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Luke Littler edges out Ryan Joyce to reach World Championship quarter-finals as Van Gerwen and Bunting prevail

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Luke Littler v Nathan Aspinall live stream | World Darts Championship 2024/25 Quarter-Final Preview

Live Darts on New Year’s Day | World Darts Championship 2024/25 Quarter-Finals Preview and Order of Play

Jamie Shaw in World Darts Championship 31 Dec 2025

Littler and Aspinall face off (Photo by Kieran Cleeves/PDC)

The New Year begins with a bang as the final eight face off in the quarter-finals of the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace.

Ninety-six came, now just eight remain in pursuit of the Sid Waddell Trophy and £500,000 top prize as they lock horns on the sport’s greatest stage.

A star-studded quarter-final line-up is split across two unmissable sessions on New Year’s Day, with three former champions bidding to reclaim the crown, as well as a further four major title winners and arguably the most in-form player of the tournament.

The afternoon session commences with a clash between 2021 World Champion Gerwyn Price and former Masters champion Chris Dobey.

Price is making his 11th World Championship appearance and is seeded tenth in the draw following a below-par year by his standards.

The seven-time major winner has failed to pick up a PDC ranking title for the first time since 2017, reaching just one final on the European Tour and one final on the ProTour.

Consequently, he came into the World Championship under the radar, but began with a commanding straight sets win over Keane Barry on Day Two of the tournament, before surviving a match dart from Joe Cullen to prevail in a sudden death thriller.

Price then overcame his former World Cup winning team-mate Jonny Clayton 4-2 to reach the quarter-finals here for the fifth time in six years.

Dobey is appearing in his third consecutive World Championship quarter-final and remains on a redemption mission after remarkably squandering a four-set lead against Rob Cross on this day 12 months ago.

The former Premier League star has claimed three Players Championship titles this season, while also reaching a further two finals, and has so far seen off Alexander Merkx, Josh Rock and Kevin Doets, recovering from 3-2 down to defeat the Dutchman in the Last 16.

Michael van Gerwen’s bid for a fourth world title continues with a showdown against man of the moment Callan Rydz.

Van Gerwen has competed in all 17 stagings of the World Championship since its move to Ally Pally and captured the Sid Waddell Trophy in 2014, 2017 and 2019.

A winner of more than 150 titles worldwide, including a staggering 47 majors, MVG has enjoyed more success than any other player in this competition and is vying to restore his former glories.

The Dutch icon opened up with a routine straight sets win over debutant James Hurrell, before recovering from a set down to defeat Brendan Dolan 4-2 and holding off a mid-game revival from Jeffrey De Graaf to prevail by the same scoreline in the Last 16 with a 102 average.

Rydz has lit up the tournament with a series of spell-binding displays, registering the two highest match averages so far in the process.

Rydz produced the stand-out performance of the First Round as he thrashed Croatia’s Romeo Grbavac 3-0 with a 107 average, before repeating that scoreline against German number one Martin Schindler in Round Two despite averaging 16 points fewer.

The Bedlington ace then averaged 105.3 in a 4-0 whitewash of Dimitri van den Bergh before recovering from 2-0 down to edge out Robert Owen in a decider with a 97.3 average for a place in his second Ally Pally quarter-final.

The evening session kicks off with a mouth-watering tie between two-time PDC World Champion Peter Wright and former BDO World Champion Stephen Bunting.

Wright has torn up the form book to reach his first televised ranking quarter-final of the season, notably dethroning reigning champion Luke Humphries along the way.

Winner here in 2020 and 2022, Wright has recaptured his best form on the biggest stage of all, seeing off Dutch duo Wesley Plaisier and Jermaine Wattimena before averaging 101 in a sensational scalp of the world number one.

Snakebite came into the competition in his lowest seeding position (17) in more than a decade after a torrid season, but is now provisionally back up to world number 11 and has his sights set on a remarkable triumph which would see him become the first Scotsman to secure a trio of world titles.

Bunting, Lakeside Champion in 2014 and a semi-finalist at Ally Pally in 2021, finished runner-up in a staggering six Players Championship events this season.

The number eight seed finds himself in a fourth Ally Pally quarter-final, having recovered from a set down to dispatch German debutant Kai Gotthardt, before averaging 100 in a commanding 4-1 win over Latvia’s Madars Razma and whitewashing Luke Woodhouse with a 96.8 average.

Two stablemates collide in a fitting finale to the day’s action as last year’s runner-up Luke Littler takes on former World Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall.

Littler’s landmark run to the final on debut 12 months ago catapulted him into the limelight, and the teenage sensation has not looked back, going on to enjoy a dream first season on the PDC circuit which has seen him claim the Premier League, World Series Finals and Grand Slam titles.

Provisionally ranked world number two, Littler is bidding to cap off his remarkable year by lifting the sport’s most iconic trophy and becoming its youngest ever World Champion.

The Nuke got off and running with an emotional 3-1 victory over Ryan Meikle, averaging 100.8 and landing ten 180s, before dispatching Ian White 4-1 on Saturday with the aid of 12 maximums.

He then held off a spirited display from Ryan Joyce to edge through in a seventh-set decider 48 hours ago with a 103 average and 14 maximums to his name.

Littler boasts a dominant head-to-head record over Aspinall, notably landing a nine-darter en route to Bahrain Masters glory last January, as well as multiple wins in the Premier League.

Semi-finalist in each of his first two World Championship appearances, Aspinall has progressed beyond the Third Round for the first time since 2020, having headed into the event on the back of a turbulent season in which he has continued to battle with injury.

The Stockport star had failed to reach the quarter-finals of a televised ranking tournament for the first time since 2018 but has rectified matters on the sport’s most iconic stage, having brushed aside Leonard Gates, Andrew Gilding and Ricardo Pietreczko for the combined loss of just one set so far.

The action gets under way from 12.30pm GMT, with Quarter-Final matches to be contested over the best of nine sets, best of five legs per set.

The final set must be won by two clear legs, unless the score reaches 5-5, in which case a sudden death leg will be played.

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World Darts Championship 2024/25 Quarter-Finals Schedule

Wednesday January 1

Afternoon Session (12.30pm-4pm)
Chris Dobey v Gerwyn Price
Michael van Gerwen v Callan Rydz

Evening Session (7pm-10pm)
Peter Wright v Stephen Bunting
Luke Littler v Nathan Aspinall

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