Mickey Mansell narrowly missed out on a place in the third round at the PDC World Championship after losing to Jonny Clayton in a sudden-death leg in the deciding set of their epic contest at Alexandra Palace.
Tyrone native Mansell, who impressed on his run to the semi-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts, had claimed the opening set against the darts as Clayton was made to pay for missed doubles.
The Welshman, though, stormed back to swiftly level as he rattled off six straight legs - including a 100 checkout with a tops-tops finish - to turn the match around.
Despite plenty of wayward throwing, Mansell dug in during the fourth set and capitalised on some low scoring from Clayton to level things up at 2-2.
MANSELL FORCES A FIFTH SET!
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 23, 2024
We're going all the way here!
Mickey Mansell completes an unorthodox checkout on double one to level up proceedings against Jonny Clayton!
📺 https://t.co/pIQvhqYxEj#WCDarts | R2 pic.twitter.com/fwmmqePpQJ
Mansell then landed successive monster finishes of 136 and 154 to seemingly leave seventh seed Clayton on the brink of a shock early exit.
The Ferret, though, held with a 70 checkout before a clinical 114 finish sent the decider on.
Former Premier League winner Clayton spurned three match darts - one on the bull and two on double eight - allowing Mansell to level back at 3-3.
THE FERRET FINDS A WAY! 🏴
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 23, 2024
Jonny Clayton survives a HUGE scare!
The Welshman wins through a gruelling sudden-death leg against Mickey Mansell to move through to the third round!
📺 https://t.co/pIQvhqYxEj#WCDarts | R2 pic.twitter.com/7KVcd5FxPC
Mansell broke to edge in front and missed his own shot for the match at tops, with Clayton recovering to square things up then holding for a 5-4 lead.
Helped by his first 180 of the match, Mansell forced a sudden-death leg - which Clayton, with advantage of throwing first, eventually wrapped up on double five following a gruelling encounter which lasted more than an hour.
Josh Rock, the 18th seed, coasted to a 3-0 victory over Welsh debutant Rhys Griffin - missing a possible nine-dart finish in the third set when he failed to hit a seventh treble 20.
Antrim's Rock - who claimed a first European Tour title at the Dutch Championship earlier this year - goes on to meet Chris Dobey, the 2023 Masters champion, for a place in the last 16.
In the evening session, Derry's Daryl Gurney also made his way through to the next round after a 3-2 win over Germany's Florian Hempel, coming from two sets to one down.
Former champion Rob Cross and Dave Chisnall crashed out as more seeds were scattered.
Fifth seed Cross, the 2018 champion, lost 3-1 to Scott Williams while Ricky Evans survived a match dart against him to upset sixth seed Chisnall in an epic second-round clash decided by a sudden death leg.
In the opening match of Monday's afternoon session, PDC Asian Tour leader Alexis Toylo saw his hopes ended with a 3-1 defeat to Krzysztof Ratajski.
Filipino star Toylo had marked his tournament debut with a first-round win over Richard Veenstra, but despite a big 160 finish in the opening set, he found it tough going against the Polish 31st seed.
Ratajski ground out a 2-0 lead before fending off any hopes of a comeback from Toylo to secure a showdown against Kevin Doets, who caused an upset in the last round by beating number two seed Michael Smith.
Former UK Open champion Andrew Gilding threw six maximums as he beat Grand Slam of Darts runner-up Martin Lukeman 3-1 to reach the third round for the first time, where he will play Nathan Aspinall.
Ricardo Pietreczko produced a clinical finishing display – hitting 56% of his doubles – to beat 28th seed Gian van Veen 3-1.
