The former World Champion Rob Cross will be the main focus on day seven of the 2024 Paddy Power World Darts Championships, as he will be hoping to avoid a disastrous second round exit like the two time World Champion Peter Wright .

Afternoon Session

However the first game to kick off the afternoon session is Mickey Mansell v Xiaochen Zong. Even though Mansell may better known at the Alexandra Palace it doesn’t mean his opponent is an unknown entity. ‘The Panda Man’ has participated in the World Championships twice before, in 2018 with a preliminary round exit and 2020 with a first round exit. However the Irishman is still the clear favourite going into the opening match of the day. The winner will face Brendan Dolan in the second round tomorrow.

Following this is another first round clash featuring Luke Woodhouse and Berry Van Peer. The 35 year old Englishman will be heading into his fifth consecutive participation at the World Darts Championships and he is expected to get through to the second round against the less experienced Dutchman. Van Peer, the 27 year old, at 13:45 today will be walking onto the oche at the Palace for the first time in his career. However this isn’t his first major of the year as he participated in Grand Slam of Darts in November where he failed to win a game losing to Josh Rock, Chris Dobey and Jonny Clayton. Although Luke Woodhouse still goes in to the match as the favourite. The winner will face the youngster Josh Rock in the second round on Saturday.

The third match of the day involves Madars Razma and Mike De Decker which according to odds should be the closest one of the day so far. The ‘Latvian Razmatazz’ is slightly more experienced at the World Championships than De Decker as he has featured in one more tournament than him. However this isn’t expected to cause too much of an advantage ahead of the match up. The Belgian has already started his 2024 World Championship campaign where he cruised through against Dragutin Horvat winning 3-0, averaging 94.34 and getting himself four 180’s. The winner of this match up will face the current World Champion Michael Smith on the 27th of December.

The final match up of the afternoon session is Rob Cross against Thibault Tricole. Thibault ‘The French Touch’ Tricole broke history in his first round win against Mario Vandenbogaerde as he became the first ever Frenchman to win a World Championship game. His first round match up against the Belgian saw him average 85.59, even though it saw him into round two he will be expected to need a much higher average if he wants to be successful against the former World Champion Rob Cross. The Englishman is currently ranked 8th in the PDC Order of Merit however has been unsuccessful in winning a major in this calendar year, saying this he has picked up two World Tour titles and one European Darts Grand Prix trophy. The winner of the last game before the evening session will face either Jose De Sousa or Jeffrey De Graaf.

Evening Session

If Luke Littler can start off his second round match up against Andrew Gilding in similar fashion to the first round we are all in for a treat. The 16 year old averaged 106.12 against Christian Kist getting himself a total of seven 180’s, The limelight was on Littler before the tournament after a very successful year being topped off with a 6-4 win against Gian Van Veen in in the World Youth Championships – one of the most talented World Youth Championships for a long time. Even with this success, a confident, relaxed performance such as the one against Kist was not expected in his first trip to Ally Pally. However in the second round he faces a much more difficult opponent in the ‘Goldfinger’ the ranked number 20 has also had success this year when he became superior against Michael Van Gerwen at the UK Open. A very difficult match up to call however ‘The Nuke’ goes into this one on better form. The winner will face Matt Campbell in the third round.

The second match up of the evening see’s Danny Noppert face Scott Williams. Williams goes into this match up following a 3-1 win against Haruki Muramatsu whilst coming out with a very respectable 90.69 average. Although his next opponent may cause more issues than his last as he faces the 34 year old Dutchman Danny Noppert. ‘The Freeze’ is currently ranked 7th in the PDC World Rankings and goes into this game as favourite with his last major being at the UK Open last year. The Dutchman will be hoping to progress further in this tournament than 2023 as he was knocked out in the third round by underdog Alan Soutar – it is unlikely that Noppert will go down without a fight this year. The winner will face either Martin Schindler or Jermaine Wattimena.

The penultimate game of the night features Gabriel Clemens and Man Lok Leung – could this one cause an upset? The 24 year old from Hong Kong surprised everyone with his incredible walk on song but more importantly his 96.26 average in the first round. The youngster saw past the young talent Gian Van Veen coming back from a 2-0 deficit. ‘Hugo’ also managed to find himself eleven 180’s potentially giving the experienced Gabriel Clemens a lot more to thing about in the second round than first anticipated. However the ‘German Giant’ will not be expected to enter the game naively as he will be hoping to go further than his semi final loss against Michael Smith at Alexandra Palace last year. The winner will face Dave Chisnall in the third round.

To conclude what should be a very exciting day of darts is Damon Heta v Martin Lukeman. Lukeman will feel a weight lifted off his shoulders as he gets back to back first round wins at the Alexandra Palace. In a recent post match interview the 38 year old opened up about the troubles he’s had this year in his personal life and the fact that he ‘didn’t want to play’, but thankfully his wife has now been given the all clear and he will be wanting to put his family problems behind him ahead of the rest of the tournament. The Englishman’s focus will now all be on his second round match against Damon Heta who he has had two out of three victories against on the Euro Tour. However it is not expected that the World No.10 goes into the match as the underdog, the Australian will be hoping that he makes it into the third round unscathed.

Thursdays Order of Play

Afternoon session

Mickey Mansell v Xiaochen Zong (R1)

Luke Woodhouse v Berry Van Peer (R1)

Madars Razma v Mike De Decker (R2)

Rob Cross v Thibault Tricole (R2)

Evening Session

Andrew Gilding v Luke Littler (R2)

Danny Noppert v Scott Williams (R2)

Gabriel Clemens v Man Lok Leung (R2)

Damon Heta v Martin Lukeman (R2)