New Zealand Darts Masters 2025 | Day Two Preview and Order of Play

The 2025 New Zealand Darts Masters draws to a close in Auckland on Saturday as the final eight battle it out for the title.

The opening night saw all eight PDC stars safely progress at the expense of Oceanic opposition for the second week in a row on the World Series.

Day Two of the season’s seventh World Series event plays host to the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final in one bumper session at the Spark Arena.

Reigning champion Luke Humphries resumes the defence of his title with a clash against Aussie number one Damon Heta.

Humphries triumphed at the US Darts Masters in New York in June to double his World Series tally and is looking to bounce back from last week’s whitewash defeat to Mike De Decker.

The world number one, who had been suffering from illness since arriving Down Under, battled past New Zealand number one Haupai Puha 6-3 with an 89.5 average on Friday.

Heta, meanwhile, needed an average of just 86.7 to brush aside TV debutant Dean Reyland 6-1 and will be eyeing a marked improvement as he seeks to avenge last year’s 8-2 defeat to Humphries in the final in Hamilton.

Luke Littler continues his pursuit of back-to-back World Series titles when he takes on Mike De Decker in a repeat of last week’s Australian Masters final.

Littler prevailed 8-4 in Wollongong to secure his first World Series silverware of the season, following on from last month’s incredible World Matchplay triumph.

The 18-year-old extended his unbeaten run to ten matches in all competitions by defeating DPNZ qualifier Mark Cleaver 6-4 despite failing to register a 180 in a televised match since April 2024.

De Decker, who dropped just six legs en route to the final on his World Series debut in Wollongong, continued his impressive form by thrashing Gordon Mathers 6-1 with the aid of four 180s and a 150 checkout.

Arguably the pick of the quarter-final ties features a re-run of last month’s World Matchplay epic between Gerwyn Price and Josh Rock.

Rock recorded a famous 16-11 victory on that occasion in Blackpool, averaging 104 to Price’s 100.2, before eventually losing out to nine-dart hero Littler in an historic semi-final.

The World Cup of Darts winner bounced back from last week’s shock whitewash defeat at the hands of Stephen Bunting by overcoming John Hurring 6-2 with a 99.8 average on Friday.

Gerwyn Price, the 2022 New Zealand Masters champion, landed seven 180s in a high quality 6-4 win over Jonny Tata with a 103.6 average – the highest of the opening round.

Second seed Price has picked up six World Series titles in total – a tally bettered only by Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen – the most recent of which coming at the Poland Masters last month.

The opening quarter-final sees top seed Bunting take on another former Masters champion in Chris Dobey.

An inspired Bunting has claimed two World Series titles this year, as well as reaching a further two finals.

The Bahrain Masters and Nordic Masters champion has reached the final in four of his six World Series outings this year, with the only blemishes coming at the US Masters – where he suffered a shock first round defeat to Jason Brandon – and last week’s Australian Masters, where he was denied by Littler in the semi-finals.

Having overcome Ben Robb 6-3 in Round One, Bunting now faces New Zealand Masters debutant Dobey – who reached his first World Series semi-final in Wollongong last week.

The World Championship semi-finalist dug deep to defeat former European Champion Simon Whitlock 6-4 in Friday’s opener despite an average of 88.7.

The action gets under way from 8am BST, with Quarter-Final matches to be contested over the best of 11 legs, Semi-Finals best of 13 and the final best of 15.

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New Zealand Darts Masters 2025 Day Two Schedule

All times BST (local time +9 hours)

Saturday August 16

8am-12pm

Quarter-Finals
Stephen Bunting v Chris Dobey
Luke Humphries v Damon Heta
Gerwyn Price v Josh Rock
Luke Littler v Mike De Decker

Semi-Finals
Bunting/Dobey v Humphries/Heta
Price/Rock v Littler/De Decker

Final