Stephen Bunting entered the fourth round of the World Darts Championship on a dramatic afternoon that saw Damon Heta complete a nine-dart dart.
Bunting is one of the dark horses for the tournament, especially as half of the original 32 seeds are already out, and he beat Latvia’s Madars Razm 4-1 despite being far off his best.
The former Lakeside champions, whose best run at Alexandra Palace came in 2021 when they reached the semi-finals, will play Luke Woodhouse, who fought back to beat Heta 4-3.
“When you have this crowd behind you, you can win anything. They were amazing again. Thank you to each and every one of you!” Bunting said Sky Sports Darts.
“I felt like I played pretty well there, but Razma never got going and you… Wow. Let’s go Bunting mentally!”
Heta with nine darts causes a wild celebration before defeat
In the first match after the short Christmas break, Heta produced the second perfect leg of this year’s tournament before losing 4-3 to Luke Woodhouse.
Heta was close to a a dart with nine arrows in his first match but wowed the Ally Pally crowd during the second set, with Woodhouse also celebrating wildly in a special moment. Dutchman Christian Kist made the first perfect leg in the opening round last week and also lost the match.
The record for most nine goals in a World Cup is three in 2022, so one more would equal that feat.
Heta took a 3-1 lead but the momentum suddenly shifted to Woodhouse as the latter won nine legs on the spin to reach the last 16 for the first time in his career.
“Me and Damon are good friends – we play golf and train together,” Woodhouse said Sky Sports Darts.
“I know he was upset when he missed double 12 in his first game, so when he made that nine against me and the crowd went wild. I couldn’t help but celebrate with him.”
Heta does win £60,000 for his nine dart, as does a lucky fan from the Ally Pally audience, with tournament sponsors Paddy Power also donating £60,000 to prostate cancer to mark the moment.
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Luke Woodhouse shares his reaction to his 4-3 win over Damon Hett and why he celebrated when Hett hit a nine-dart against him
The second match of the afternoon was won by Jonny Clayton after he saved the return ball against Northern Ireland’s Daryl Gurney to win 4-3.
Clayton led 3-0, but Gurney dug deep to send the match to a deciding set. However, Clayton managed to find a decisive break, and in the next round he will meet either Gerwyn Price or Joe Cullen.
Price takes on Cullen in Friday night’s opening match at 7pm, before Peter Wright takes on Jermaine Wattimena and defending champion Luke Humphries rounds off the night against Nick Kenny.
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