Key events
Anderson wins the fourth set 3-1! Dolan had a dart at the bull to break Anderson and go 2-1 up in the fourth set. Instead Anderson held and then clinched the set with a majestic 11-darter on Dolan’s throw. Anderson, suddenly rampant, is the strong favourite now. Dolan 2-2 Anderson
Anderson wins the third set! Gary Anderson is right back in it. He came from 2-0 down to take the third set against the throw, clinching it with a terrific 13-darter. In the previous leg Dolan missed one dart at D16 for the set. Ominously for him, Anderson has started peppering treble 20. Dolan 2-1 Anderson
Dolan 2-0 Anderson (legs 1-0) Dolan isn’t just beating Anderson – he’s hammering him. A comfortable hold makes it seven legs out of eight so far. Anderson, averaging just 85, has no rhythm.
Dolan wins the second set! Well, well. Gary Anderson has a great chance to break back – he was on 121 with Dolan nowhere, and he threw five. Single one, single one, single three. Eventually Anderson missed tops for a 116 and Dolan took out 100 with two darts.
If Anderson loses here, then one of Brendan Dolan, Luke Littler or Raymond van Barneveld will reach the semi-finals. They’re all fine players in different ways, but you’d have got very long odds on that three nights ago with Anderson and Gerwyn Price in that part of the draw.
Gary Anderson is in bother here. Brendan Dolan has just broken him to go 2-1 up in the second set and is now throwing for a two-set lead.
The rough guide to… Luke Littler
When Barney won his last world title, beating Phil Taylor in the greatest game of all time on New Year’s Day 2007, Luke Littler was 20 days away from being born.
Preamble
Welcome hardcore darts fans, welcome casual observers. You don’t need to be an arrers addict to be captivated by the story of Luke Littler, the 16-year-old who is making history at the World Championship. At around 8.45pm tonight, this kebab-loving phenom will play Raymond van Barneveld, 40 years his senior, for a place in the quarter-finals. Forty years.
Littler’s precociousness was common knowledge within darts, but hardly anybody expected him to make such a splash in his first year at Alexandra Palace. He demolished Christian Kist with an average of 106.12, a record for a debutant, and summoned enough brilliance and resilience to beat Andrew Gilding and Matt Campbell. Only Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson have lost fewer than Littler’s two sets.
While it helps that the draw has opened up – Littler was scheduled to play James Wade in the last round and Peter Wright tonight – his achievements are entirely without precedent. No 16-year-old has reached this stage before, and now he is odds-on favourite to beat a five-time world champion.
It’s easy to overlook how big this is for Barney, who hasn’t reached the quarter-finals since 2017-18. He looked excellent in beating Radek Szaganski, less so when labouring past Jim Williams yesterday afternoon.
The result may depend on who deals best with a peculiar mental strain: Littler is facing one of his heroes, Barney will be up against an unusually hostile Ally Pally crowd. It’s going to be emotional.
The winner will play Brendan Dolan or Gary Anderson in the last eight. They’re on stage at the moment, but you don’t care about them, do you, I bet you don’t even know what Mensur Suljovic’s favourite double is and Dolan has just taken the first set 3-0. It was on throw but it’s still a perfect start for him.