Live Darts on December 29th | World Darts Championship 2025/26 Day 16 Preview and Order of Play

The Third Round action draws to a close at the World Darts Championship on Monday ahead with four places left up for grabs in the Last 16.

Eight of the top 16 seeds remain standing in the £1 million showpiece, which enters its business at Alexandra Palace to round off an unforgettable year of darts.

The afternoon session features a tie between two-time major champion Nathan Aspinall and Dutch ace Kevin Doets.

Aspinall has romped to a hat-trick of European Tour titles this season, whilst also reaching the semi-finals of the Premier League and finishing runner-up in last month’s Players Championship Finals.

The Stockport star enjoyed a breakthrough run to the semi-finals on his World Championship debut in 2018/19 and repeated the feat 12 months later, before reaching the quarter-finals on New Year’s Day in 2025.

Seeded 15, Aspinall has dropped just one set in seeing off international qualifiers Lourence Ilagan and Leonard Gates but now faces his first real test against a fellow Tour Card holder.

Doets is bidding to equal last year’s landmark run to the Last 16 and has also dropped just one set en route to this stage, having overcome Matthew Dennant in Round One before thrashing Kenya’s David Munyua in straight sets.

Crowd favourite Ricky Evans comes up against emerging star Charlie Manby in another unmissable contest.

Evans is vying to reach the Last 16 of the World Championship for the first time in 11 appearances after following up a straight sets rout of Man Lok Leung with a thrilling tie break win over ten-time major winner James Wade before Christmas.

Quarter-finalist at the Grand Slam last month, ‘Rapid Ricky’ is out to set up a showdown with European Champion Gian van Veen.

Manby has enjoyed a dream debut at Ally Pally, coming through a deciding-set epic against Cameron Menzies in Round One before blitzing past USA’s Adam Sevada to set up the biggest match of his career.

The 20-year-old, a Development Tour event winner this year who set a record three-dart average of 130.7, has performance consistently so far with successive averages of 90.

The opening match of the afternoon sees world number 62 and 86 collide as Ryan Meikle takes on debutant Justin Hood.

Meikle was one of only two players to come from two sets down to win before Christmas as he defeated New Zealand’s Jonny Tata to reach Round Three here for the first time and effectively save his Tour Card in the process.

Hood, meanwhile, pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament so far by dumping out sixth seed Danny Noppert in a pulsating tie break with a 103 average to the Dutchman’s 102.

Victory here for the Somerset star would see him climb in to the world’s top 64 inside his first year as a Tour Card holder.

Evening Session

The final Third Round fixture sees World Cup of Darts winner Josh Rock take on former quarter-finalist Callan Rydz.

Rock produced a professional performance to defeat Women’s Series star Gemma Hayter 3-1 in the first round and is now appearing in the third round for the third time in four appearances at Ally Pally after safely seeing off Australia’s Joe Comito in straight sets with a 101 average.

Rock has never been beyond this stage of the competition and faces an opponent with renowned pedigree on this famous stage.

Rydz reached the quarter-finals in 2021/22, losing out to eventual champion Peter Wright in a deciding-set thriller, before replicating that run 12 months ago.

The three-time Players Championship event winner held firm to deny Daryl Gurney in a fifth set decider before Christmas and is playing in memory of his grandfather, who sadly passed away the following day.

Reigning champion Luke Littler steps up the defence of his crown with a tie against 2018 champion Rob Cross.

Littler is vying to join Phil Taylor, Gary Anderson and Adrian Lewis as only the fourth player to retain the PDC world title and cap off an extraordinary year of dominance which has seen him add a further five major ranking titles including the UK Open, World Matchplay and Players Championship Finals.

The teenage sensation put down an immediate marker and avoided a huge potential banana skin when he overcame Lithuania’s Darius Labanauskas in straight sets on opening night.

The Nuke had a ten-day break between rounds before brushing aside Welsh debutant David Davies in three sets with a 97 average in the Last 64 and going on to whitewash Mensur Suljovic 4-0 with a 107 average to take his unbeaten run to 15 matches in major ranking competition.

Littler won all five of his meetings with Cross in this year’s Premier League and also prevailed 6-2 when the pair met in the semi-finals here two years ago.

Cross has seemingly put a torrid run of form behind him to reach the Third Round at Ally Pally for the sixth time, dropping just one set in dominant wins over Cor Dekker, Ian White and Damon Heta.

Provisionally ranked world number 20, Cross has not reached a major ranking quarter-final in a calendar year for the first time since his PDC career began in 2017.

Meanwhile, two of the tournament’s stand-out performers go head-to-head as 20th seed Ryan Searle faces rank outsider James Hurrell.

Searle is appearing in the Last 16 at Ally Pally for the fourth time since his debut in 2018/19 and has done so without dropping a set in blistering wins over Chris Landman and Martin Schindler.

The former Players Championship Finals runner-up reeled off nine consecutive legs in his thumping 4-0 whitewash of Schindler on Sunday, averaging 102.3 in the process.

Hurrell has backed up his run to the Last 16 of the recent Players Championship Finals by securing his biggest-ever payday as a professional with a run to the Last 16 at Ally Pally.

A semi-finalist on the ProTour this season, ‘The Hillbilly’ saw off Stowe Buntz 3-1 in his opener before landing ten 180s in a 3-2 scalp of Dirk van Duijvenbode and going on to dump out fourth seed Stephen Bunting 4-3 with a 98.5 average.

The action gets under way from 12.30pm GMT, with Third Round and Last 16 ties to be contested over the best of seven sets and a tie break in operation if the score reaches 2-2 in the final set.

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World Darts Championship 2025/26 Day 16 Schedule of Play

Monday December 29

Third Round (unless stated)

Afternoon Session (12.30pm-4.30pm)
Justin Hood v Ryan Meikle
Ricky Evans v Charlie Manby
Nathan Aspinall v Kevin Doets

Evening Session (7pm-11pm)
R3 – Josh Rock v Callan Rydz
R4 – James Hurrell v Ryan Searle
R4 – Luke Littler v Rob Cross