Live Darts on Friday | WDF World Championship Quarter-Finals Preview and Order of Play
The quarter-finals take centre stage in an unmissable double-header at the 2025 WDF World Championship at Lakeside on Friday.
A clutch of emerging young stars and experienced campaigners face off at the ‘home of world darts’ in a bid to keep their title dreams alive this weekend.
Amongst the stand-out fixtures in the afternoon session is a clash between New Zealand’s Ben Robb and 19-year-old Jenson Walker.
Five-time PDC World Championship qualifier Robb has enjoyed a memorable debut at Lakeside so far, overcoming Sweden’s Johan Engström, 2022 champion Neil Duff and Ireland’s Stephen Rosney for the combined loss of just two sets.
Robb, who is bidding to become New Zealand’s first Lakeside Champion, now faces another tough assignment against multiple WDF ranking event winner Walker – who has dispatched Jiří Brejcha, David Fatum and Raymond Smith en route to this stage.
Fourth seed James Beeton comes up against Belgium’s Sybren Gijbels in the opening match of the afternoon.
Beeton has battled through successive last-set deciders against Dennis Nilsson and Caleb Hope to reach this stage, while Gijbels has seen off Kevin Luke, Marcus Maier and Slovenia’s Benjamin Pratnemer.
The opening women’s quarter-final sees Scotland’s Lorriane Hyde – the reigning Denmark Open and Scottish Open champion – face Priscilla Steenbergen, who is making her second quarter-final appearance here since 2022.
Three-time women’s world finalist Deta Hedman – who came from a set down to defeat Mikuru Suzuki in her opener – meets last year’s runner-up Sophie McKinlay, who also recovered from a set behind to edge out Paige Pauling.
The evening session sees 15-year-old prodigy Mitchell Lawrie looking to maintain his perfect debut campaign when he faces Francois Schweyen – semi-finalist 12 months ago.
Lawrie exploded onto the Lakeside stage by producing a 10-darter and a brace of 145 checkouts in a straight sets rout of Tomoya Maruyama earlier this week, before averaging 97 in thrashing second seed Jason Brandon on Wednesday.
The Scottish sensation remains yet to drop a set following Thursday’s rout of Jeff Springer and is also through to the semi-finals of the Boys’ competition.
Belgium’s Schweyen is bidding to serve up the teenager’s first real test this week after edging past Jeffrey Sparidaans in a sudden death leg and defeating veteran Matt Clark 3-1 in the Last 16.
A blockbuster clash to round off the evening sees reigning champion Shane McGuirk come up against top seed Jimmy van Schie.
McGuirk is aiming to make it ten matches unbeaten on the Lakeside stage in his quest to become the first player to successfully defend the men’s WDF world title.
The Irish ace has recorded consecutive 3-1 wins over Petri Rasmus, Stefan Schröder and Jonas Masalin with a tournament average of around 92 so far.
Dutch giant Van Schie blitzed past Alex Williams in straight sets in Round Two before averaging 95.8 in an impressive 3-1 win over former PDC Tour Card holder Paul Krohne on Thursday.
Women’s top seed Lerena Rietbergen faces surprise package Eve Watson – who dumped out former finalist Aileen De Graaf in straight sets on Thursday.
Fifth seed Rhian O’Sullivan, women’s world finalist in 2010 and 2011, meets Canada’s Maria Carli – who has already knocked out Irina Armstrong and Nicole Regnaud.
The action gets under way from 12pm GMT, with men’s quarter-final ties to be contested over the best of seven sets and women’s quarter-final ties to be contested over the best of five sets.
WDF World Championship 2025 Day Eight Schedule
Friday December 5
Quarter-Finals
Afternoon Session (12pm-4pm)
James Beeton v Sybren Gijbels
Lorriane Hyde v Priscilla Steenbergen
Deta Hedman v Sophie McKinlay
Boys’ QF – Mason Teese v Benedek Szabo
Ben Robb v Jenson Walker
Evening Session (6pm-11pm)
Lerena Rietbergen v Eve Watson
Boys’ QF – Florian Preis v Archie Self
Mitchell Lawrie v Francois Schweyen
Maria Carli v Rhian O’Sullivan
Jimmy van Schie v Shane McGuirk
