Willie O’Connor hits precocious checkout in best first set of competition

Darts at its finest

James Wilson came into the PDC World Darts Championship fancied a lot and, as 26th seed, he was actually showing that tag was underselling him. Willie O'Connor ran up against him in round two at Ally Pally and had to show tremendous resolve to even get anywhere near him in that first set. Between the pair of them, they ran up four 180s in four legs of darts and the amount of throws it was taking to finish off each leg was unprecedented for a first set. Darts to finish each leg in the first set

• 14
• 12
• 15
• 15

With the set on the line, O'Connor needed something special to let the rampant Wilson know that there were two men in the battle and, with a 147 checkout in leg bloody three, the Irishman brought Alexandra Palace to its collective feet as he stole a leg and brought himself back into contention. https://twitter.com/OfficialPDC/status/1075471763620786176 Wilson won the extraordinary first set in the end - with no more than 15 darts, of course - and he was never going to lose it as he averaged 112 throughout. But O'Connor's revolt set the tone for the second set and he wasn't long in exacting revenge with a 3-1 victory of his own in the second set. https://twitter.com/OfficialPDC/status/1075476983008550912 The second set saw O'Connor hit another 180 when the pressure was on to wriggle back control of his throw and he also finished with a 110 too. The only leg he lost was when Wilson finished on 160. And he powered on to produce the result of the championship so far.