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Key events
Cross wins the fifth set! Luke Littler and Brendan Dolan have a bit longer to wait. Rob Cross has won the fifth set 3-1 to keep his gossamer hopes alive. He had the darts, though, so when the players return Dobey will be throwing for a place in the semis. Sets: Dobey 4-1 Cross
Introducing… Luke Littler
But how old is he?
Latest score: Dobey 4-0 Cross
The first quarter-final looked too close to call, but Chris Dobey – who whitewashed the defending champion Michael Smith in the previous round – is running riot. He leads Rob Cross 4-0 and needs one more set to reach his first World Championship semi-final.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of Luke Littler v Brendan Dolan in the quarter-finals of the World Championship. It’s the history maker versus the History Maker, that being Dolan’s nickname*.
Before we start, let’s get one thing clear. Luke Littler is not a generational talent. He’s a multigenerational talent. Phil Taylor was 29 when he reached his first World Championship quarter-final. Michael van Gerwen was 23, Eric Bristow 21, Adrian Lewis 20. Littler’s opponent today, Brendan Dolan was 45 when he reached the last eight for the first time. Nobody has ever been this good at this age.
Whatever he achieves in his career – and there are no guarantees, not even with somebody this good – the memories of this tournament will keep him warm for the rest of his life. He has a helluva chance of reaching the last four today. While Dolan is playing the best darts of his career and has taken out two world champions in Gerwyn Price and Gary Anderson, he is still ranked 28 in the world. By rights, or at lesat rankings, Littler should be facing Price (the world No5) today, having eliminated James Wade (world No13) and Peter Wright (world No4) en route.
None of that has happened. The draw has been kind to Littler, but then it was kind to everyone else in his section and they couldn’t take advantage. Paradoxically, one of Littler’s main concerns ahead is how relatively easy it has all been. He’s dropped only three sets and – this is an astonishing statistic – has been behind for only one leg in the entire tournament. Dolan, by contrast, won draining arm-wrestles with Price and Anderson and should be more battle-hardened.
Littler should outscore him handsomely; Dolan’s greatest strengths are his consistency – he has averaged between 94 and 96 in every game – his nerve and most of all the timing of his finishes. He will feel that the deeper the game goes, the more he can bring his experience to bear. But then everyone has a plan until they get punched in the treble 20.
Littler and Dolan are second up so there’s official start time, but I’d expect it to be between 2.30-3pm. The winner of the first game between Rob Cross and Chris Dobey will play Littler or Dolan tomorrow night. Of the four, only Cross has reached the semi-finals before. History is waiting to be made.
* In 2011 he became the first player to hit a televised nine-darter in a double-start match.
