Luke Littler thanks booing crowd for ‘paying prize money’ at PDC World Darts Championship

Nathan Aspinall became the latest seed to fall at the PDC World Championship, but 20-year-old Charlie Manby continued his dream run by reaching the last 16.

Aspinall, who reached the semi-finals in 2019 and 2020, lost 4-3 in a final-set thriller against the Netherlands’ Kevin Doets.

The 15th seed won the first and third sets, but was pegged back on both occasions, only to seize control again with a stunning 170 checkout to claim the fifth set.

However, from there, Doets took over, reeling off sixth consecutive legs to seal a sixth straight win over Aspinall and set up a last-16 tie against world number two Luke Humphries on Tuesday.

Manby, who is playing in the tournament for the first time, overcame Ricky Evans 4-2.

The bricklayer from Huddersfield struggled on his doubles early on, taking out just four of 30 attempts in the first three sets as he went 2-1 down.

Scoring was never an issue though and his accuracy on the checkouts improved, alongside a drop-off from Evans, as he sealed a place in round four and a minimum £60,000 in prize money.

He will face the Netherlands’ Gian van Veen in the next round in what will be his toughest test so far, with the 10th seed having the tournament-high match average of 108.28 in his second-round win.

After the match, Evans posted on Facebook that he had received death threats as well as hate and fat jokes.

Another debutant also progressed with Somerset’s Justin Hood beating Ryan Meikle 4-1.

He raced into a 3-0 lead before Meikle pulled a set back but Hood sealed his place and said afterwards that he would not have to work in 2026 after also confirming at least £60,000 in prize money.

He has climbed to a provisional 63rd in the world rankings already and said post-match he still has aspirations to open a Chinese restaurant one day.

He will face 11th seed Josh Rock in the last 16, after the Northern Irishman overcame Callan Rydz 4-2 in the final third-round tie.

Rydz was emotional throughout following the death of his grandfather since his previous match.