Crazy ups and downs and crazy demonstration of power in the Ally Pally! On the 13th day of the Darts World Championship, two-time title holder Gary Anderson opened the evening session with an absolute thriller against Brendan Dolan, before the next gala from 16-year-old Luke Littler followed.
Anderson, who won the World Cup crown in 2015 and 2016, started disastrously, couldn’t find his game at all, missed the triple and was fed up with double trouble.
“History Maker” Dolan, who had already eliminated one of the top favorites, Gerwyn Price, in round three, quickly moved away to 2-0 sets – then Anderson finally turned things up.
The Scot swapped darts during the break and gradually found his way into the game. “The Flying Scotsman” narrowly secured the third set, and Anderson then snatched the fourth and fifth sets from Dolan almost brutally effectively by putting an average of 100 and 107 on the board.
When everything seemed to indicate that the favorite had turned things around, the next turning point followed. Dolan played an average of 108.85 points per shot in the sixth set and equalized – but the peak of the tension had not yet been reached.
Darts thriller culminates in the seventh set
With the score at 3-3 sets and 2-1 in legs for Dolan, the Northern Irishman was in danger of losing his throw, but then improved his chances with his third and final 180 of the match. Anderson subsequently missed a high finish of 128, Dolan dropped 63 points, and Anderson was unable to check ten points. Dolan took advantage of this and made the surprise perfect.
“I watch from game to game,” Dolan explained afterwards in an interview with “Sport1”, but made it clear that he definitely sees himself capable of winning the title.
Making it to the last eight is not new territory for the 50-year-old. In 2019 he reached the quarter-finals at Alexandra Palace for the first time. At that time he lost to Nathan Aspinall.
Darts prodigy also defeats van Barneveld
Anderson shouldn’t be the only multiple former world champion that evening who has to bury his hopes of another title. Raymond van Barneveld, four-time BDO and one-time PDC champion, faced darts prodigy Luke Littler – and had no chance.
The 16-year-old Englishman dismantled “Barney” 4-1 in a true show of power and ultimately won the duel of generations confidently against the 56-year-old Dutchman.
It is the junior world champion’s first participation in a World Cup, but in his only four games at the Ally Pally the youngster has not shown any signs of weakness so far.
The clear success is all the more surprising because van Barneveld played his current A-game and did not disappoint at all.
Littler still dominated the statistics: “The Nuke” threw nine 180s (van Barneveld 6) and played an outstanding average of 102.68 (van Barneveld 98.64). The double ratio of 51.85:45 percent was also slightly in favor of the supposed talent of the century.
In the quarterfinals there will now be a duel between the world champion conquerors and Dolan.