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

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

World No.1 Humphries won nine of his last 10 matches and averaged 98.59 in power for a 4-0 win 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, produced possibly his best performance of a difficult 2024 to beat Jermaine Wattimena 4-2.

Price beats 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 turned away three match darts while breaking three times in serving for the match.

Two of those missed darts preceded an incredible 170′Big Fish‘ finish from Cullen – just a second into the tournament – that tied the final set at 5-5 and forced a sudden-death stage.

However, it was 2021 winner Price who would finally secure his place in the fourth round with a seventh straight break of the shot as he finally found the best with his fourth dart of the match, and set up a meeting with fellow Welshman Jonny Clayton.

“The crowd was really behind him, and I really thought he was going to lose this game,” Price said afterward.

“I put myself in that position but I got out of it. I stayed in it until the end and luckily I got the win.

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

In the second match of the night, Wright produced a performance that belied his health struggles, “Snakebite” apologetically denying the crowd his dance moves before coughing up his victory over Wattimena.

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

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

The defending champion stole the first set with a break of throw in the closing stages after a costly Kenny missed his dart at double 16 as he broke to start the second, but any thoughts of a hard-fought battle were she quickly laid on the bed as Humphries latched on. nine of the next 10 stages, including a 145 outing in the fourth set.

Humphries enjoying Wright’s shock | “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 shooting. I felt like there was a lot more to give, it just wasn’t coming out, just a solid performance. As long as I can keep winning all the sets, no dropped sets, that’s 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 bring 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 crush me and he was going to crush Jermaine (Wattimena).

“He said he’s not afraid of me or Luke Littler, so we’ll see when we play again.”

Bunting enters the fourth round after Heta netted nine darts in defeat

In the afternoon session, Stephen Bunting progressed to the fourth round with victory over Latvia’s Madars Razma, while Damon Heta delivered a sensational nine darts in defeat to Luke Woodhouse.

Bunting is one of the dark horses of the tournament, especially since half of the original 32 seeds are already out, and he beat Razma 4-1 despite not being at his best.

The former Lakeside champion – his previous best run at Alexandra Palace came in 2021 when he reached the semi-finals – will play Woodhouse next after coming back from 3-1 down, hitting nine legs in the turn to beat Heta 4-3 and reach the round of 16 for the first time in his career.

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

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

Heta does win £60,000 for his new darter, as does one lucky fan from the Ally Pally crowd, with tournament sponsors Paddy Power also donating £60,000 to prostate cancer to mark the occasion.

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

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