Justin Hood: English player makes history with record-breaking World Darts Championship win over Josh Rock as Jonny Clayton avoids upset | Darts News

Justin Hood produced one of the greatest performances at the World Darts Championship by hitting 11 consecutive doubles without missing on his way to a 4-0 win over Josh Rock in the last 16.

Hood was 11 out of 11 in finishing on doubles at 3-0 up in sets and 2-0 ahead in legs, and was one dart from a perfect match, only to miss a shot at double 16.

Nevertheless, he broke the PDC record previously held by Jonny Clayton when he beat James Wade at the 2021 World Masters final with 10/11 doubles.

“It’s not a fairytale. I know what I can do and it’s nice to prove it up here,” Alexandra Palace debutant Hood told Sky Sports Darts after wrapping up the win.

“I was thinking about it [the doubles]. It was on the screen! The only time I had a bit of nerves was when I was throwing to win it in the penultimate leg.

“It’s very overwhelming. I’m not used to this. I usually get hate messages. This is mad.”

Rock watched on in disbelief for most of the match as Hood just could not miss. But the Northern Irishman took the opening two sets to deciding legs, losing them both as the crowd began to realise they were witnessing something special.

Hood raced through the third set 3-1 in legs then won the next two legs at the start of set four to be on the verge of darting perfection.

However, he missed D16 on a 143 checkout and actually lost the leg after three more misses before winning the next leg to continue his remarkable run, finishing with a 12/16 record on doubles.

The 32-year-old, who lives in Somerset, will face Michael van Gerwen or Gary Anderson in the quarter-finals, with the two former world champions playing on Tuesday night, live on Sky Sports Darts.

Clayton avoids upset against spirited Harrysson

Fifth-seed Jonny Clayton avoided an upset with a 4-2 last-16 victory over Swedish debutant Andreas Harrysson, who pushed his opponent hard.

The opening four sets were shared with three deciding legs which underlined the closeness of the contest. However, Harrysson dug deep and moved 2-0 up in the fifth set before missing three darts to whitewash Clayton in that set.

Clayton broke back, held throw, then pounced on four more missed set darts from Harrysson to steal the set in the last leg. All five legs went on throw in the sixth and, ultimately, last set so Clayton got over the line to book a place in the last eight against Ryan Searle.

“There’s a lot of things on my mind, obviously moving to world No 4 was one of them, and to be fair to Andreas, every time I looked up he was hitting doubles,” Clayton, who currently holds a guaranteed spot in the Premier League Darts as he is in the top four on the PDC rankings, told Sky Sports Darts.

“That was tough. Ok, I didn’t play my best, there were a lot of loose darts, but that’s what pressure does to you. And that’s what Andreas did, kept me under pressure the whole time.”

Poland No 1 Krzysztof Ratajski will make his second quarter-finals appearance after beating Luke Woodhouse 4-2 to set up a clash against Luke Littler.

Woodhouse became the second player after Gary Anderson to get within one dart of a nine-darter in the third set, but ended up losing the leg and the set.

Although he pulled a set back to make it 2-2, he never seemed to fully recover from that burst of adrenaline as Ratajski won six legs out of eight to get over the line.

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