Peter Wright and his new darts crashed out on Saturday night (ITV)

Darts results: Peter Wright and his latest set of darts crash out of Masters

By Sporting Life

Darts

Sun January 30, 2022 · 3y ago

Peter Wright's latest equipment experiment came back to haunt him as he lost 10-8 to Simon Whitlock in the Ladbrokes Masters.

On his first appearance since winning a second world title at the beginning of the month, Wright emerged with a new set of darts which drew comparisons with those from yesteryear.

Indeed it might've been more appropriate had we seen these arrows in next week's World Seniors but here they were as Wright faced Whitlock live on ITV.

Statistically it was not a disastrous performance, but an average of 96.55 and 14 missed doubles left him vulnerable to an opponent who doesn't need a second invitation.

Whitlock stayed with his man early before securing the first break of the match to lead 5-4, and then following a 100 checkout with a 13-dart break of throw to move into an 8-5 lead.

That became 9-5 after Wright missed two darts for the 14th leg, before the reigning world champion showed his class with three in a row and set the stage for a marvellous turnaround.

But it wasn't to be, Whitlock producing a 15-dart leg which suitably ended on double six, a strange culmination to a match which had something peculiar about it from the moment Wright's darts left his pocket.

MVG wins epic

Michael van Gerwen's numbers were worse than Wright's and by some margin, but the only fact that matters is that he's through after a 10-9 victory over Luke Humphries.

Humphries took out 108 to break in the first leg and then needed just 13 darts to hold, however he let van Gerwen off the hook in the next leg and missed the chance to go 3-0 in front.

From there, MVG was able to steady the ship and a sloppy leg from Humphries soon followed as van Gerwen now took the lead and forced his own break to move two clear at 7-5.

Humphries broke back in 19 darts as both players made doubling look difficult, and he added the next two legs to lead 8-7 and with darts in hand.

Humphries threw a 180 and needed just 11 darts to move within one leg of the quarter-finals, only to miss five match darts as van Gerwen forced a decider.

That proven a fatal blow to Humphries' chances and he failed to pressure van Gerwen, who missed three match darts himself before securing a scrappy win.

One of the main talking points was Van Gerwen's facial expressions while seemingly getting himself fired up for those first three missed match darts

Van Gerwen started laughing and did an impression of his reaction before throwing at double 16 where he missed all three for the match. Humphries hadn't looked impressed with MVG before that moment and the Dutchman explained: "He said I was coughing. He was 200 points behind anyway. It’s not too smart for him to make that comment. He can only put himself into problems. No one wants that. You want to win a game fair.”

Welsh wonders survive

On a dramatic evening, Jonny Clayton beat Dimitri Van den Bergh 10-9 and compatriot Gerwyn Price edged past Ryan Searle 10-8.

Price was always ahead in his match but will have been relieved to finally put it to bed, and the same is true of Clayton, who also never trailed but having been 9-7 ahead was taken the distance.

Clayton closed it out in style, though, taking out 88 for a 12-dart leg which meant Van den Bergh could only have stolen it with a nine-darter which he was unable to find.

Rockstar shines on thrilling afternoon

Joe Cullen, Michael Smith and Dave Chisnall all averaged over 100 in advancing to the quarter-finals of the Ladbrokes Masters.

Cullen was a brilliant 10-1 winner against Gary Anderson, peppering the treble 20 bed, hitting three big finishes and barely missing a dart at double as he averaged 106.3.

It was a complete performance from The Rockstar, who took advantage of the fact Anderson had been away from the oche following his wedding earlier in the month and will face van Gerwen next.

"Everything I went for today I felt like I was going to hit," said Cullen.

"Normally my game is about scoring heavily to give myself time to hit a double but today my doubles were going in first or second time.

"It's a brilliant feeling to have, especially on a TV stage.

"I don't want to be remembered as a nearly man so it's time I won a big one, maybe it will be tomorrow."

Michael Smith hit eight 180s in 16 legs in a 10-6 defeat of Krzysztof Ratajski, before Dave Chisnall bettered that tally with nine in a 10-4 victory over James Wade.

The other last-16 tie on Saturday afternoon saw Jose De Sousa beat Rob Cross 10-7 with 12 maximums thrown between the two as TV darts came back with a bang.