PDC World Championship darts quarter-finals: Ryan Searle v Jonny Clayton – live

4 weeks ago 28

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A bit of housekeeping

There’s a long day ahead, and darts isn’t the most liveblog-friendly sport, so we might not do leg-by-leg coverage for every single set. If nothing else, this clown needs the occasional toilet break. But we’ll be posting updates every few minutes.

Jonny Clayton started the tournament as world No5. He moved to No5 by beating Andreas Harryson; a win today would lift him to No3, above Michael van Gerwen. Ryan Searle has already jumped from No20 to No13; a win today lifts him to No7. “Is that right, I don’t know,” says Searle, “but that’s the way the rankings work.”

Ryan Searle v Jonny Clayton

With all eyes elsewhere, Ryan Searle has quietly strolled into the quarter-finals with a perfect record: 14 sets won, none lost. I still fancy Jonny Clayton, mainly because of his experience. But if I had to put the farm on one of today’s matches going to nine sets, it’d probably be this one.

At the end we’ll have a first-time semi-finalist. Searle has never reached this stage before; Clayton’s only previous quarter-final was three years ago, when he lost 5-3 to Dimitri Van den Bergh.

Preamble

Happy new year one and all. What better way to start 2026 than with ~~a hangover, you’ve bloody done it again haven’t you, and what’s happened to grandad’s bottle of Kopke Colheita 1974 port~~ quarter-final day at Ally Pally?

For darts fans – thoughts with non-darts fans at this difficult time – today is going to be long, gruelling and ceaselessly rewarding. Here’s the line up.

Afternoon session (starts around 12.45pm)