Josh Rock's run ends, Gerwyn Price advances to World quarter-finals

Josh Rock's fairytale run at the PDC World Darts Championship ended as he was edged out by seventh seed Jonny Clayton in the last 16.

The 21-year-old from Antrim had won two matches in his tournament debut and took the first, fourth and fifth sets to reach the brink of the quarter-finals.

But Welshman Clayton fought back to force a deciding set in which he won all three legs to reach the quarter-finals for the first time.

Clayton’s highest checkout was 122 as he hit eight maximums with an average of just under 98 to finally end the run of Rock, who shocked Nathan Aspinall in the last round.

Top seed Gerwyn Price completed a comfortable 4-1 win over Jose de Sousa to book his place in the quarter-finals of the at Alexandra Palace.

The Welsh world number one averaged just over 94 and hit eight 180s to move into the last eight as he targets a repeat of his 2021 success.

'The Iceman', who beat five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld 4-0 in the last round, will next face either Gabriel Clemens or Alan Soutar.

"I ground out a win. I just wanted to get up there and win, it doesn’t matter about the performance," Price told a press conference broadcast by PDC media.

"It was just one of those games where I had to get over the winning line, and that is what I did.

"I was battling against myself and against him, but it is what it is – you come up against certain players and circumstances, so you just have to deal with it.

"I felt comfortable through the game and always felt I was going to win, it was just a matter of time."

Earlier on Thursday, Dirk van Duijvenbode edged out Ross Smith 4-3 after securing the final set on a thrilling sudden-death tiebreaker in a high-quality match which saw a record 31 maximums thrown during a