Peter Wright and Jonny Clayton progressed at the World Darts Championship, as Dirk van Duijvenbode, Connor Scutt and Charlie Manby prevailed in deciding-set thrillers at the London’s Alexandra Palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The double session featured a further eight opening round ties in the capital, as Wright began his bid for a third World Championship crown with a straight-sets success against Noa-Lynn van Leuven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two-time World Champion conjured up a sublime 152 checkout to stamp his authority on proceedings, before halting a mid-game revival from Van Leuven to seal his progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I was not happy with my performance,”\u00a0declared a candid Wright, who will take on Germany’s Arno Merk in round two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“My practice has been going well but I’m not transferring it on the big stage. I feel for Noa-Lynn; she played some amazing darts but just at the wrong time. If she did it at the right time I would have been in a lot of trouble.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clayton, meanwhile, overcame Adam Lipscombe 3-1 in a gruelling affair, registering a hat-trick of ton-plus finishes in setting up a showdown against Dom Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Welsh number one was nowhere near his explosive best, although he found his range late on to deny a spirited Lipscombe, who delivered a solid showing on debut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Hopefully it’s going to be my year,”\u00a0claimed Clayton, the number five seed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I was dreading that game. Adam is obviously a great player, but luckily enough I came through it. <\/em>Dom is going to be a tough cookie to crack. I know what he can do, but I need to concentrate on myself, nobody else.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elsewhere, Van Duijvenbode produced a sensational late flurry to topple a spirited Andy Baetens, converting a quartet of ton-plus checkouts in the closing stages to overturn a 2-1 deficit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Dutchman followed up 109 and 106 finishes with a sensational fifth set display, featuring a 170 checkout and a match-winning 102 outshot to prevail with a 98 average and eight 180s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scutt will go head-to-head with Gary Anderson in an intriguing round two encounter, after fending off a valiant fightback from Premier League champion Simon Whitlock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scutt raced into a two-set lead against the former World Championship runner-up, before kicking off the final leg with back-to-back 180s to halt the Australian’s resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Debutant Manby also came out on top in a five-set epic against Cameron Menzies, winning back-to-back sets to justify his reputation as one of the sport’s most exciting young talents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 20-year-old from Huddersfield reaffirmed his potential with a terrific display, converting a crucial 120 checkout in the closing stages of his comeback win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s a bit overwhelming, but it felt amazing up there,”\u00a0said Manby, who averaged 130 in a match on the Winmau Development Tour earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I think the game was played at a great pace and it was a good standard, so it was an enjoyable game to be a part of. An emotional Menzies also spoke post-match, apologising for his reaction at the conclusion of the contest, adding: <\/p>\n\n\n\n “I am sorry that I reacted in the manner that I did. It’s not an excuse, but I have had a lot of things on my mind recently and I suppose it all just became too much at the end. Let me say again, that’s no excuse for what I did on the stage. It was the wrong thing to do and I don’t want it to take anything away from Charlie. He played well and deserved his win.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Max Hopp marked his World Championship return with a 3-1 win against 2024 Grand Slam runner-up Martin Lukeman, crashing in seven 180s to triumph in his first Ally Pally appearance for five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Veteran duo Brendan Dolan and Mensur Suljovic also recorded 3-1 victories over Tavis Dudeney and David Cameron on a marathon day of action in North London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two-time quarter-finalist Dolan landed a sensational 170 checkout and defied nine 180s from young talent Dudeney to progress, while Suljovic averaged almost 95 to set up an intriguing showdown against Joe Cullen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The World Darts Championship continues with another double session later tonight, as former champion Gerwyn Price headlines Day Six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2020\/21 World Champion begins his title challenge against Adam Gawlas, with world number six Danny Noppert and last year’s semi-finalist Chris Dobey also set to star. Peter Wright and Jonny Clayton progressed at the World Darts Championship, as Dirk van Duijvenbode, Connor Scutt and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-7215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-darts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/KC_2026WCR1_Wright12_compressed.jpg",2000,1333,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/KC_2026WCR1_Wright12_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/KC_2026WCR1_Wright12_compressed-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/KC_2026WCR1_Wright12_compressed-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/KC_2026WCR1_Wright12_compressed-1024x682.jpg",640,426,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/KC_2026WCR1_Wright12_compressed-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/KC_2026WCR1_Wright12_compressed.jpg",2000,1333,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/KC_2026WCR1_Wright12_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/KC_2026WCR1_Wright12_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/KC_2026WCR1_Wright12_compressed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7217,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7215\/revisions\/7217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
RESULTS
Round One: <\/strong>Brendan Dolan 3-1 Tavis Dudeney (3-1, 3-2, 2-3, 3-1); Charlie Manby 3-2 Cameron Menzies (2-3, 3-2, 1-3, 3-2, 3-1); Mensur Suljovic 3-1 David Cameron (3-1, 2-3, 3-1, 3-1); Peter Wright 3-0 Noa-Lynn van Leuven (3-1, 3-2, 3-0); Max Hopp 3-1 Martin Lukeman (3-0, 3-2, 2-3, 3-0); Dirk van Duijvenbode 3-2 Andy Baetens (3-1, 1-3, 1-3, 3-1, 3-1); Jonny Clayton 3-1 Adam Lipscombe (3-1, 2-3, 3-1, 3-1); Connor Scutt 3-2 Simon Whitlock (3-1, 3-2, 2-3, 2-3, 3-1)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"