Live Darts on Thursday | World Matchplay 2026 Day Six Preview and Order of Play
The 2026 World Matchplay enters the quarter-final stage in Blackpool on Thursday with two mouth-watering ties from the top half of the draw.
Five of the top eight seeds are left standing in the competition, alongside two major winners and an unseeded Dutch star.
The quarter-finals feature a sizeable increase in format as the remaining hopefuls bid to remain on course for the record £225,000 top prize.
Reigning champion Luke Littler resumes the defence of the Phil Taylor Trophy with a blockbuster tie against Josh Rock in a repeat of their classic semi-final here 12 months ago.
Luke Littler is bidding to become only the fourth player in the history of the competition to successfully retain the title and is also out to maintain his clean sweep of major titles this season, having won the World Championship, World Masters, UK Open, Premier League and World Cup of Darts.
The teenage sensation became the youngest player (18) ever to lift this prestigious trophy when he triumphed here last year with victory over James Wade in the final.
Littler has won the last five major ranking titles, with his last defeat in a ranked major coming against Wade in last October’s European Championship.
The world number one stormed past German debutant Niko Springer on opening night with a 109.5 average, before producing one of the best displays ever seen at the Winter Gardens to defeat a gallant Nathan Aspinall 11-8.
Littler’s 113.68 average was the second highest in World Matchplay history and featured a roof-raising nine-darter in the opening leg of the contest – doubling his tally of perfect legs at the Empress Ballroom following his semi-final heroics last year.
Rock will undoubtedly take huge inspiration from his performance on that occasion, averaging 104 in a 17-14 defeat, though the Northern Irishman has barely got out of third gear in making it back-to-back quarter-finals.
The world number eight averaged 90.4 in a comfortable 10-4 win over Luke Woodhouse, before punishing an out of sorts Stephen Bunting to seal an 11-6 success with a 91.2 average.
Ominously for Rock, he has lost all nine of his previous meetings with Littler, including three defeats in this year’s Premier League, as well as the semi-finals of the UK Open.
The opening tie of the quarter-finals sees 2018 champion Gary Anderson take on a rejuvenated Dirk van Duijvenbode.
Anderson is appearing in the Last Eight of this event since finishing runner-up behind closed doors since 2020.
The Flying Scotsman enjoyed a resurgent run to the semi-finals of this year’s World Championship, as well as partnering Cameron Menzies to the semi-finals of last month’s World Cup of Darts for Scotland.
The 55-year-old produced, statistically, his best-ever display at the World Matchplay in thrashing Ryan Joyce 10-2 on Sunday with an average of 109.96, before backing that up with an 11-7 victory over Jonny Clayton in the Last 16.
Anderson has won his last four meetings with Van Duijvenbode stretching back to 2022, the most recent of which coming in the Last 64 of March’s UK Open.
Van Duijvenbode is making his second appearance in the quarter-finals in Blackpool, having initially reached this stage in 2022.
The popular Dutchman dug deep to deny Chris Dobey in a tense tie break after surviving four match darts, before coming through another nail-biter in overtime to knock out three-time champion Michael van Gerwen 14-12.
The world number 28 is the only unseeded player left standing in the competition and is vying for a place in his first major ranking semi-final since the 2024 Players Championship Finals.
The action gets under way from 8pm BST, with quarter-final matches to be contested over the best of 31 legs.
Matches will be extended if necessary for a maximum of six extra legs before a sudden death leg is required. For example, in a first to 16 quarter-final match, if the score reaches 15-15 then the 37th leg will be sudden death.
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World Matchplay 2026 Day Six Schedule of Play
Thursday July 23
Quarter-Finals
8pm-11pm
Dirk van Duijvenbode v Gary Anderson
Luke Littler v Josh Rock
