Reigning PDC World Champion and custodian of most the organisation’s silverware, Luke Littler was made to wait a while as the earlier contests sprawled indulgently across the evening like an overlong Shakespearean history play with the Warrington prodigy simmered in the wings, coiled, restless, incandescent with intent.
Once the traps opened and the teenager finally emerged, he didn’t hang around too long.After somewhat controversially defeating Joe Cullen, the so-called Gentle’s reward for Mensur Suljovic – should such a term even apply – was an audience with the world number one, a teenager who treats reputations as optional inconveniences.
The Austrian barely had time to admire the theatre of the moment before being swept aside in a merciless exhibition of velocity, venom and virtuosity. Three legs conceded. That was the sum of his evening.You could feel it in the room. With the two preceding matches meandering into soap-opera excess, Littler arrived like a coiled spring finally given permission to jettison into the air.
The opening two sets were nothing short of annihilation – six unanswered legs, trebles falling with metronomic cruelty, finishing of surgical exactitude. It was darts as decree. Littler 2-0.Returning from the second interval, Suljovic briefly dared to interrupt the perfection – a fleeting insurrection against Littler’s unblemished record of not yet dropping a set.
The rebellion lasted minutes. The Nuke snuffed it out with aristocratic disdain. Another whitewash. Average hovering north of 107. Doubles breached with obscene efficiency.
A performance so imperious it rendered a highly capable opponent faintly anonymous.After all the pre-match noise, all the controversy, all the accusations of tempo-tampering, it was deliciously ironic that this contest barely had time to exist.
Next awaits Damon Heta or Rob Cross. One suspects Littler scarcely cares which. On this evidence, why should he?Elsewhere, from Banbury emerged a man who authored his own chapter of darting folklore.
James Hurrell produced the victory of his career, dethroning former Ally Pally semi-finalist Stephen Bunting in a contest brimming with drama, defiance and destiny. Hurrell seized the opening set, only to find himself trailing 2-1 while grappling with the cruel mathematics of sheer misfortune.
The explanation came in tungsten poetry – a 161 and a 121 from Bunting, both delivered with merciless clarity as Hurrell waited helplessly on doubles. Lesser men might have fractured. Hillbilly merely recalibrated defiantly.
The fourth set came and went without concession. Momentum shifted. Belief bloomed. Hurrell surged into a 3-2 lead and stood on the precipice of immortality, only for Bunting to summon one last rally, dragging the affair into a final, nerve-shredding decider.With darts in hand and gravity seemingly on his side, The Bullet looked poised. He took the opening leg. The script leaned his way. But tension is a treacherous thing. Nerves strangled trebles. Doubles trembled. Hurrell struck at the vital moment, stole the break, and this time – crucially – did not relinquish it. Redemption delivered.
The statistics tell a compelling tale. Hurrell superior across the board. Legs won 18-12. But there is only one figure that matters, carved now into tournament memory – 4-3.
He now awaits Martin Schindler or Ryan Searle, hoping he can reproduce more of the same.And then there is the Scandinavian fairytale – frost-bitten, bearded, magnificent.
Andreas Harrysson continues to defy precedent, expectation and probability itself, overcoming Ricardo Pietreczko to stride into the last 16 and carve his name into Swedish sporting history. The match unfolded as a study in contrast – Dirty Harry heavier on the creating side, Pikachu converting more clinically.
Four sets went with throw, the German surviving the abyss with a sumptuous 158 to level at two apiece. Again and again the pattern repeated, until the moment arrived that would define the night. At a juncture of unbearable weight, Harrysson unfurled a majestic 146 checkout – a blow so decisive it cracked the structure of the contest. The break was seized. The stage was set. Moments later, history was made.
Now stands Jonny Clayton, heavily decorated, heavily favoured – but forewarned. For if the Welshman is anything less than majestic, he may yet become another footnote in a Scandinavian saga that grows richer by the night.
Victory for Andreas would not only create more history and a guaranteed £100k prize pot – but professional status too, leaping straight into tour card status.This World Championship does not merely crown champions. It forges legends.
SATURDAY 27th DECEMBER – Evening Session Report
Andreas Harrysson 4-2 Ricardo Pietreczko
Stephen Bunting 3-4 James Hurrell
Luke Littler 4-0 Mensur Suljovic
—–Emds—–
Images: PDC
