World Darts Championship 2023/24 | Day 13 Preview and Order of Play
The Fourth Round of the 2023/24 World Championship reaches its climax at Alexandra Palace on Saturday with six scintillating ties on the cards.
The final darting day of the year sees a host of star names battling it out for the right to join Michael van Gerwen and Chris Dobey in the Quarter-Finals on New Year’s Day.
Van Gerwen and Dobey blitzed their way into 2024 with whitewash wins over Stephen Bunting and defending champion Michael Smith on Friday night and a clutch of other top seeds will be out to join them.
Undoubtedly the stand-out tie of the day features a clash of the generations as five-time World Champion Raymond van Barneveld faces teenage sensation Luke Littler.
With a staggering 40-year age gap between the pair, this contest promises to be one for the history books, with Barney bidding to restore his former glories and Littler looking to extend his dream debut run.
Van Barneveld defeated Phil Taylor in the iconic 2007 world final 20 days before Littler was born, and the 16-year-old has idolised the Dutchman growing up.
Last month’s World Youth champion has already made history by becoming the youngest player to win a match at the PDC World Championship and has backed that up with two dominant displays, dropping just two sets en route to this stage.
The Runcorn prodigy thrashed 2012 Lakeside Champion Christian Kist in straight sets with a 106.12 average – the highest of any debutant in the World Championship, before dumping out UK Open champion Andrew Gilding and Canadian number one Matt Campbell with averages of 92 and 97 respectively.
He is already guaranteed £35,000 in prize money but now faces a formidable test against an icon of the sport – who has rolled back the years to reach the Last 16 at Ally Pally for the first time since the 2017/18 event.
Crowd favourite Van Barneveld began his 17th PDC World Championship campaign with a 3-1 win over Poland’s Radek Szagański, averaging 99.8, before brushing aside Jim Williams 4-1 with a modest average of 89 on Friday.
Elsewhere in the evening session, three-time major champion Luke Humphries steps up his pursuit of a maiden world title with a showdown against Joe Cullen.
Humphries came in to the tournament on the back of a remarkable spell of dominance, having claimed the World Grand Prix, Grand Slam and Players Championship Finals titles in a period of less than two months.
The world number three is vying to reach his fourth World Championship Quarter-Final in just seven attempts but was given a huge scare in his last outing.
Having swept aside Lee Evans in his opener, Humphries was forced to recover from 3-1 down to deny Germany’s Ricardo Pietreczko in a last-set decider two days ago, averaging 91.4 as he defied a partisan German contingent in the crowd.
Cullen, meanwhile, is into the Last 16 for the third time in four years but has never been beyond this stage of the sport’s showpiece event.
The former Masters champion and Premier League finalist picked up three ranking titles last year but has not registered a tournament win this season, with his best performances coming in the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix – where he reached the Semi-Finals.
Cullen swept past Australia’s Darren Penhall in straight sets, before seeing off 19th seed Ryan Searle 4-2 in a high quality encounter earlier in the week.
The evening’s action commences with a clash between two-time World Champion Gary Anderson and giant-killer Brendan Dolan.
Anderson had to wait 13 days for his return to the palace after thrashing 2010 finalist Simon Whitlock 3-0, but he duly dispatched Croatia’s Boris Krcmar 4-1 from a set behind, averaging 99.3 in the process.
Back-to-back champion in 2015 and 2016, the 52-year-old boasts a terrific record on the sport’s biggest stage, reaching five finals since 2011, as well as a further two Semi-Finals.
The Flying Scotsman is one of only three players to have successfully retained the PDC world title and has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence this year, scooping a hat-trick of Players Championship titles and finishing runner-up alongside Peter Wright for Scotland in the World Cup of Darts.
Dolan has been an ever-present in the World Championship for 15 years and is looking to reach the Quarter-Finals for only the second time.
The veteran Northern Irishman, who knocked Michael van Gerwen out of July’s World Matchplay, pulled off another huge upset as he dumped out 2021 World Champion Gerwyn Price with a memorable 4-2 success earlier this week.
Prior to that, ‘The History Maker’ had come through a classic contest to deny compatriot Mickey Mansell in a sudden death leg and will be full of confidence coming into his latest date with destiny.
The afternoon session features a battle between 2018 World Champion Rob Cross and World Cup of Darts winner Jonny Clayton.
Cross culminated his first season as a PDC professional by defeating the departing Phil Taylor in the final to claim the world title and has since gone on to add another six televised tournament wins – including the 2019 World Matchplay.
Twice a World Series event winner and a European Tour winner this season, ‘Voltage’ has fallen at the Last 16 hurdle in three of his five subsequent visits to Ally Pally, and has started his run here with wins over Thibault Tricole and Jeffrey de Graaf – averaging 101 in the latter contest.
Clayton claimed World Cup of Darts and Austrian Open glory for the second time this year and was runner-up in the World Matchplay, while also reaching the Premier League play-offs for the third season in a row.
The Welshman is bidding to make it back-to-back Quarter-Finals at Ally Pally following a 3-1 win over Steve Lennon and a 4-2 success over Krzysztof Ratajski despite a tournament average of 90.2.
Multiple major finalist Dave Chisnall comes up against two-time major winner Daryl Gurney in another mouth-watering showdown.
Chisnall is aiming to reach the Quarter-Finals at Ally Pally for the fourth time, with his best run to date coming behind closed doors in 2021, sensationally whitewashing Michael van Gerwen 5-0 with a 107 average before losing out to Gary Anderson in the Semi-Finals.
Chizzy has claimed three European Tour titles this season in addition to two Players Championship triumphs and has seen off Cameron Menzies and Gabriel Clemens for the loss of just two sets so far.
Gurney, quarter-finalist here in 2017 and 2021, was one of only six players to register a ton-plus average in the opening two rounds as he denied 1996 Lakeside Champion Steve Beaton 3-1 with an average of 100.8, before battling past Ricky Evans 4-2 earlier this week.
The resurgent Northern Irishman boasts a solid tournament average of 96 with 15 maximums and a high checkout of 164 to his name.
The opening match of the afternoon sees Australian number one Damon Heta face the flamboyant Scott Williams.
Heta headed to the capital as the number 11 seed after reaching a trio of major ranking Quarter-Finals this season, as well as four European Tour Semi-Finals and scooping two Players Championship titles.
The former Brisbane Masters champion is appearing in his fifth consecutive World Championship and is through to the Last 16 for the first time, having defeated Martin Lukeman 3-1 and Berry van Peer 4-3.
Williams has eclipsed last year’s debut run to Round Two by seeing off PDC Asian champion Haruki Muramatsu 3-1 and seventh Danny Noppert in straight sets.
The former ProTour event winner came agonisingly close to a nine-darter in the last set against Noppert, wiring double 18 for perfection, and went on to knock out 26th seed Martin Schindler in a last-set thriller to extend his ground-breaking run.
The action gets under way from 12.30pm GMT, with Last 16 matches to be contested over the best seven sets.
Matches must be won by two clear legs, unless the score reaches 5-5 in the deciding set, in which case a sudden-death leg will be played.
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World Darts Championship 2023/24 Day 13 Schedule
Saturday December 30
Last 16
Afternoon Session (12.30pm-5pm)
Scott Williams v Damon Heta
Daryl Gurney v Dave Chisnall
Rob Cross v Jonny Clayton
Evening Session (7.30pm-11pm)
Brendan Dolan v Gary Anderson
Raymond van Barneveld v Luke Littler
Luke Humphries v Joe Cullen
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