PDC William Hill World Darts Championship 2016: Latest Results, Updated Schedule
Phil Taylor suffered a huge upset during Wednesday's PDC William Hill World Darts Championship action, falling to Jelle Klaasen just 24 hours after Michael van Gerwen also crashed out of the competition.
The 16-time champion was forced to chase throughout the match and faced match darts in the sixth set. While he managed to force a decider and even grabbed a two-leg lead, the Cobra won four legs in a row, first forcing a tiebreak before knocking out the tournament favourite.
Elsewhere, Peter Wright beat Dave Chisnall in a thriller, and debutant Alan Norris continued his improbable run, easily disposing of Mark Webster. Here's a look at the full results from Wednesday's action and the schedule for the quarter-finals, which will be on Friday:
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
| Peter Wright | 4-3 | Dave Chisnall |
| Alan Norris | 4-1 | Mark Webster |
| Phil Taylor | 3-4 | Jelle Klaasen |
| Raymond van Barneveld | vs. | Michael Smith |
| Adrian Lewis | vs. | Peter Wright |
| Gary Anderson | vs. | James Wade |
| Alan Norris | vs. | Jelle Klaasen |
All statistics are courtesy of PDC.tv.
Recap
Taylor became the second favourite for this year's title to exit the tournament before the quarter-final stage, losing to Klaasen just a day after Van Gerwen's defeat at the hands of Raymond van Barneveld.
Klaasen put London's Alexandra Palace on edge in the first set, recovering from an early break to strom ahead after The Power missed bull for the lead. But the 16-time world champion responded immediately, racing through the second to tie things up after a whitewash.
The Dutchman appeared to be in top form, reclaiming the lead after Taylor missed three darts to reach parity in the third set. PDC Darts wondered whether The Power could still come back:
Klaasen immediately grabbed another break with a fantastic 10-darter, but he missed four darts for the set, allowing Taylor to take out double 12 for 2-2.
Klaasen followed it up with a whitewash to move ahead again, and in the sixth set, hit his 10th maximum before taking out double seven to move within a single leg of a huge upset. Klaasen narrowly missed double 18 for the win, allowing Taylor to force a decider.
In that decider, The Power immediately showed his incredible scoring ability, per Live Darts:
He then broke throw to move within a leg of victory himself, but Klaasen refused to back down, winning back-to-back legs to set up a tiebreak—taking the lead with a ton out. This time, the Cobra kept his composure, knocking Taylor out of the tournament.
Earlier in the night, Wright beat Chisnall 4-3 in another engrossing match, needing six legs to complete a fantastic comeback and win the final set. Footy Accumulators needed time to catch its breath after the final dart had been thrown:
Snakebite started the match by breaking throw in the first leg, but Chizzy answered with a superb 121 checkout, a sign of things to come. The two landed 180s in the next two legs before Chisnall drew first blood, taking out 68 to win the set.
Wright won the second in a whitewash, finishing on double 19. The Northern Echo's Scott Wilson urged his followers to switch channels:
Another whitewash followed, this time in favour of Chisnall, before Snakebite hit two more maximums and took out 88 and 20 to come back from a 2-1 deficit. Chizzy started finding his groove on the doubles, however, and when he won the fifth set 3-1, he seemed primed to win the match as well.
But Wright wasn't finished. Despite a break of throw in the first leg, he rallied with finishes of 116 and 84 before taking out 68 to force a decider.
Chizzy started that decider with a massive 143 checkout, but Wright responded with a ton of his own. Two breaks of throw followed to force a tiebreak, which saw Chisnall move within one leg of victory by taking out 78. A crucial miss at double eight proved costly, as Wright tied things up and took out 127 in the next leg, only to miss a match dart at the bull himself.
Per Live Darts, Chizzy's answer was emphatic:
Tied at 4-4, Snakebite again broke throw and finally ended one of the best matches of the year, landing double six after Chizzy failed to clear 125.
Per PDC Darts, Wright knew he had just been part of something special:
Norris didn't have to play his best darts to get past Webster, whose struggles on the doubles doomed him from the very start in their match. The Welshman actually finished with the higher average, but he took just one set off the debutant, whose dream week at Ally Pally continued.
A break in the opening leg and back-to-back 180s in the final two saw Norris take the first set, and he did the same in the second leg despite a 12-darter from Webster. The latter won the third in a whitewash and seemed ready to go on a serious run, but some dreadful performances on the doubles saw him lose the final two sets 3-1.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
