Brendan Dolan booked his spot in the PDC World Championship quarter-final after a dramatic 4-3 victory over two-time champion Gary Anderson in their last-16 match at Alexandra Palace this evening.
Anderson is the second former world champion that Dolan has sent packing this week, having dispatched 2021 champion Gerwyn Price on Thursday evening.
It looked like it'd be plain sailing for Dolan as he raced into a two set lead against an out-of-sorts Anderson. 2-0 ahead in the third leg, he frittered away a chance to take the third set and the Scotsman roared back.
As Dolan's finishing grew ragged, Anderson's averages improved markedly as he turned the tables to fire into a 3-2 sets lead.
After that wobble, Dolan recovered in superb fashion in the sixth set, averaging 116 to stall Anderson's gallop and bring the match to a decider.
Dolan led 2-1 with the throw, needing to steal a leg to win the decider by two legs. In a tense finale, the Irishman missed two match darts on double 12 and double 6 to win the match. But Anderson gifted him a further opportunity with three missed darts on double 5.
DOLAN DEFEATS ANDERSON!
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 30, 2023
Brendan Dolan has done it!
The History Maker shocks the darting world, beating Gary Anderson to reach his second World Championship quarter-final!
📺 https://t.co/f3RU9WTIoD#WCDarts | R4 pic.twitter.com/BkL9o7yulY
Dolan steadied himself to nail the double 3 to win a thriller and progress to the last-eight.
"I'm over the moon," he said. "I just think so much of Gary and how brilliant he is.
"It is not a bad couple of days. There has certain things that have happened that maybe make me think it’s meant to be."
The Fermanagh man, who previously reached the quarter-final in 2019, will now face off against teenage sensation Luke Littler, who dumped out Raymond Van Barneveld.
The 16-year-old has set the Alexandra Palace tournament alight on debut and became the youngest ever player to reach the last eight after a stunning 4-1 win.
He showed maturity and talent way beyond his tender years to get past the five-time world champion, who he used to imitate in front of the television as a three-year-old.
He peppered the treble 20 nine times and finished with an emphatic average of 105.01.
Scott Williams has apologised for his "genuinely stupid" comments during an on-stage interview at the World Championship on Wednesday as Daryl Gurney bowed out of the tournament.
He followed that victory up with a 4-1 win over 10th seed Damon Heta on Saturday afternoon to make a first-ever quarter-final at Alexandra Palace.
'Shaggy', who received backlash to his insensitive comments, was regretful about his interview on Sky Sports.
He said: "I was advised to come off social media, just X, what I said in the last interview on stage was stupid, genuinely stupid. The guys from Germany know I love Germany.
"My deepest apologies to anyone who took offence, I have had a lot of messages from people who haven't taken offence, but that has gone now and I am looking forward to Monday."
He let his darts do the talking in a ruthless performance against Australian Heta, which included a 170 checkout.
The showman was also conducting the crowd before he threw his match-winning dart, which set up a last-eight tie with Michael van Gerwen.
He added: "That is very good. I can't say too much because I will get myself in trouble.
"Michael? Michael, yeah I have heard of him. I am really looking forward to it, he is a completly different gravy to everyone else in the competition. I am just going to go up there and throw darts and if they go in they go in."
Daryl Gurney's interest in the competition after he was beaten 4-2 by Dave Chisnall.
Rob Cross is into his first quarter-final at Ally Pally since winning the title on debut in 2018 after a 4-0 demolition of Jonny Clayton.
Cross, who now plays Chris Dobey, is enjoying his best season for a number of years and showed he is a contender for the title after throwing a 98.41 average against the Welshman.
That would have been higher had he not missed six match darts to get over the line.
He said on his on-stage interview: "I thought I needed a new pair of pants!
"I feel for Jonny he never really turned up, he is the nicest guy I have ever met. I was controlled and ruthless, I wanted to get through it. I managed to get it done and on to the next one."
