The last three days before the Christmas break provided some fantastic darts – and more than a few shock results!

Thursday night’s session saw back-to-back defeats for two seeds, with Danny Noppert (#7) and Andrew Gilding (#20) taking an early bath. Gilding was first on – and first out – as 16-year-old Luke Littler continued his impressive run of form to take down the Suffolk man in four sets. Dutchman Noppert followed a short while later, slumping to a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Scott Williams. The remaining five seeds in action all emerged unscathed.

Three more seeded players fell on Friday. Jose de Sousa (#25), Dimitri Van den Bergh (#15), and twelfth-seeded Dirk van Duijvenbode were the unlucky men. These three lost to Jeffrey de Graaf, Boris Krcmar, and Florian Hempel respectively. However, #17 Chris Dobey squeezed past William O’Connor, while #29 (and five-time World champ) Raymond van Barneveld saw off Pole Radek Szaganski. Krzysztof Ratajski went one better than his compatriot Szaganski, beating Jamie Hughes, and Martin Schindler (#26) got the better of Jermaine Wattimena.

There was some spectacular stuff on Saturday, led by former BDO World Champion Stephen Bunting (#18). Bunting posted the best average of the tournament so far with a 107.28 in his 3-0 defeat of Ryan Joyce. If you think that 107 is good, he actually won the first set with a staggering 115.62! 27th seed Daryl Gurney also recorded a three-figure average (100.79) against Steve Beaton.

Three others narrowly missed a ton-plus average, recording something in excess of 99. Germany’s Ricardo Pietreczko (99.27) beat #30 seed Callan Rydz in a tense five-setter, Ricky Evans (who dropped just two legs against #6 Nathan Aspinall), and Richard Veenstra – who didn’t drop a single leg to Kim Huybrechts (#31). Ryan Searle and Jonny Clayton were two other seeds who did manage a win.

With Christmas Day AND Boxing Day (December 26) being holidays in the UK, the tournament resumes on Wednesday.

Full details from the PDC website here

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