By the end, all Gerwyn Price could do was applaud. There was no snarling and no sullenness from the former champion, just a nod of recognition, an admission that sometimes the other guy just plays darts from the gods. And here the other guy was Wesley Plaisier, the world No 92 from the Netherlands, a player of rich potential, but nothing that would ever have suggested he was capable of a shock of this magnitude.
The talent has always been there: last year he joined a select group of players to have won a Pro Tour event despite not holding a tour card.
After making his way through Q-School, this year has been harder. He lost his grandmother in the summer. He barely made a dent on the European Tour or in the majors. But strange things can happen under the Palace roof. And over three lightning-quick sets Plaisier raised hell.
He hit nine of his 16 attempts at double, and did not blink even as the world No 9 roared back at him in the third set with consecutive 11-dart legs on throw. “I still can’t believe it,” he said.
“My biggest victory ever, I think. I don’t know how I did it. I was so nervous. I can’t explain it in words. I felt like I could get ahead. But I didn’t expect to win it.”
As Price smiled and allowed the giant Plaisier to wrap him up in his arms, the Welshman could be forgiven for wondering just what had hit him.
He came into this tournament as one of the favourites, convinced he could regain the tournament he won so strangely under Covid conditions in 2021. The Alexandra Palace crowd, for so long a thorn in his side, had been converted into a wind at his back, singing his name, even booing Plaisier as he lined up his match darts.
Even though he has not reached a major final, this has still been a cautiously promising year for him, the year he got his swagger back and re-established himself as a genuine contender. He will still be in contention for next year’s Premier League. But perhaps this defeat exposed the major remaining flaw in his game: a softness in the key moments, the ability to play well and still lose.
As Plaisier began the match with a 130 checkout and kept up the pressure, Price fumbled his way into the game. His normally reliable tops failed him: just two from eight attempts on his favourite double. At other times, he simply didn’t get a look. Remarkably, in six of the 13 legs Plaisier didn’t even allow him a dart at double. Price’s exit, following that of the No 8 seed, Chris Dobey, on Saturday, further opens up the draw for Luke Littler, who now cannot face another top-16 player until the semi-finals at the earliest. Littler looked briefly mortal in his own second-round game, coming through 3-0 after an uncharacteristically lukewarm performance in which the world No 146, David Davies, missed five darts for the opening set, and 16 in total.
Did it matter? Probably not. The great champions have always been occasionally prone to a cold start, and as the format lengthens – we go from best of five to best of seven in the third round – the chances of an ambush recede appreciably.
Afterwards, Littler revealed that Mensur Suljovic had texted him as soon as the draw was made to say: “See you in round three”. And so it is that the teenage titan and the ageing Austrian will meet next weekend, after the latter beat an enraged Joe Cullen 3-1. Enraged at Suljovic’s glacial pace of play and his extravagant celebrations, Cullen accused his opponent of “cheating”.
“If that’s darts, I don’t want no part of it,” the former Masters champion fumed on X. The truth is that there has always been a grey area between legitimate tactic and deliberate gamesmanship. But ultimately the responsibility for Cullen’s darts is his alone. Suljovic was certainly happy to play the innocent. “I never ever do this as a provocation,” he says. “Sorry, Joe. I love you, man.”
Elsewhere the former champion Rob Cross came through 3-1 against Ian White, the German No 1, Martin Schindler, ended the challenge of Keane Barry in three tight sets and Krzysztof Ratajski continued his impressive start to the competition by comfortably despatching Ryan Joyce. Luke Woodhouse, the world No 25 from Worcestershire, looks in decent nick too, beating Max Hopp 3-0 to set up a tantalising third-round tie against Andrew Gilding. The 16th seed Damon Heta won the final two sets to beat the Swiss debutant Stefan Bellmont 3-2 and will next take on Cross.
