Draw:

 

 

Gerwyn Price (1) v Ritchie Edhouse or Lihao Wen

Kim Huybrechts (32) v Fallon Sherrock or Steve Beaton

Stephen Bunting (16) v Ross Smith or Jeff Smith

Dirk van Duijvenbode (17) v Jermaine Wattimena or Boris Kolstov

Jonny Clayton (8) v Keane Barry or Royden Lam

Gabriel Clemens (25) v Lewy Williams or Toyokazu Shibata

Michael Smith (9) v Ron Meulenkamp or Lisa Ashton

Glen Durrant (24) v William O'Connor or Danny Lauby Jnr

James Wade (4) v Maik Kuivenhoven or Ky Smith

Vincent van der Voort (29) v Adam Hunt or Boris Krcmar

Joe Cullen (13) v Ted Evetts or Jim Williams

Simon Whitlock (20) v Martijn Kleermaker or John Michael

Dimitri van den Bergh (5) v Florian Hempel or Martin Schindler

Devon Petersen (28) v Jamie Hughes or Raymond Smith

Krzysztof Ratajski (12) v Steve Lennon or Madars Razma

Mervyn King (21) v Ryan Joyce or Roman Benecky

Peter Wright (2) v Ryan Meikle or Fabian Schmutzler

Damon Heta (31) v Luke Woodhouse or James Wilson

Ryan Searle (15) v Williams Borland or Bradley Brooks

Danny Noppert (18) v Jason Heaver or Juan Rodriguez

Jose de Sousa (7) v Jason Lowe or Daniel Larsson

Mensur Suljovic (26) v Alan Soutar or Diogo Portela

Nathan Aspinall (10) v Joe Murnan or Paul Lim

Brendan Dolan (23) v Callan Rydz or Yuki Yamada

Michael van Gerwen (3) v Chas Barstow or John Norman Jnr

Chris Dobey (30) v Rusty-Jake Rodriguez or Ben Robb

David Chisnall (14) v Darius Labanauskas or Charles Losper

Luke Humphries (19) v Rowby-John Rodriguez or Nick Kenny

Gary Anderson (6) v Adrian Lewis or Matt Campbell

Ian White (27) v Scott Mitchell or Chris Landman

Rob Cross (11) v Raymond van Barneveld or Lourence Ilagan

Daryl Gurney (22) v Ricky Evans or Nitin Kumar

 

The World Championship begins on 15 December and runs through until 3 January.

 

 

 

Can Gerwyn Price defend his world title?

 

Coverage will be on Sky Sports Darts.

Snakebite would be my shout.

Another player has had to withdraw ahead of next week's PDC World Darts Championship with Juan Rodriguez not set for his debut after all due to testing positive for Covid-19.

 

Rodriguez will now be replaced by Gordon Mathers who was next up on the reserve list.

 

The Australian is preferred due to living in the UK with Peter Hudson and Jeffrey de Zwaan next up in case of any further withdrawals.

 

Charles Losper was the other player who saw far had to withdraw due to visa issues. He was replaced by Mike de Decker.

Odds: (Coral)

 

