Gerwyn Price, Michael van Gerwen and Australia's World Cup hero Simon Whitlock all make it through to the quarter-finals at the Townsville Entertainment & Convention Centre in Queensland but 'Queen of the Palace' Fallon Sherrock falls at the first hurdle
Friday 12 August 2022 17:50, UK
Gerwyn Price missed double 12 for a nine-darter but 'The Iceman' stayed cool to win a last-leg shoot-out against Damon Heta at the Queensland Darts Masters on Friday.
Price, who has already nailed four perfect legs in 2022 - including two on Premier League Night Three in Belfast - came a width of a wire away from landing the holy grail of darts in the deciding leg on his way to defeating Damon Heta 6-5 with a 98.6 average and five 180s.
Fresh from winning the World Matchplay in Blackpool, Michael van Gerwen was nowhere near his vintage best as he survived a scare to defeat the energetic Bailey Marsh 6-5.
The Dutchman recovered from 4-2 down to edge out 20-year-old qualifier Marsh in a nervy affair.
Fallon Sherrock's hopes of advancing to the quarter-finals of the World Series event suffered a blow as she suffered a convincing 6-3 loss to Gordon Mathers - who has spent the past 18 months based in the UK competing as a PDC Tour Card Holder.
Women's World Matchplay champion Sherrock conjured up a spectacular 160 checkout in the fourth leg of the match, but it wasn't enough as she attempted a comeback against Brisbane's Mathers.
Dimitri Van den Bergh kicked off the World Series Down Under with a stunning 164 finish en route to a 6-2 victory against Koha Kokiri.
Joe Cullen averaged over 108 to whitewash Dave Marland in quick-fire fashion, but Jonny Clayton suffered a surprise 6-2 defeat against New Zealand's Haupai Puha.
Home favourite Simon Whitlock enjoyed a dream return to Australia, with 'The Wizard' producing some magical darts to dispatch James Wade 6-2.
"Honestly, this means more to me than a lot of things because my mum was here to watch me play for the first time ever," said an emotional Whitlock.
"To see the look on her face when I won, I was like 'yeah that's it'."
Michael Smith denied Joe Comito a dart at double in an emphatic whitewash win, wrapping up Friday's action with a superb 104.86 average.
Check out daily Darts news on skysports.com/darts, our app for mobile devices and our Twitter account @skysportsdarts. The 25th staging of the World Grand Prix 'Double in, Double out' set format is coming to Sky Sports from October 2-8 in Leicester.
