Stephen Bunting cruised into the fourth round of the World Darts Championship on a dramatic afternoon which saw a nine-darter from Damon Heta.
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 Latvia’s Madars Razma 4-1 despite being far from his best.
The former Lakeside champion, whose best run at Alexandra Palace came in 2021 when he reached the semi-finals, will play Luke Woodhouse, who roared back to beat Heta 4-3.
“When you have this crowd behind you, you can win anything. They were unbelievable again. Thanks to each and every one of you!” Bunting told Sky Sports Darts.
“I felt like I played quite well there but Razma never went away and you guys… Wow. Let’s go Bunting mental!”
Heta nine-darter sparks wild celebrations before defeat
The first match after the short Christmas break saw Heta produce the second perfect leg at this year’s tournament before he went on to lose 4-3 to Luke Woodhouse.
Heta was close to a nine-darter in his first match but sent the Ally Pally crowd into raptures during the second set and Woodhouse also celebrated 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 took a 3-1 lead but momentum suddenly shifted to Woodhouse as the latter won nine legs on the spin to reach the last 16 for the first time in his career.
“Me and Damon are good friends – we play golf and practice together,” Woodhouse told Sky Sports Darts.
“I know he was gutted when he missed double 12 in his first game so when he made that nine-darter against me and the crowd went wild. I couldn’t not celebrate with him.”
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 Jonny Clayton as he held off a fightback from Northern Ireland’s Daryl Gurney to win 4-3.
Clayton was 3-0 up but Gurney dug deep and sent the match to a deciding set. However, Clayton managed to find the decisive break, and will face Gerwyn Price or Joe Cullen in the next round.
Price plays Cullen in the opening match of Friday evening’s session at 7pm, before Peter Wright takes on Jermaine Wattimena and defending champion Luke Humphries rounds off the night against Nick Kenny.
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