Gerwyn Price 7/2f

Michael van Gerwen 4/1

Jonny Clayton 15/2

Peter Wright 15/2

Dimitri Van den Bergh 14/1

Michael Smith 25/1

Nathan Aspinall 25/1

Rob Cross 28/1

James Wade 33/1

Jose de Sousa 33/1

Ryan Searle 33/1

Gary Anderson 40/1

Joe Cullen 40/1

Krzysztof Ratajski 40/1

Danny Noppert 50/1

Chris Dobey 66/1

Daryl Gurney 66/1

Luke Humphries 66/1

Dave Chisnall 80/1

Dirk van Duijvenbode 80/1

Mervyn King 80/1

Brendan Dolan 100/1

Damon Heta 100/1

R.van Barneveld 100/1

Stephen Bunting 100/1

Adrian Lewis 125/1

Callan Rydz 125/1

Gabriel Clemens 125/1

Ian White 125/1

Kim Huybrechts 125/1

Ross Smith 125/1

Vincent van der Voort 125/1

Mensur Suljovic 150/1

Ryan Joyce 150/1

Simon Whitlock 150/1

Darius Labanauskas 200/1

Jamie Hughes 200/1

Martin Schindler 200/1

William O'Connor 200/1

Devon Petersen 300/1

Glen Durrant 300/1

Jason Lowe 300/1

Jeff Smith 300/1

Jermaine Wattimena 300/1

Maik Kuivenhoven 300/1

Martijn Kleermaker 300/1

Ron Meulenkamp 300/1

Rowby-John Rodriguez 300/1

Adam Hunt 500/1

Boris Krcmar 500/1

Bradley Brooks 500/1

James Wilson 500/1

Luke Woodhouse 500/1

Madars Razma 500/1

Ricky Evans 500/1

Ryan Meikle 500/1

Steve Beaton 500/1

Steve Lennon 500/1

Ted Evetts 500/1

William Borland 500/1

Lisa Ashton 750/1

Mike de Decker 750/1

Nick Kenny 750/1

Alan Soutar 200/1

Boris Koltsov 1000/1

Chas Barstow 500/1

Danny Lauby Jnr 500/1

Diogo Portela 1000/1

Fallon Sherrock 150/1

Florian Hempel 250/1

Jason Heaver 500/1

Jim Williams 300/1

Joe Murnan 500/1

John Norman Jnr 1000/1

Keane Barry 300/1

Ky Smith 1000/1

Lewis Williams 500/1

Lourence Ilagan 750/1

Matt Campbell 500/1

Raymond Smith 1000/1

Ritchie Edhouse 500/1

Rusty-Jake Rodriguez 500/1

Scott Mitchell 300/1

Yuki Yamada 1000/1

Nitin Kumar 2000/1

Toyokazu Shibata 1000/1

Fabian Schmutzler 500/1

Roman Benecky 2000/1

Chris Landman 1000/1

Royden Lam 1000/1

Paul Lim 1000/1

Ben Robb 1000/1

Daniel Larsson 1000/1

John Michael 750/1

Gordon Mathers 500/1

Peter Hudson 1000/1

Friday December 17

Afternoon Session (1230 GMT)

3x First Round, 1x Second Round

Ryan Joyce v Roman Benecky (R1)

Keane Barry v Royden Lam (R1)

Jermaine Wattimena v Boris Koltsov (R1)

Krzysztof Ratajski v Steve Lennon (R2)

 

Evening Session (1900 GMT)

3x First Round, 1x Second Round

Joe Murnan v Paul Lim (R1)

William Borland v Bradley Brooks (R1)

Ross Smith v Jeff Smith (R1)

Peter Wright v Miekle (R2)

 

2021/22 William Hill World Darts Championship

 

First Round

 

Ritchie Edhouse (84.26) 3 (5) 2 (82.85) Peter Hudson

Ricky Evans (96.20) 3 (5) 0 (83.80) Nitin Kumar

Adrian Lewis (94.42) 3 (5) 1 (93.57) Matt Campbell

Steve Lennon (93.22) 3 (5) 1 (94.11) Madars Razma

Scott Mitchell (88.02) 0 (5) 3 (88.97) Chris Landman

Chas Barstow (93.02) 3 (5) 1 (86.54) John Norman Jnr

Willie O'Oconnor (96.02) 3 (5) 2 (93.46) Danny Lauby

Ryan Meikle (89.30) 3 (5) 0 (89.14) Fabian Schmutzler

Ron Meulenkamp (87.32) 3 (5) 0 (73.99) Lisa Ashton

 

Second Round

 

Gerwyn Price (101.28) 3 (5) 1 (95.67) Ritchie Edhouse

Daryl Gurney (95.90) 3 (5) 1 (93.11) Ricky Evans

Gary Anderson (93.74) 3 (5) 1 (92.07) Adrian Lewis

Barstow could be a top 32 player. Then again, I said that about Richard North.

Today is the day........

 

Sunday December 19

 

Afternoon Session (1230 GMT)

3x First Round, 1x Second Round

Maik Kuivenhoven v Ky Smith (R1)

Jason Heaver v Gordon Mathers** (R1)

Alan Soutar v Diogo Portela (R1)

Stephen Bunting v Ross Smith (R2)

 

Evening Session (1900 GMT)

3x First Round, 1x Second Round

Martijn Kleermaker v John Michael (R1)

Florian Hempel v Martin Schindler (R1)

Steve Beaton v Fallon Sherrock (R1)

Jonny Clayton v Keane Barry (R2)

Well done Steve beat the crowd, Sky Sports and Fallon.

 

Well done Steve beat the crowd, Sky Sports and Fallon.

 

German debutant Florian Hempel stunned fifth seed Dimitri van den Bergh 3-1 in the second round of the World Darts Championship.

 

Hempel won the first set before his Belgian opponent hit back with a 142 finish after taking three straight legs in the second.

 

But Hempel dominated the final two sets and ended last year's World Matchplay champion's hopes.

 

Van den Bergh is just the third seed to fall in this year's tournament.

Well done to him - we love a good underdog!

 

Apparently he used to play handball - wonder if there are any transferrable skills between the two sports?

@1475777710152683525

MvG is out of the World Championship due to COVID.

I wish MVG a speedy recovery but this is becoming a farce now I'm afraid!

MvG is out of the World Championship due to COVID.

That's a shame - the tournament has lost a favourite there. The show must go on though, can't just be cancelled for one player withdrawing!

That's true, the show must go on

Dave Chisnall has become the third player to withdraw from the 2022 PDC World Championship due to a positive Covid-19 test.

A shame to see another go - interesting that both MvG and Chisnall were in the same bracket though, meaning the two players who recieved byes will now play each other!