PDC World Championship darts quarter-finals: Ryan Searle v Jonny Clayton – live

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If Clayton holds in the fifth set, the mood of this match could change pretty quickly. Searle suffered a traumatic 4-3 defeat to Gary Anderson in 2020 after being 3-1 up; that will be lurking somewhere in his subconscious.

The stats so far

Averages

Searle 93.16
Clayton 96.14

Doubles

Searle 10/18 (55.56 per cent)
Clayton 5/26 (19.23)

180s

Searle 2
Clayton 4

Clayton wins the fourth set 3-1!

Searle 3-1 Clayton Breaking news: after winning 17 in a row, Ryan Searle has lost his first set the World Championships. Fair play to Jonny Clayton, who keeps harassing treble 20 despite a soul-crushing performance on the doubles. He eventually goes out on 80, hitting D10 last dart in hand.

Searle (3) 1-2 (0) Clayton* Despite missing four more doubles, Clayton’s scoring is heavy enough that he has time to break on D2. He’s throwing for the set.

*Searle (3) 1-1 (0) Clayton Searle has three at tops but makes a mess of it, hitting D15, nothing and then single 15. Clayton can’t set up, however, and Searle returns to break on double two. He’s back in control of the set. And in the circumstances, this might be the performance of his life.

Searle (3) 0-1 (0) Clayton* You have to admire Clayton, who keeps coming back for more and has broken Searle at the start of the fourth set. It took him four darts at D16 but he got there in the end.

Searle wins the third set 3-1!

Searle 3-0 Clayton Seventeen sets in a row for Ryan Searle. Clayton again had chances – he held to make it 2-1 in the third set, then misses two at D16 for a break. Searle punished him, of course he did, and crucially that’s another set against the darts.

“Hi Rob!” says Joe Pearson. “First off, New Year’s Greetings to you! Your post about the finishing percentages reminded me of what Jack Nicklaus said about golf: ‘Drive for show, putt for dough’, and it applies in darts. Throw all the 180s you want, but if you can’t hit the doubles to finish, you’re screwed.”

Indeed it is. Bobby George had a similar phrase: “180s for show, doubles for dough.” Talking of Bob…

Searle (2) 2-0 (0) Clayton* Searle misses tops for a 104, Clayton does likewise for a 120 and Searle returns to finish the job. Clayton is officially in all sorts.

*Searle (2) 1-0 (0) Clayton This is getting away from Clayton in a hurry. Searle hits tops for a comfortable break at the start of the third. Clayton was outscoring Searle at the start but his trebles have started to dry up.

Searle leads 6-1 in legs, yet he is averaging 99 to Clayton’s 103. That’s because of the stark difference in the quality of their finishing:

Searle 6/9 (67 per cent)
Clayton 1/10 (come on, you can do it)

Searle wins the second set 3-0!

Searle 2-0 Clayton Ruthless stuff from Ryan Searle, who holds in 14 darts to storm into a two-set lead.

*Searle (1) 2-0 (0) Clayton Another break of throw for Searle! Clayton missed a dart at D16, a terrible effort, and Searle took out 116 on tops with the air of a man strolling to the paper shop on a brisk winter morning. His finishing has been outrageous.

Searle (1) 1-0 (0) Clayton*

Clayton’s scoring was superb in the first set and he picks up where he left off at the start of the second. But he misses four darts for a break and is punished on tops by Searle. Clayton’s doubling percentage is down to 11; Searle's is at 67.

Searle wins the first set 3-1!

Liquid darts from Ryan Searle! Jonny Clayton starts with five perfect darts against the throw and is waiting on 71 after nine. He’ll be waiting forever: Searle takes out 125 to tops to win the set against the throw. The averages attest to a spectacular start:

Searle 104.09 (75 per cent on doubles)
Clayton 113.34 (25 per cent)

*Searle (0) 2-1 (0) Clayton Both men hold, which means Searle is now throwing for to take his fifteenth straight set at this World Championships.

Searle breaks in the first leg!

*Searle (0) 1-0 (0) Clayton Clayton misses double double – 18 and tops – and Searle, whose finishing has been so good all tournament, calmly pops D12 to take out 96.

Jonny Clayton will throw first. Game on!

Ryan Searle takes a selfie with fans before his quarter final match against Jonny Clayton

A bit of housekeeping

There’s a long day ahead, and darts isn’t the most liveblog-friendly sport, so we might not do leg-by-leg coverage for every single set. If nothing else, this clown needs the occasional toilet break. But we’ll be posting updates every few minutes.

Jonny Clayton started the tournament as world No5. He moved to No5 by beating Andreas Harryson; a win today would lift him to No3, above Michael van Gerwen. Ryan Searle has already jumped from No20 to No13; a win today lifts him to No7. “Is that right, I don’t know,” says Searle, “but that’s the way the rankings work.”

Ryan Searle v Jonny Clayton

With all eyes elsewhere, Ryan Searle has quietly strolled into the quarter-finals with a perfect record: 14 sets won, none lost. I still fancy Jonny Clayton, mainly because of his experience. But if I had to put the farm on one of today’s matches going to nine sets, it’d probably be this one.

At the end we’ll have a first-time semi-finalist. Searle has never reached this stage before; Clayton’s only previous quarter-final was three years ago, when he lost 5-3 to Dimitri Van den Bergh.

Preamble

Happy new year one and all. What better way to start 2026 than with ~~a hangover, you’ve bloody done it again haven’t you, and what’s happened to grandad’s bottle of Kopke Colheita 1974 port~~ quarter-final day at Ally Pally?

For darts fans – thoughts with non-darts fans at this difficult time – today is going to be long, gruelling and ceaselessly rewarding. Here’s the line up.

Afternoon session (starts around 12.45pm)