out as he lost the following three, including throwing away a 2-1 lead in the fourth set.

Referring to the way that Suljovic slowed down play, Cullen said in a post on X: “If that’s darts, I don’t want no part of it.

“Always liked Mensur away from the board but that was plain for all to see! I don’t think I’m alone in feeling this way. The old guard will say it’s part of the game but word it how you will – it’s cheating. That’s not darts.”

After the match, the 36-year-old shook his head as he picked up his darts case and turned to glare at the Austrian, who celebrated his win in front of the crowd.

The PDC does not have a specific, timed rule for pace of play, but deliberate slow play intended to disrupt an opponent is considered unsportsmanlike conduct and a potential rules breach.

Suljovic is next in line to take on defending champion Luke Littler, who faces David Davies on Sunday evening.

Meanwhile, 2018 champion and 17th seed Rob Cross managed to avoid a deciding set against Ian White as he won a nervy encounter 3-1.

Krzysztof Ratajski beat Ryan Joyce 3-1 to reach the third round, while Luke Woodhouse cruised past Max Hopp with a victory in straight sets.