Stephen Bunting cruised into the fourth round of the World Darts Championship on a stunning evening with nine from Damon Heta.
Bunting is one of the dark horses for the tournament, especially as half of the original 32 seeds have already been released, and he saw off Latvia's Madars Razma 4-1 despite being far from the the best.
Former champion Lakeside, who had his best run at Alexandra Palace in 2021 when he reached the semi-finals, will play Luke Woodhouse, who beat Heta 4-3.
“When you have this crowd behind you, you can win anything. They were unbelievable again. Thank you everyone!” Bunting said Sky Sports Darts.
“I felt like I played well there but Razma never left and you guys… Wow. Let's go Bunting mental!”
Heta nine-darter causes wild celebrations before they lose
In the first game after the short Christmas break, Heta produced a perfect second leg at this year's tournament before losing 4-3 to Luke Woodhouse.
Heta was near a nine-darter in his first match but sent the Ally Pally crowd into raptures during the second set and Woodhouse celebrated wildly in a special moment. Dutchman Christian Kist made a perfect first leg in the opening round last week and also lost a match.
Three in 2022 holds the record for most nine darters at a World Championship, so one more would equal that feat.
Heta took a 3-1 lead but the momentum suddenly shifted to Woodhouse when the latter won nine legs on the spin to reach the last 16 for the first time in his career.
“Me and Damon are good friends – we play golf and work together,” Woodhouse said Sky Sports Darts.
“I know he was gutted when he missed 12 doubles in his first game so when he made that nine-darter against me and the crowd went wild. I couldn't cheer him on.”
Heta wins £60,000 for his nine-darter though, as does one lucky fan in the Ally Pally crowd, with tournament sponsors Paddy Power also donating £60,000 to Prostate Cancer for his to mark a moment.
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Luke Woodhouse shares his thoughts after his 4-3 win over Damon Heta and why he was celebrating when Heta put nine men against him.
Jonny Clayton won the other match of the evening as he held off a fightback against Northern Ireland's Daryl Gurney to win 4-3.
Clayton led 3-0 but Gurney dug deep and sent the match to a deciding set. Clayton managed to find the decisive break though, and will face Gerwyn Price or Joe Cullen in the next round.
Price plays Cullen in the opening game of Friday night's session at 7pm, before Peter Wright takes on Jermaine Wattimena and defending champion Luke Humphries takes on Nick Kenny in the final of the night.
Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship? Watch all the matches live until Friday, January 3 on Sky Sports' exclusive darts channel. Stream darts and more sports favorites with NOW
