On the same night Christian Quist hit nine darters and lost, a nervous Nathan Aspinall staggered past Leonard Gates in the opening round of the World Darts Championship.
Aspinall, who suffered a shock defeat at the same stage last year, largely avoided an upset this time around, marking their post-Christmas breakthrough with a 3-1 win.
Gates, who defeated a tearful Cameron Menzies in the first round on Monday, showed glimpses in a shared opening two sets, with Aspinall narrowly catching up.
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Watch the best action from night four of the World Darts Championship.
The American checked out 106 with a slow break in the first set, but Aspinall quickly surpassed that with 114 in the next leg to take the opening set.
However, the 12th seed was hopelessly bad at dropping second sets, averaging scores below 80. Despite such struggles, he held a two-set lead with two darts at the top, but fluffed the line when Gates took his place and leveled things up.
Aspinall improved slightly in the final two sets, surviving some nervy moments along the way, including knocking off a few match darts when Gates threatened to force a deciding set.
The two-time semi-finalist will know he has to do even better if he is to achieve another good result at Alexandra Palace.
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Who was the better walk-on between Aspinall and Gates before the second round of the World Darts Championship?
Kist hits a nice 9-darter but loses.
Kist’s nine-darter was his 15th at the world championships, and his first since Michael Smith’s famous “don’t talk” perfect leg in the 2023 final.
However, the Dutchman was unable to bounce back from a great moment to win the first set as his opponent. Madas Razma He kept his cool and won the next three sets in style, setting up his match against Dirk van Duijvenbode.
But Kist won £60,000 for his nine darter, as did a lucky fan in the Ally Pally crowd, and tournament sponsor Paddy Power also commemorated the moment by giving away £60,000 to prostate cancer. are donating.
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‘Rapid’ Ricky Evans beats Gordon Mathers 3-2 in first round of World Darts Championship
Ricky Evans Although he continued to work hard in his first match against Gordon Mathers, he was far from his “fast” best when forced into the deciding final set.
Evans ultimately emerged victorious, setting up a second-round match against sixth-seeded Dave Chisnall with a score of 109, the first of a ton-plus finish in a sloppy encounter.
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Evans gets the crowd going with a rendition of “Merry Christmas Everybody” and a very festive walk-on
In the opening match of the night, a booming Jim Williams missed five match darts en route to losing 3-2 in the first round. paolo nebrida.
To make matters worse for the Welshman, he missed three darts midway through to take the first set. Ross Smith will wait for Nebrida in the next round.
What’s next?
Thursday 19th December will be another great day as the afternoon session resumes and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Darts from 12.30pm. The line-up is as follows: Chris Landman vs. Lok Yin Lee, Karan Rizu vs. Romeo Grbavac, Martin Lukeman vs. Nitin Robert Owen in the second round with Kumar and 27th seed Gabriel Clemens.
Broadcast live on Sky Sports Darts from 7pm, former world champion Michael Smith headlines the evening session, ending the night against 2023 champion and second seed Kevin Doetts, while ‘s three first-round matches include Nick Kenny vs. Stow Bunts, Mensur Suljovic vs. Matt Campbell, and last year’s semifinalist Scott Williams vs. Nico Springer.
Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship? Watch every match live and exclusively on Sky Sports’ dedicated darts channel until January 3rd. Stream darts and other top sports now.
