Gerwyn Price's hopes of a second World Championship crown came to an end as he was beaten by Brendan Dolan; the World Darts Championship runs all the way until the final on January 3, 2024 - we're back on Friday at 12.30pm, live on Sky Sports Darts
Friday 29 December 2023 12:02, UK
Gerwyn Price says he's "absolutely gutted" to be knocked out of the World Darts Championship after a dramatic 4-2 defeat to Brendan Dolan on Thursday night.
Dolan put on a phenomenal show as he beat 2021 world champion Price 4-2, incredible 130 and 144 checkouts helping him on his way.
The Welshman could never find a solid spell in the contest and so Dolan continually took advantage, setting up a last-16 clash with either Boris Krcmar or Gary Anderson.
Earlier this month, Price revealed he nearly pulled out of the tournament over concerns about the reception he would face from the crowd but thanked the fans for their support.
"Absolutely gutted with the chances I gave away tonight, trying too hard and beating myself up," Price wrote on Instagram.
"Just wanna say how much I appreciate the crowd that got behind me, just couldn't get a flow and Brendan took out every chance I have him, well done to him and hopefully I'll learn from this, #gutted. But once again thank you."
Three years ago, Price beat Dolan in the third round in a sudden death leg on his way to winning the 2021 World Championship.
However, he couldn't fight back this time after already levelling the match on two occasions before Dolan won the final two sets.
"Price will be so deflated because if he plays well, Dolan doesn't get half of those chances," Wayne Mardle told Sky Sports.
"The four biggest legs of the match, Dolan won them all. Gerwyn Price never strung a five or 10-minute spell together and when he did, it was on his own darts and it won him sets 3-1 and 3-0. But it never went over into Brendan's set.
"You don't know when a purple patch will come and it never came at the right time for Gerwyn Price. Things were coming at the right time for Brendan."
Price actually won one more leg than Dolan but the set format meant it was the Northern Irishman who capitalised on his opponent not quite firing on all cylinders.
Mardle thinks Dolan's timing was "perfect" and believes he has been hard to beat on the tour for over two decades.
"Brendan never went off to a bad spell when it mattered. That last set was incredible," he continued.
"Dolan never gets the credit because he's not flamboyant, he's not one of these 'speedsters' like Scott Williams who is a bit marmite and separate the crowd.
"He just does his own thing, plays within himself. Even when he's nervous, he soon calmed himself down. That was a brilliant performance.
"Don't forget that's the second brilliant performance on the bounce. Against Mickey Mansell, he was better than that and could easily do that again. Why can't he get through to the semi-finals?"
Three-time world champion John Part added: "Brendan got to him. Three years ago, Gerwyn survived a match against Brendan on a last leg decider. Tonight Brendan said 'look, that wasn't a fluke'. And he was more timely with good outs.
"He held it together and is a mature, confident darts player. He's constantly underrated and is a great darts player."
Watch the World Darts Championship all the way until the final on January 3, 2024 - live on Sky Sports Darts. Stream Sky Sports with a NOW Sports Month Membership
