World Darts Championship: Luke Humphries sets up Peter Wright last-16 clash as Gerwyn Price beats Joe Cullen in sudden-death thriller

Luke Humphries stormed into the fourth round of the World Darts Championship with a straight-sets win over Nick Kenny, on the same night Gerwyn Price triumphed in a thrilling final-leg decider against Joe Cullen.

World No 1 Humphries won nine of the last 10 legs and averaged 98.59 in powering to a 4-0 victory over Kenny, setting up a corker of a last-16 clash between the defending champion and two-time winner Peter Wright.

Wright, despite visibly battling illness, put in arguably his best performance of a difficult 2024 when beating Jermaine Wattimena 4-2.

Price overcomes Cullen despite ‘Big Fish’ in epic finish

Earlier, Price came through a remarkable opening match against Cullen in which he coughed up a 3-0 lead in sets and spurned three match darts while being broken three times when throwing for the match.

Two of those missed match darts preceded an incredible 170 ‘Big Fish‘ finish from Cullen – only a second for the tournament – that levelled the final set at 5-5 and forced a sudden-death leg.

It was 2021 winner Price, however, who would finally secure his spot in the fourth round with a seventh-straight break of throw as he finally found tops with his fourth match dart, setting up a meeting with fellow Welshman Jonny Clayton next.

“The crowd were well behind him, and I actually thought I was going to lose that game,” Price said afterwards.

“I put myself in that position, but I got myself out of it. I kept in it right till the end and thankfully got the win.

“I’ve got a lot more in the tank and I’ll play a lot better than I played tonight. I did enough to win – and I’m just happy with that.”

In the evening’s second match, Wright produced a performance that belied his health struggles, ‘Snakebite’ apologetically denying the crowd his trademark walk-on dance moves before coughing his way through his win over Wattimena.

The 2020 and 2022 champion averaged an impressive 96.19, and while Wattimena himself was up at 96.50, it was Wright who delivered in the key moments to keep the Dutchman at bay.

He will now face Humphries in the next round who, despite not producing his very best darts, made light work of Kenny in the final contest of Friday night.

The reigning champion stole the first set with a final-leg break of throw after a costly Kenny missed dart at double 16, while he was broken to start the second but any thoughts of a closely-contested battle were swiftly put to bed as Humphries reeled off nine of the next 10 legs – including a 145 checkout in the fourth set.

Humphries relishing Wright clash | ‘So much more to give’

“It was one of those games where I didn’t want to take it for granted,” Humphries said.

“I wasn’t firing. I felt there was so much more to give, it just wasn’t coming out of me, but a solid performance. As long as I can keep winning every set, no sets lost, is all that matters.

“I’m not going to give up this world title without a fight. It’s not my best, but when someone pushes me I know I can provide the goods.”

Looking ahead to his meeting with Wright, Humphries added: “He said a few things in the last round. He said Barney [Raymond van Barneveld] was going to smash me and that he was going to smash Jermaine [Wattimena].

“He said he don’t fear me and Luke Littler, so we’ll see when we play again.”

Bunting cruises into fourth round after Heta hits nine-darter in defeat

In the afternoon session, Stephen Bunting cruised into the fourth round with victory over Latvia’s Madars Razma, while Damon Heta threw a sensational nine-darter in defeat to Luke Woodhouse.

Bunting is one of the dark horses for the tournament, particularly as half of the original 32 seeds are already out, and he saw off Razma 4-1 despite not being at his best.

The former Lakeside champion – whose previous best run at Alexandra Palace came in 2021 when reaching the semi-finals – will play Woodhouse next after he roared back from 3-1 down, rattling off nine legs on the spin to beat Heta 4-3 and reach the last 16 for the first time in his career.

The first match after the short Christmas break saw Heta produce the second perfect leg at this year’s tournament, sending the Ally Pally crowd into raptures during the second set – Woodhouse also celebrating wildly in a special moment.

Dutchman Christian Kist made the first perfect leg in the opening round last week and also lost his match. The record for the most nine-darters at the World Championship is three in 2022, so one more would equal that feat.

Heta does win £60,000 for his nine-darter though, as did a lucky fan in the Ally Pally crowd, with tournament sponsors Paddy Power also donating £60,000 to Prostate Cancer to mark the moment.

The other match of the afternoon was won by Clayton as he held off a fightback from Northern Ireland’s Daryl Gurney to win 4-3.

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