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Damon Heta hit a nine-dart finish
Damon Heta hit a nine-dart finish

Darts results: Damon Heta hits second nine-darter of the PDC World Championship but a sporting Luke Woodhouse bounces back to beat him

By Chris Hammer
Darts
Sat December 28, 2024 · 9h ago

Luke Woodhouse earned widespread praise for his reaction to Damon Heta's nine-darter and then bounced back from 3-1 down to win 4-3 and reach the fourth round of the Paddy Power World Championship.

In the first match after the Christmas break, the popular Aussie raised the roof at the Ally Pally in the second set as he achieved perfection and trigger another £180,000 payout from the tournament sponsors.

Heta, who was millimetres away from throwing a nine-darter in the previous round when he missed the double 12, earned himself £60,000 while a lucky member of the audience and Prostate Cancer UK equally split the remaining £120,000.

It was the second perfect leg of the World Championship, following on from Christian Kist's magic moment, and the 16th in the tournament's history - although for the ninth time it came in a losing cause.

Woodhouse had celebrated Heta's nine-darter as wildly as if it was his own before raising his opponent's arm and maybe the Sporting Gods were smiling down on his reaction.

Although the Englishman would later fall 3-1 down in sets, he miraculously responded from 1-0 down in the fifth to reel off nine successive legs to storm into the fourth round for the first time in his career.

Woodhouse averaged 92.34 compared to Heta's 89.69 as well as hitting eight of the 15 180s while his checkout percentage of 36.2% was far more clinical than the Aussie's 29.3%.

Interestingly it's the ninth time out of 16 perfect legs in PDC World Championship history when a nine-darter has come in a defeat. Of the last five nine darters, the only one which was achieved in victory was Michael Smith v Michael van Gerwen in the 2023 final.

“I was as excited as Damon when the nine-darter went in,” joked Woodhouse, who dumped out World Grand Prix champion Mike De Decker in round two.

“It’s a brilliant feeling; to come back against a player like Damon is a massive achievement for me, and I’m just looking forward to the next game now.”

Jonny Clayton survived a superb comeback against Daryl Gurney as he also won another seven-set thriller.

The Welshman looked to be storming through to the last 16 when opening up a commanding a 3-0 lead, but Gurney recovered to make it 3-3.

At 2-1 down in legs, Gurney then had six darts to send it to a tiebreaker but couldn't pin the decisive double and Clayton scraped through.

Crowd favourite Stephen Bunting enjoyed a more comfortable afternoon, beating Madars Razma 4-1 with just the fourth 100+ average of the tournament so far.

“I couldn’t care less about what the others are doing to be honest,” claimed Bunting, a semi-finalist in 2020/21.

“It’s all about me, and the Bunting bandwagon! The crowd today was unbelievable. I was crying during the walk-on, it was that emotional!

“It is a special place to play. When you’re up on that stage there’s nowhere to hide, but when you have 3,000 fans shouting your name, you are just riding on the crest of wave!”

Price wins epic

Gerwyn Price was the latest player to come through a last-set decider as he and Joe Cullen served up an Ally Pally classic that will live long in the memory.

The Iceman surrendered a 3-0 lead and then survived a match dart from Cullen in a deciding set that ended up going all the way when the Rockstar produced an astonishing 170 checkout to force a sudden-death leg.

Despite looking absolutely shell-shocked by the Big Fish, which came seconds after he'd missed two darts for victory, Price prevailed against the throw to set up a meeting with two-time Welsh World Cup winning partner Clayton.

"I'm not playing Jonny, I'm playing the board, just like I always do," said Price. "I'll go up there and concentrate on my game, we'll shake hands after and may the best man win.

"I've got a lot more in the tank, I can play a lot better than I played tonight. Joe made it so tough, he just kept coming back at me and I actually thought I was going to lose the game.

"I was just desperate to get over the winning line after putting myself in a tricky position, but thankfully I got the win."

Luke Humphries crushed Nick Kenny 4-0 in the last match of the night for the loss of just four legs and he'll next continue his title defence against Peter Wright.

"It was one of those games I didn't want to take for granted because of how well Nick played in his last game," said Humphries. "There's so much more to give but it just wasn't coming out tonight, but I'm pleased to be through. I'm not going to give up this world title without a fight and I'm looking forward to playing Peter Wright next."

Wright defied a chest infection to claim an impressive 4-2 win over Jermaine Wattimena in which he fired in 10 180s.

"I think Jermaine maybe felt a bit sorry for me," said Wright. "[The chest infection] wasn't affecting my darts. Hopefully I'll feel a bit better by the time I play my next game.

"I think experience got me through tonight, along with the support from the crowd."

PDC World Championship: Friday results and Saturday schedule

Friday December 27
Afternoon Session (12.30pm GMT)
Third Round (Best of 7 sets)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports Darts

  • Damon Heta 3-4 Luke Woodhouse
  • Jonny Clayton 4-3 Daryl Gurney
  • Stephen Bunting 4-1 Madars Razma

Evening Session (7pm GMT)
Third Round (Best of 7 sets)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports Darts

  • Gerwyn Price 4-3 Joe Cullen
  • Jermaine Wattimena 2-4 Peter Wright
  • Luke Humphries 4-0 Nick Kenny

Saturday December 28
Afternoon Session (12.30pm GMT)
Third Round (Best of 7 sets)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports Darts

  • Ryan Joyce v Ryan Searle
  • Scott Williams v Ricardo Pietreczko
  • Nathan Aspinall v Andrew Gilding

Evening Session (7pm GMT)
Third Round (Best of 7 sets)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports Darts

  • Chris Dobey v Josh Rock
  • Michael van Gerwen v Brendan Dolan
  • Luke Littler v Ian White

Darts: Related content

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