Betfred World Matchplay Darts, Day Five - Winning streak for Wright continues, Gurney, Bunting and Cross also progress to Quarters

Peter Wright continued in his rich vein of form with a demolition job over Simon Whitlock, while Daryl Gurney and Stephen Bunting edged past Keegan Brown and Ian White.

Photo from sportinglife.com

(3) Daryl Gurney 11-9 Keegan Brown
Daryl Gurney battled past Keegan Brown to reach the quarter-finals in Blackpool for the second time in his career.
The pair hit a combined 14 180s, with the Northern Irishman firing in eight of those, but it was the doubles where both players struggled.
SuperChin hit 109 and 106 checkouts early on in the match - the latter giving him a 6-3 lead, but his overall finishing statistics of 11 from 36 leaves a lot to improve on.
His Isle of Wight opponent similarly struggled, and couldn't muster any of the ton-plus finishing he had hit in his previous match against Jonny Clayton.
The Needle's best against the 2017 Grand Prix winner was an 88, after four 100+ finishes against the Welshman.
Brown spurned 22 of his 31 double attempts, but did fight back from 3-0 and 10-7 deficits.
Gurney averaged 93.44 to Brown's 92.44, and he'll know he needs a much improved performance if he is going to better his previous best run at the Winter Gardens when he lost in the semi-final in 2017.

Stephen Bunting 14-12 (10) Ian White
Stephen Bunting pounced on an all too familiar capitulation on the televised stage by Ian White to produce a memorable Winter Gardens comeback.
Having won twice on the European Tour this year, many thought it would be a matter of time before Diamond challenged for a major, but he couldn't get over the line.
The Stoke-on-Trent thrower led 9-4, before a spell where the Bullet won four legs on the spin and White didn't get a single shot at a double.
White then moved one leg away from victory as the former BDO world champion missed three darts to win a fifth leg in a row.
The St Helens thrower was packing his darts away when White had three match darts at double 16, but when he missed, Bunting came back and pinned tops.
Two more match darts came and went for White at tops at 10-9, before the tie-break ensued.
White stopped the rot with a 13-darter, before Bunting checked out 110 to tie it up at 11 while White was waiting on 48.
White kicked off the 23rd leg with his 10th 180, but missed five darts from 16 - not including two wasted when he bust his score on double 11 with his first dart.
The former Lakeside world champion broke the throw in that leg before holding to see out the match.
White looked like a different player in this clash compared to his whitewash over Joe Cullen in the first round, while Bunting has survived match darts and won the match in both of his matches so far at this year's Matchplay.
In this clash, Bunting ended with an average of 92.82 compared to White's 94.63, hit one fewer maximum with nine but was far more clinical on his doubles, hitting 14 out of 27 as White spurned 31 of his.

(2) Rob Cross 11-5 Krzysztof Ratajski
Rob Cros survived a scare against Krzysztof Ratajski to progress to the last eight.
The 2018 world champion found himself 2-0 down after the Polish Eagle had taken out 160 for a 12-dart leg.
Voltage kicked into gear from then on, winning the next nine legs including two 11-darters - the first of which threatened a perfect leg - and two ton+ checkouts of 124 and 100.
Four-time PDC title winner Ratajski failed to show any of the form that he so regularly produces away from the televised stages, averaging 94.54, hitting one 180 and hitting 50% of his doubles.
Cross averaged 98.47, hitting four maximums and hit 11 of 19 darts at double.

(6) Peter Wright 11-2 (11) Simon Whitlock
Peter Wright won his 20th match in a row with an 11-2 thrashing over Simon Whitlock.
Snakebite averaged over 100 for the 11th time in his rich vein of form that includes wins in the last three tournaments that he has played in.
His mark of 103.01 is higher than any of the remaining players in Blackpool have managed so far.
His maximum checkout of 170 in the fourth leg completed a 12-darter, before he hit seven perfect darts in the final leg - the eighth straying into single three when switching down for the treble 19.
The Wizard averaged 87.42 with only one maximum, which only earned him five darts at doubles.
The Scot hit seven 180s and hit 50% of his doubles, as the 2017 UK Open winner looks for his second major televised title.

Thursday Order of Play
Glen Durrant (ENG) v (8) James Wade (ENG)
(5) Michael Smith (ENG) v Mervyn King (ENG)

Draw
Glen Durrant (ENG) v (8) James Wade (ENG)
(5) Michael Smith (ENG) v Mervyn King (ENG)
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(2) Rob Cross (ENG) v Stephen Bunting (ENG)
(6) Peter Wright (SCO) v (3) Daryl Gurney (NIR)
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v

Day One Results and Report

Day Two Results and Report
Day Three Results and Report
Day Four Results and Report

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