World Seniors Darts Championship 2025 Day Four Preview and Order of Play | Final eight face off
The 2025 World Seniors Championship draws to a close at the Circus Tavern on Saturday as the final eight face off for the title.
Two former Lakeside Champions and two former winners of this title are among a star-studded quarter-final line-up in the over-45s showpiece in Purfleet.
A bumper final day of action sees the quarter-finals take place in the afternoon session, followed by the semis and final in the evening in the midst of a cauldron atmosphere.
Half of the remaining eight players are making their debut in this competition, including crowd favourite Steve Beaton, fresh from resigning his PDC Tour Card at the end of 2024.
Beaton narrowly avoided an early exit as he edged out Colin McGarry in a sudden death leg, surviving a match dart in the process, but went on to serenely sweep aside Paul Hogan in straight sets on Friday night.
He now faces the man whom he defeated to lift the BDO World Championship title at Lakeside back in 1996 – Richie Burnett.
Burnett, who overcame Beaton to win the World Masters in 1994, has also rolled back the years to break new ground on this stage, battling past Kevin Painter in a sudden death grueller, before overcoming 2023 runner-up Richie Howson 3-1 on Friday.
John Henderson is bidding to become the second player to successfully retain this title, and The Highlander comes up against dangerous debutant Derek Coulson in the Last Eight.
Henderson is vying to follow in the footsteps of Scottish compatriot Robert Thornton – who successfully retained the crown in 2023 – and the former World Cup of Darts winner held off a terrific fightback from Chris Mason to narrowly prevail 3-2, having taken the first two sets.
Coulson, who has qualified for next week’s UK Open, announced himself onto the televised stage with a 3-1 scalp of former World Master Mervyn King with a 96.3 average, before backing that up with a straight sets rout of three-time Lakeside finalist Tony O’Shea.
Two-time World Seniors Champion Thornton continues his quest to regain this prestigious trophy when he takes on Ross Montgomery in an all-Scottish showdown.
Thornton, who also claimed the World Seniors Matchplay title in 2022, opened up with a solid 3-1 win over Darryl Fitton on Friday with an 89.6 average.
Former Dutch Open winner Montgomery, who dropped off the PDC circuit in 2023, thrashed Trina Gulliver in straight sets in Round One, before digging deep to deny three-time World Champion John Part in a deciding set.
Meanwhile, three-time World Seniors major winner Leonard Gates comes up against former PDC Tour Card holder Graham Usher.
Gates claimed the Champion of Champions, World Masters and World Matchplay titles on the Seniors circuit in 2023 and featured in last year’s Grand Slam of Darts and PDC World Championship – where he lost out to Nathan Aspinall in Round Two at Ally Pally.
The American ace, seeded number four, recovered from a set down to safely see off Mike Huntley in Round Two.
Scarborough’s Usher, who will also feature in the upcoming UK Open, came through the qualifiers to reach this event and has dropped just one set in dispatching Richard Rowlands and former WDF World Champion Neil Duff on his debut here so far.
The action gets under way from 1pm GMT, with Quarter-Final and Semi-Final ties to be contested over the best of five sets and the final best of nine. There is no tie break rule in operation.
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World Seniors Championship 2025 Day Four Schedule
Saturday February 22
Afternoon Session (1pm-5pm)
Quarter-Finals
Derek Coulson v John Henderson
Leonard Gates v Graham Usher
Richie Burnett v Steve Beaton
Robert Thornton v Ross Montgomery
Evening Session (7pm-11pm)
Semi-Finals
Coulson/Henderson v Gates/Usher
Burnett/Beaton v Thornton/Montgomery
Final
